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Companies that have been slower, like Stellantis, which owns Ram, Jeep and Chrysler, brands that do not yet have vehicles powered only by batteries, face additional pressure to catch up. Jeep started selling a plug-in hybrid version of its popular Wrangler this year and plans to start selling fully electric vehicles by 2023.
“Auto industry leaders have seen the writing on the wall for quite some time now when it comes to electrification and autonomous technologies,” said Jessica Caldwell, senior analyst at Edmunds, a market researcher.
Ms Caldwell added that the sales targets set by the Biden administration and the automakers “are certainly not unreasonable, and very likely achievable by 2030 given that automakers have already integrated a large number of electric vehicles into their future product cycles “.
But many automakers are just starting to market electric vehicles designed from the ground up to run on batteries. The Mercedes-Benz EQS, a luxury electric sedan, goes on sale in the United States this month. BMW started selling a battery-powered vehicle, the i3, eight years ago, but it has been slow to follow through. The iX, an electric SUV, will arrive in U.S. dealerships early next year.
And just because companies make electric vehicles doesn’t mean people will buy them. Volkswagen started selling an electric SUV, the ID.4, this year, but sales in the United States so far have only been a fraction of the company’s established models like the Jetta or Tiguan. .
By setting a clear target for electric vehicle sales, Biden is giving new impetus to the transition to clean transportation, but it is also unleashing forces that automakers might not be able to control.
Consumers could be flocking to EVs as they become cheaper and people realize that gasoline vehicles risk becoming white elephants with plunging resale value. This would put a strain on companies which, with the exception of Tesla and some start-ups, are still primarily active in the production of internal combustion engine cars.
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