Auto emissions regulations could force automakers to accelerate EV plans

“This is a big step towards the end of the internal combustion engine,” said Nick Nigro, founder of the EV research group Atlas Public Policy. We will have to make tough choices in the near future as to whether we are willing to do away with the line.”

EPA’s EV projections are as follows: more aggressive than Biden’s aimwas supported by a major automaker almost two years ago.

President Biden’s executive order called for battery electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell ZEVs to make up 50% of new vehicle sales by 2030. Target and others who are behind it.

But unlike Biden’s ZEV goals and automakers’ voluntary commitments, EPA Motor Vehicle Pollution Standards Must follow.

“This regulation … provides some binding limits and holds manufacturers accountable for those promises,” said Dave Cook, a senior automotive analyst at the Concerned Union of Scientists. “But I don’t think this is moving beyond where the auto industry itself was positioned.”

Automakers will invest $1.2 trillion in electrification globally by 2030, targeting 40-50% of U.S. ZEV sales during that time frame, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation It represents many of the car manufacturers.

In the US, automakers and their battery partners are spending at least $110 billion on electrifying their products.

These investments are partly driven by manufacturing incentives and Consumption tax credit Funding EV Chargers and Updates to Power Grids in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Neither of these laws had been enacted when Biden set his ZEV target for 2021.

Margo Oge, former director of the EPA’s Department of Transportation, said: “Today, both of these large-scale investment laws are taking effect, and in 2021, we will have to meet more ambitious standards than the president had anticipated. , should advance the capabilities of car and truck manufacturers.” and air quality.

She called the standards “the single most important regulatory initiative by the Biden administration” to combat climate change.

Nonetheless, of the EPA’s proposal, Alliance CEO John Bozera said it was “aggressive in any way,” with the 50% target “always a stretch goal” and a supportive public He added that it would depend on several conditions, such as policy, breadth and credibility. EV charging infrastructurevehicle affordability, and access to vital minerals in batteries.

“The question is not whether we can do this, but how fast we can do it,” he said. The future of zero carbon cars. “

But one of the big risks to that future is infrastructure, which Nigro cites as one of the major challenges and unknowns to achieving that goal, noting that the current U.S. policy framework is “a challenge. is inadequate.”

“Whether they are electric utilities or charging providers, they are not in a position to build the amount of infrastructure required to meet the demands that come with not only EPA regulations, but what the auto industry has already done. ” He said.