In recent months, a number of countries and two U.S. states – California and Massachusetts – have made commitments to end the sale of ICE-powered vehicles at a certain date – generally 2035. And that’s the precise year that two U.S. Senators, both Democrats from California – Alex Padilla and Dianne Feinstein – are urging President Joe Biden to phase out ICE-powered vehicle sales in the U.S. as well.
Padilla and Feinstein recently sent a letter to Biden asking him “to follow California’s lead and set a date by which all new cars and passenger trucks sold be zero-emission vehicles.” The senators also urged Biden to adopt California’s compromise emissions deal that it reached with a number of automakers, including Ford, an agreement that the automaker has since urged its peers to back as well.
“We believe the national baseline should, at an absolute minimum, be built around the technical lead set by companies that voluntarily advanced their agreements with California,” Padilla said in the letter. “California and other states need a strong federal partner.”
To date, Biden has not discussed a specific date for the U.S. to end ICE-powered vehicle sales but has taken several actions to address climate control since taking office. That includes replacing the entire 650,000 vehicle government fleet with EVs, rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, appointing a new head of the EPA, and starting discussions with automakers about reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Meanwhile, a number of automakers have pledged to go all-electric in the coming years, including General Motors. Ford recently announced that its entire passenger vehicle range in Europe would consist of electric vehicles by 2030 and that it would be investing at least $22 billion globally in electrification through 2025, nearly twice the company’s previous EV investment plans.
We’ll have more on the future of electric and ICE-powered vehicles very soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for non-stop Ford news coverage.
Comments
Dianne Feinstein can’t even remember what day of the week it is right now.
She should be stepping down.
I’m a SL/FC and cannot stand when the Dems start trying to control what businesses can and cannot sell with arbitrary deadlines in place.
Do we need to get off of oil? Yes.
Is EV the next step? Yes.
Do people realize that they are trading one fossil fuel (oil) for another (coal/NG) in switching over? No.
Let the market decide. When oil prices go up, sales of SUVs and Trucks go down, and hybrid/EV sales go up. We don’t need artificial pressure to guide this one.
I received my Mach E last week and I am not changing one fossil fuel for another. My house is 100% solar power with 3 Tesla powerwall. Year to date I have produced over 1000kwh more that needed. That is over 2400miles of recharge for the machE The only concern is the production of lithium batteries is not a clean operation and the future disposal of the batteries. In 8 to 10 years tons of lithium batteries will need to recycled
This was not a matter of “If”, it was matter of “When”. They will hopefully not follow the UK with a hard ban and as mentioned above, let the market mostly drive the conversion. People will buy EV’s when EV’s are actually practical for all driving situations.
It’s not just the price of fuel.. Europeans pay $5.00 to upwards of $7.00 per gallon and they still buy as much conventional crossover / SUV as they can afford and very few EV’s. Gas is close to $6.00 per gallon in the UK and 6 out of the 10 best selling vehicles are conventional ICE SUV / crossovers. The #2 best selling vehicle in Germany is the VW Tiguan, even in France small SUV’s make 3 out of the top 5 selling vehicles..
People buy vehicles for mobility, utility, and freedom. As long as battery range / charging times / cold weather performance issues, high price, and other shortcomings compromise the mobility / freedom / utility equation the buying public at large will not be interested in EV’s
I’m a huge fan of EVs (and I drive a Mustang Mach E), but not at the expense of the government picking winners and losers in a free market. When EVs are demonstrably better than ICEs for 99.9% of customers, then consumers will be voting with their feet (which may happen by 2035, but that’s not a certainty, either). Right now, EVs have notable drawbacks, particularly the time it takes to recharge (which is a result of physics), which limits their practicality on road trips – and that’s not just theoretical, since I’ve experienced it myself.
The government needs to quit telling people what they have to buy. The politicians are clueless and cannot see there will be a need for ICE vehicles for many years. Let the market decide. Why should we let California lead the rest of America down to oblivion?
But there’s really no need for ICE power trains at all. They already have electric semis and large SUVs with 500 miles of range (the Rivian R1S). You do not need ICE. You want them. Besides, 2035 is more than obtainable and it’s only banning the sale of them not every single ICE vehicle which would cause a gigantic climate crisis. And the reason why we let California basically lead the country is because they have one of the largest populations and the biggest economy (8th in the entire world) so it only makes sense compared to some random like Montana having most of the control. And for the most part California leaders are only sparking ideas which other states take and make it into their own laws which usually turn into national laws within less than 20 years.
First of all, both of these Communist senators should have been voted out of office couple decades ago. Let’s ban career politicians, not ICE powered vehicles.
Second, there’s no such thing as ‘fossil fuels’. Petroleum didn’t come from the emaciated remains of dinosaurs. To be sure, Mother Earth is still brewing it ‘professor genius’. Git-a-freakin’-clue people! Y’all’s opinions are like chaff in the wind.
Hopefully there will come a time when EVs can be replenished and ready to go again as fast as an IC vehicle, ie roughly 10-15 minutes to recharge to 300-400 miles of range. If and when that happens let the market decide: you’re buying a new car and the salesman says “gas or electric, what’ll it be?” , and both vehicles are equally as convenient to use in daily life. At that point if the infrastructure is in place and recharging an EV is as easy as filling a gas tank, I think the market will go for the EV. No government intervention necessary, sales will decide. I know I’m ready.
Compare the ICE emissions of today with those of fifty years ago. About a ninety-five percent improvement. And those improvements will continue going forward.
I’ve got no desire for an EV. I’ll be buying an ICE vehicle or rebuilding one for my use for the remainder of my life.
Much ado over nothing. Both the ICE vehicle topic, green energy, and climate change are being dictated into the topic of discussion, and forced into everyone’s lives, but simply electrifying is not the answer, only the quick and easy one.
Hydrogen fuel cell and Blue gas are superior to a battery vehicle.
Let hear all the facts about your Tesla level 3 power wall with 100 percent solar! What was the cost of all that equipment!?????? Plus the cost of your electric car???? So we’re probably looking at what 250k! Sorry folks but this is a bunch of BS! Drill baby Drill!