Automakers are in line with Biden for new direction on climate, electric cars
Automakers are in line with Biden for new direction on climate, electric cars
Ford reports earnings Thursday for the last quarter of 2020. The company posted solid sales numbers for January, with sales of electric vehicles up nearly 20%.
General Motors announced last week that it plans to only sell electric cars by 2035, and go fully carbon neutral by 2040.
All this is in line with many of the Biden administration’s goals for the auto industry and addressing climate change.
New emissions standards, more investment in charging stations for electric vehicles, incentives for Americans to buy electric: That is what carmakers are expecting, and even hoping for, said Michelle Krebs, of Autotrader. That the Biden administration, “will promote electric vehicles with consumers, because consumers haven’t been running out and buying a lot of them.”
Krebs says only about 2% of people buying cars in the U.S tend to buy electric. But carmakers are moving more and more in that direction, said Ben Kallo, an industry analyst at Baird.
“The trajectory was already on its way before the administration,” he said. “On the cost front and the technology front, we’ve already reached a tipping point.”
So any federal policies that encourage more consumers to buy electric, Kallo said, will act like a tailwind and help push the auto industry more quickly into the future.
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