The Biden administration is planning to slow down the rollout of a rule that was designed to juice the United States’s transition to electric vehicles.
The administration is reportedly planning to relax its limits on tailpipe emissions, in an election-year concession to labor unions and automakers, sources told the New York Times on Saturday.
Instead of forcing automakers to continue producing more and more EVs to hit near-term targets, the administration will relax the rules, giving manufacturers until after 2030 to boost their sales significantly, the sources said. The final version of the rule is expected to be announced in the spring.
The Environmental Protection Agency originally announced a new rule last year that would require nearly 70% of new car and truck sales to have no tailpipe emissions by 2032. But critics claim the sudden shift would have devastated the U.S. auto industry.
The slowdown still requires automakers to transition nearly 70% of their new car and truck sales to have no tailpipe emissions by 2032, but would allow a slower and steadier on-ramp to reach that number before 2030.
The new development comes as President Joe Biden needs support from labor unions and automakers in a pivotal election year. Biden saw support from autoworkers in the 2020 election, but many are concerned that a drastic increase in EVs would cost people their jobs. Automakers are also hesitant after consumer demand for EVs remains lower than expected.
Part of the reason that consumers have been hesitant to transition to EVs is due to a lack of charging stations nationwide and the higher sticker price. Former President Donald Trump has also tried to convince consumers that EVs don’t work.
It also came after the automakers asked for more time to address these concerns, including bringing down the high EV prices and installing more charging stations across the country. Autoworkers have also asked for more time to unionize the new EV car plants that are sprouting up in the South.
