3 Electric Vehicle Leaders Emerge Amid US Retreat

Forbes

15-07-2025

Entrance to Latimer House and Banner Announcing TTDS 2025
In the rolling green Buckinghamshire countryside, about 30 miles outside of London, sits an idyllic English manor home shrouded in intrigue. The Latimer House is the place where captured high-ranking German officers unwittingly gave up their secrets like those pertaining to Hitler's V-1 and 2-2 rockets to ingenious British and American operatives near the end of the Second World War. The house, it was said, had ears.
In June, the house made history again, albeit this time with no intrigue. It was the venue for the annual Transatlantic Transportation Decarbonization Summit hosted by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). Leading policymakers and analysts gathered to explore global developments in the transition to clean transportation technologies and systems.
As someone who spent decades working on vehicle emission policies, including leading the development of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's most ambitious vehicle emissions standards to my current role as an advisor to philanthropies—I've seen first-hand how smart public policy can spark innovation and drive markets. But as other countries are deploying long term strategies, the US is dismantling its own.
While China, the EU and the United States and get outsized attention, we learned at the ICCT hosted summit how three other countries are showing clean transportation success takes many forms: Chile's electric bus revolution, the United Kingdom's long range regulatory certainty, and Norway's rapid Electric Vehicle (EV) adoption. Their approaches show how countries can win the race to lead the new clean energy sector that is set to triple to more than $2 trillion in the coming decade.
Chile's Electric Bus Revolution
Chile's delegation to the ICCT's summit shared their ambitious effort to transform urban transit. The city of Santiago expects nearly 4,500 electric buses will be in operation by the end of 2025, representing up 70% of its fleet. That's more than any major city for electric public transport outside of China.
The environmental and public health benefits are substantial: One electric bus prevents the equivalent emissions from 33 gasoline vehicles, with 70% lower operating costs compared to diesel buses.
Chile's experience goes deeper with hydrogen powered buses. The country's National Green Hydrogen Strategy projects $5 billion in renewable energy investments by 2025, positioning Chile as a leading global producer and exporter of green hydrogen by 2030. This creates a virtuous cycle where clean transportation adoption supports renewable energy deployment, which in turn reduces the entire transport system's carbon intensity.
Chile proves that emerging economies don't need to follow the polluting technologies of the past. They can leapfrog and thrive.
Regulatory Certainty in the United Kingdom
The UK hosted this summit, showing how smart regulation can accelerate market transformation. The country's zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate requires 80% of new cars to be zero emissions by 2030 and 100% by 2035. This long-range timeline gives automakers and investors a roadmap and has helped to boost EV sales. In 2024, 28% of new vehicles sold were battery electric and plug in electric, just ahead of California's 25%.
The UK's experience validates a key insight from my EPA years: Long range policy certainty drives business investment. This clarity has attracted substantial private investment in charging infrastructure, with £500 million committed to support public charging through 2025, including fast chargers along strategic transport corridors.
While other European markets have struggled with EV sales or considered rolling back clean transport policies, the UK has resisted industry calls for rollbacks and its committed to its long range policies.
A Fully Mobilized Transition in Norway
Norway shared the latest on their remarkable progress on vehicle electrification. Last year, around 90% of new passenger cars sold in Norway were fully electric; EVs now account for more than 28% of all cars on the road, and expectations are that the number will grow to 50% in the coming years. By comparison, in China only one in ten vehicles on the road are electric as of 2024.
What's behind that stunning success? Comprehensive policy support, including significant tax incentives and extensive charging infrastructure development.
In 2016 Norway's Parliament decided on a national goal that all new cars sold by 2025 should be ZEVs and the country mobilized policy to achieve that target. In concert, Norway's charging infrastructure has expanded dramatically, with more than 25,000 public EV charging points; the average Norwegian can find a rapid charge point within 30 miles.
Norwegian consumers have embraced EVs thanks in large part to this network of interconnected policy. Consumers and corporate customers enjoy benefits including exemption from high purchase taxes, toll charges, permission to use transit lanes, free access to ferries, and even free parking in certain urban spaces.
This had made Norway not only a clean transportation leader but a global testbed for next-generation EV technologies, smart grid integration, and vehicle-to-grid systems, with major automakers using the Norwegian market to pilot innovative electric mobility solutions.
A Different Direction for the U.S.
And then there is the United States. The contrast between these successes and the current U.S. trajectory couldn't be starker. While others are building momentum through policy certainty and sustained investment, America has embarked on what the EPA calls 'the biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history,' with proposed rollbacks impacting dozens of rules from emissions limits for power plants and vehicles to air quality standards.
As part of its broader efforts to repeal the successful Inflation Reduction Act, the administration halted distribution of unspent funds for vehicle charging stations from a $5 billion fund and called for ending the California waiver to enforce more ambitious zero-emission vehicle rules. Most recently, Congress passed the administration's multitrillion-dollar bill that eliminates federal tax incentives for consumers who buy or lease EVs.
This upends hundreds of billions in private investments: Markets thrive on certainty, and uncertainty kills investment. While other nations create the stable policy frameworks that attract private capital and accelerate innovation, the U.S. is dismantling the very policies that drove American leadership in clean transportation technology. The irony is profound. Our country is retreating from the lucrative global clean transportation race it helped start and, for a while at least, looked like it could win.
Lessons for Global Transition to Clean Transportation
Chile, the UK, and Norway offer distinct yet complementary approaches to the clean transportation transition, but the common thread is simple: Policy drives markets, certainty attracts capital, and goals galvanize industries to act, and commitment inspires innovation. They're not waiting for perfect technology or ideal economic conditions. They're creating market conditions that accelerate innovation. This approach is the future of global clean transportation.
The US once helped lead this movement. It still has the talent, the capital, and the technology to do so again. But it can't lead by retreating. The rest of the world isn't waiting.
At Latimer House, decades ago, secrets shaped the course of a world war. Today, it's not secrets we need, but clarity and consistency. The clearest message from this global summit? The clean transportation future is already arriving—and those who hesitate risk being left behind.
May today's policymakers be listening.