2 days ago
GM's electric future just got way more future
General Motors stunned the auto world four years ago when it pledged to go all electric by 2035.
That goal quietly died this week when the company announced a $4 billion investment heavily skewed toward gasoline-powered vehicles, writes David Ferris.
The companies' EV target was always more on the aspirational side — and highly dependent on federal policies and market trends, analysts told David. 'It was always a long shot at best,' said auto analyst Sam Abuelsamid.
But the goal was emblematic of a burgeoning push toward phasing out gasoline-powered vehicles under former President Joe Biden, who made boosting electric cars and trucks a cornerstone of his climate agenda.
GM finds itself in a starkly different world under President Donald Trump, who has raced to dismantle federal tax EV credits, frozen grants for building charges to power them, and implemented high tariffs that make production more expensive. Not even Trump's once-close relationship to Tesla CEO Elon Musk blunted his attacks on EVs.
While GM isn't abandoning its electric vehicle portfolio — 'We still believe in an all-EV future,' a spokesperson told David — the auto giant's renewed investment in gasoline-powered cars and trucks means its all-electric future just got much further away.
'GM's doing a better job than many of their competitors, but there's obviously a relatively low ceiling because of the lack of supportive policy,' said Alan Baum, an independent Detroit auto analyst.
Earlier this week, GM trumpeted the fact that it sold 37,000 electric vehicles in the first quarter of the year, making it the No. 2 EV maker in the U.S. behind Tesla.
But the company has also announced new investments in gasoline-powered production, signaling it plans to make internal combustion engines well behind 2035. It is also a member of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which has vociferously opposed California's plans to require all-electric auto sales by 2035.
It's Thursday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to askibell@
Today in POLITICO Energy's podcast: Alex Guillén breaks down how the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed rollback of a historic Biden-era climate rule for power plants will impact efforts to fight global warming.
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Legal pitfalls in climate rule rollbackEPA's proposal to stop regulating power plant climate pollution is built around a bold claim that the industry emits too little heat-trapping pollution to be worth it, write Jean Chemnick, Niina H. Farah and Lesley Clark.
Legal experts say that rationale could create legal stumbling blocks.
House approves cuts packageThe House approved a $9.4 billion rescissions package Thursday, a White House priority that would claw back more than half a billion dollars for international disaster aid and clean energy programs, writes Andres Picon.
Among other cuts, the bill would repeal the country's entire $125 million contribution to the international Clean Technology Fund for fiscal 2025.
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The Trump administration is bailing on a climate summit in Bonn, Germany, that has long served as a stepping stone to broader international talks later in the year.
House Republicans are again pushing legislation to rewrite the Clean Air Act, but with a fresh argument: that changes are needed to keep up with the explosive demand for data centers.
California energy officials greenlit the country's largest solar and battery project ever via a new permitting process to streamline certain clean energy projects.
That's it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.
