WionDrive News Desk 
Automakers in the US face “daunting” government regulations to sell half of new vehicles by 2030 as electric or plug-in hybrids despite softening of final rules over its initial, tougher proposal, a top industry official told Reuters. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, under all compliance scenarios, automakers will need to sell at least 50% plug-in and EVs by 2030 to meet regulatory targets.
Under the initial proposal, they were projected to need to sell 60% EVs by 2030 and 68% by 2032. The revised rules represent “very ambitious and daunting targets. There’s no sugarcoating that,” said John Bozzella, who heads the Alliance for Automotive Innovation trade group.
After heavy lobbying by the automakers that called the EPA’s initial April 2023 proposal “neither reasonable nor achievable,” the 2027-2032 EPA vehicle emissions rules dramatically soften yearly requirements, dropping its US electric vehicle adoption target from 67% by 2032 to as little as 35%.
Urging Biden administration to make changes, Bozzella said, “You need to slow the pace of the rules.’ And they did. Why? Because they saw what was happening in the market: a choppy EV retail environment” along with inadequate public charging stations and not yet mature EV supply chains.
The EPA rule cuts vehicle emissions by 49% by 2032 compared with 56% under the initial proposal. As per Hyundai’s Global Chief Operating Officer Jose Munoz, the EPA revised standards are “a little bit less demanding but is still challenging.” The automaker is spending USD 12.6 billion to ramp up EV and battery production.
On the other hand, Toyota Motor called the initial EPA proposal “extreme and outside historical norms.” Jack Hollis, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, said the company does not plan to change its product portfolio depending on who wins becomes the new US President. It is such that President Joe Biden, a Democrat, strongly supports electric and hybrid vehicles as part of an effort to fight climate change. On the other hand, Republican former President Donald Trump has often criticised the former’s backing of EVs, saying they will destroy the US auto industry and jobs.
