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President Joe Biden plans to replace the government’s fleet of cars and trucks with electric vehicles assembled in the United States, he said Monday when signing a new “Buy American” decree.
The government is a big buyer of vehicles. However, replacing such a fleet with electric vehicles produced in the United States will be expensive and time consuming. There are currently only a handful of fully electric vehicles being assembled in the U.S. Tesla, General Motors, and Nissan Motor are producing electric vehicles domestically, while Ford Motor and others have announced their intention. to do.
“The current offerings are pretty slim, but the industry is about to unleash an avalanche of new products, and a lot of these are made in North America,” said Kristin Dziczek, vice president of the industry, labor, and economics at the CNBC Center for Automotive Research. “Almost all US factories will have a hybrid or electric product.”
It’s unclear whether Biden’s plan includes plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, which use a combination of EV motors and traditional internal combustion engines. When discussing the plans, he referred to the new fleet of “net zero emission” electric vehicles.
The White House did not immediately respond to the comments.
A man drives his Tesla car as SpaceX’s Starship SN8 is seen behind, days before the test launch of the company’s new ultra-heavy Starship rocket from their facilities in this small town of Boca Chita, Texas, on December 4, 2020.
Gene Blevins | Reuters
Biden did not specify a timeline for the government’s “huge fleet” to switch to electric vehicles, which cost significantly more than traditional vehicles. He said the fleet change will help his administration create a million new jobs in the US auto industry.
Biden also announced plans for stricter use of U.S.-made parts in government-purchased vehicles, which will make fleet switching even more difficult. He said current standards require parts for a vehicle to be purchased at least 50% from the United States.
“The 50% content threshold is not high enough and the way we measure content does not take into account jobs and economic activity in the United States,” Biden said. “We will also change that. The executive action I sign today will not only demand that companies make more of their components in America, but that the value of those components contribute to our economy, measured by things like a number of American jobs created. and / or supported. “
GM, in a statement, said it was “encouraged by President Biden’s commitment to support US manufacturing and looks forward to reviewing the details of the order.”
Ford, which launched a “Built for America” advertising campaign last year, said it “believes that investing in America, its people, its goods and services must be a national mission.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to the comment.
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