President Biden: 50% of all new US cars to be zero emission by 2030

Biden to sign EO to drive zero emission cars forward

It's no secret that ex-President Donald Trump wasn't very supportive of electric vehicles. The former POTUS sought to undo the tax credits that buyers of EVs in the U.S. enjoy, withdrew from the Paris agreement to work on climate change measures, and was even quoted as saying that “all-electric isn't going to work”.

But the sitting chief executive, President Joe Biden, wants to push past that rhetoric and help drive zero-emissions vehicles forward. POTUS announced that he was signing an Executive Order to do that... much like when he signed the country to be readmitted into the Paris agreement.

“The future of the auto industry is electric — and made in America. Today I'm signing an executive order with a goal to make 50% of new vehicles sold by 2030 zero-emission — and unveiling steps to reverse the previous administration’s short-sighted rollback of vehicle standards,” said Biden over Twitter.

Biden made it clear that the road map of the U.S. auto industry will be electric, and wants to push it forward. He said that the goal of his executive order will be to make 50% of all new vehicles sold in America be zero-emissions vehicles by the year 2030.

The U.S. auto industry (and the companies that are part of it such as Ford, Chrysler, GM, etc.) is pushing to increase the number of low or even zero-emission vehicles in their respective model ranges.

But the U.S. auto brands arguably trail many of their competitors from other countries when it comes to the adoption and proliferation of EV or hybrid technologies. Europe and China are actually leading the way for EV sales in their respective regions according to a study conducted from 2010 to 2020. The U.S. is a very distant third.

As to what the EO from POTUS will say, we're still unsure. We can probably expect incentives to help improve the acceptance of EVs like tax incentives and the like. What we do know is that it should help make the U.S. auto industry be more competitive globally when it comes to zero-emissions vehicles.

With the U.S. finally working to push and possibly lead with EV, maybe this can inspire other governments to push for measures to improve the acceptance of electric and/or hybrid vehicles in their respective markets. There isn't any legislation (apart from excise tax breaks) that can truly help lower the prices through incentives in the Philippines yet.