Carmakers are trying to figure out how to respond to G.M.’s plan to move to electric cars.
The automaker is looking for the right answer to General Motors’ announcement that it will aim to sell Only zero emission cars and trucks by 2035.
The response from the automaker and the oil and gas companies so far has been muted. But Washington has been complaining privately with corporate lobbyists about what they saw as a reckoning to ignite the reputation of GM and its chief executive, Mary T. Bara, even as the industry struck a deal with the Biden administration Negotiated new fuel-economy deal. Neil E. for the New York Times. Baudet and Coral Davenport report.
No other large automaker has set a target date for selling only electric vehicles, but many have moved in that direction.
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Ford is spending billions to introduce battery-powered models. The first of them, the Mustang Much e Sport Utility Vehicle, debuted last month.
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Volkswagen said last year that it planned to spend 73 billion euros, or $ 88 billion, on electric vehicles over the next five years.
The industry is afraid of losing market share of Tesla’s major electric car manufacturer, which is growing rapidly. Wall Street valued Tesla at $ 752 billion, nearly 10 times what GM expects many start-ups, such as Rivian and Lucid Motors, to follow in Tesla’s footsteps this year.
And China’s decision late last year required that most of the vehicles sold there by 2035 also be important because GM sells more cars in that country through its joint venture than in the United States. And Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands have said they will ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars starting in 2030.
Broadly, the industry had been quietly gearing up for months for a possible change in the White House. Representative Debbie Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan and a former GM executive, said in an interview, “I was saying to all autos: ‘When Joe Biden is elected, your world will turn upside down. You should be on the table or else It comes down your throat. ”
A senior GM executive, Dan Parker, said the company did not want to curry favor with the new administration. Its decision, he said, was based on a fundamental, dollar and cents analysis of where the auto industry is headed and cars are expected to become best sellers in the future.
