In one of the most ambitious and dramatic plans undertaken by any motor company, General Motors (GM) announced recently that it will sell only vehicles that have zero tailpipe emissions by 2035 and will phase out petroleum-powered cars and trucks.
This is part of the broader plan of the leading automaker in the United States to become carbon neutral by 2040.
“General Motors is joining governments and companies around the globe working to establish a safer, greener and better world,” Mary T. Barra, General Motors’ Chairman and Chief Executive, said in a statement. “We encourage others to follow suit and make a significant impact on our industry and on the economy as a whole.”
GM sold around 2.55 million vehicles in the United States last year. However, only about a mere 20,000 of these were electric vehicles. The automaker said in November that it would invest about $27 billion in electric and autonomous vehicles over the next five years, a figure which was up from the $20 billion planned before the coronavirus pandemic hit the world.
GM also said that it will source 100% renewable energy to power its US sites by 2030 and global sites by 2035, five years ahead of a goal that it had set earlier.
This announcement comes just a few weeks after Joe Biden was inaugurated as the President of the United States, The Biden administration has reiterated its focus on clean energy, with President Biden signing an executive order directing the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department to restore the stringent auto fuel-economy rules put in place during the Obama administration. President Biden also pledged to replace the US government’s fleet of roughly 650,000 vehicles with electric models.
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