From Bloomberg, March 16:
- EPA expected to finalize tailpipe emission limits within days
- Formula for calculating electric vehicle fuel use also coming
The Biden administration is preparing to roll out the toughest-ever limits on pollution from the nation’s cars and light trucks after making changes likely to mollify some automakers.
Emissions limits set to be finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency within days would propel electric vehicle sales well beyond current levels. The EPA has projected that to meet proposed mandates, electric models would need to make up roughly two-thirds of car and light truck sales in 2032 — up from less than a tenth last year.
The measure, which sets limits on smog-forming pollution, soot and carbon dioxide emissions, is seen as one of the most consequential climate regulations being imposed by President Joe Biden. It’s also key to helping the US fulfill its Paris Agreement commitment to at least halve the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The transportation sector is the biggest source of planet-warming pollution in the US today.
“Cars and light trucks on their own are roughly 20% of the carbon footprint,” said Manish Bapna, head of the Natural Resources Defense Action Fund. Cutting that is “absolutely essential to real, concrete progress.”
Yet the regulation requires a delicate balancing act for Biden, who is courting voters in the swing state of Michigan, including autoworkers uneasy about a too-rapid transition to electric vehicles.
Read More: Biden EV Tax Credits Are Ripe Target for Gutting If Trump Wins
US carmakers warned the initial proposal wasn’t achievable — with EV penetration dependent on the installation of charging stations and other factors beyond the industry’s control.
The next few years are “absolutely critical” for developing the necessary supply chain and charging infrastructure, said John Bozzella, head of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. “It is appropriate for policymakers and regulators to focus not only on the endpoint but what the next three or four years look like.”...
Western Legacy Automakers Probably Won't Be Long-Term Survivors
Because their current business is being mandated and legislated out of existence the Western marques, barring some serious breakthroughs in small-scale hydrogen or methanol, will have to pivot to EV's.
And they won't be able to compete.
It almost appears that the gifting of the electric vehicle and solar industries to the Chinese was deliberate.
First up, from Electrical Engineering Times, December 6:
Experts See Rapid Rise of Chinese EV Makers...
And at Fortune, November 30:
In 2011, Elon Musk ridiculed the quality of electric vehicles made by China’s BYD. Then he admitted this May that “their cars are highly competitive these days.” Now, the Tesla CEO is amping up his praise of Chinese EV makers.
“The Chinese car companies are extremely competitive,” Musk said at this week’s New York Times Dealbook conference. “China is super good at manufacturing, and the work ethic is incredible.”
He even went so far as to suggest that the top 10 automakers of the future might be mostly Chinese ones—although he still envisions Tesla sitting atop them all.
“There’s a lot of people out there who think that the top 10 car companies are going to be Tesla followed by nine Chinese car companies,” he said at the conference. “I think they might not be wrong.”
In the case of BYD, its manufacturing prowess had long impressed Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman Charlie Munger, who passed away this week. While Berkshire generally steers clear of the auto industry—it declined to invest in Tesla—Munger led an enormously successful investment in BYD. He called the carmaker’s founder and CEO Wang Chuanfu a “natural engineer,” adding that “the guy at BYD is better at actually making things than Elon is.”
‘Demolish the old legends’....
