Biden seeks to make electric vehicles half of all new vehicle sales by 2030



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Rick Newman of Yahoo Finance reports details of President Biden setting a new national goal for electric vehicle adoption on Thursday.

Video transcript

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KRISTIN MYERS: Let’s head to Michigan, where Rick Newman stands in Traverse City with more details on President Biden calling for 40% to 50% of all new car sales over the next decade to come from electric vehicles. Hi, Rick. Give us the scope.

RICK NEWMAN: Hey. What’s up, Kristin? Well, if you think back to what President Obama tried to do, he just said the auto industry has to meet these new standards. In 2012, these were miles per gallon standards. And it was kind of like, you just have to do it. You do not have a choice.

Well, what Biden is doing is a little different. He says, first of all, that it is a goal, not a requirement. So he wants to see, of all new vehicles sold in the United States by 2030, 40 to 50% will be electric. But again, just a target. And of course, what Biden also wants to do is pour tons of federal money into that part of the economy so that there are lots of new federal grants if Biden gets what he wants.

That’s a lot of money for new charging stations. He wants to subsidize the production of batteries here in the United States. That’s a very important part of the equation here, electrifying the fleets of trucks and school buses and things like that. And if we can start building all of this infrastructure and the supply chain around it, it will be a lot easier for the automakers to use all of these resources to actually build the cars to meet the 40 to 40 target. 50% by 2030.. So Biden is offering a lot to the auto industry at the same time he says, could you all please take the EV train here?

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Yes. You know, I know, Rick, you have a story on our site as to why automakers like Biden a little better than Obama. Is it because they’re going to be offering so many of these incentives this time around, something we didn’t see happen during the Obama years?

RICK NEWMAN: Yes. If you go back to when Obama first put his new rules in place, that was in 2012, and we weren’t there yet for electric vehicles. Tesla was struggling to survive. It was certainly not the powerhouse that it has become. There was a lot going on – some automakers were still skeptical about EVs, range anxiety, you know, and if you ran out of juice it was considered a big deal.

And it really just took off. There has been some federal support for this. There have been these tax credits for people who buy an EV. But Tesla changed the industry, and just about every automaker is now bringing electric vehicles to the market.

The industry has therefore really reached a new level in electric vehicles. At the same time, Biden says it has now become essential to meeting his climate goals, which are to keep emissions from coming out of tailpipes and then, at the same time, managing the power grid and getting there. cleaner sources of energy.

KRISTIN MYERS: Now Rick, we have to mention that you’re not just in Traverse City for fun. In fact, you work there. A conference on electric vehicles is underway. Give us some details about the conference, some of the biggest takeaways. What are the hottest new trends that we are going to see coming out?

RICK NEWMAN: Well, I’m having fun, Kristin, even though I work really hard. It is therefore a conference sponsored by the Center for Automotive Research. This year’s theme is electric vehicles, very timely. You know, I think there are some very interesting themes here.

First of all, Bank of America analyst John Murphy this morning he said that auto technology is the new biotechnology. And I think what he means by that is that all of a sudden this is an industry that has new startups and PSPCs. I think someone mentioned 45 new IPOs and SAVS in the past year. Some of them will be spectacularly successful, and others will be spectacular flops. So there is a lot of money to be made in this industry all of a sudden.

But there are a lot more risks than there probably were before. And I think the United States is actually pretty far behind China and Europe on electric vehicles. And it’s not just the automakers building them, it’s about building the charging stations, all the infrastructure you really need to make it work.

Of course, we have a very large country, and states are different and sometimes states and the federal government don’t agree. But it seems industry and government are finally starting to come together around the same set of priorities. So it looks like a very interesting space for the next 10 years.

KRISTIN MYERS: Absoutely. And it’s better for the environment. So I can’t wait to buy an electric vehicle once I know where to charge it …

RICK NEWMAN: You will someday, Kristin.

KRISTIN MYERS: –one day. I know. I will be forced. I will have no option. Very well.

RICK NEWMAN: Me too.

KRISTIN MYERS: Thanks a lot. Rick Newman joins us …

RICK NEWMAN: Goodbye people.

KRISTIN MYERS: – from Michigan.

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