Yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unveiled final national pollution standards for passenger cars, light-duty trucks, and medium-duty vehicles for model years 2027 through 2032 and beyond.
The EPA is finalizing this rule as sales of greener cars, such as plug-in hybrid and fully electric vehicles, hit record highs in 2023.
“The future is electric. Automakers are committed to the EV transition – investing enormous amounts of capital and building cutting edge battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, traditional hybrids and fuel cell vehicles that drive efficiency and convert petroleum miles to electric miles,” said John Bozzella, President and CEO, Alliance for Automotive Innovation, in a statement.
“Consumers have tons of choices. But pace matters. Moderating the pace of EV adoption in 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030 was the right call because it prioritizes more reasonable electrification targets in the next few (very critical) years of the EV transition. These adjusted EV targets – still a stretch goal – should give the market and supply chains a chance to catch up. It buys some time for more public charging to come online, and the industrial incentives and policies of the Inflation Reduction Act to do their thing. And the big one? The rules are mindful of the importance of choice to drivers and preserves their ability to choose the vehicle that’s right for them,” said Bozella. Well, Bozella doesn’t speak for Tesla and its manufacturing prowess over legacy automakers.
Tesla executive Rohan Patel responded to say, We had a @cybertruck at the event and it stole the show to be honest. @EPAMichaelRegan and the @EPA team has always been fair to Tesla. That hasn’t always been true of all parts of the government in this admin or previous administrations either,” he said.
We had a @cybertruck at the event and it stole the show to be honest.@EPAMichaelRegan and the @EPA team has always been fair to Tesla. That hasn’t always been true of all parts of the government in this admin or previous administrations either. https://t.co/xt3k3LnBGw
— Rohan Patel (@rohanspatel) March 21, 2024
Robert Sterling shared on X that the White House and the Democrats under President Joe Biden have snubbed and hate Tesla and Elon Musk.
“Here’s how much the Democrats hate Elon Musk: For today’s EPA EV announcement, they had 4 cars on stage: 1 from GM, 1 from Chrysler, and 2 from Ford. But no Teslas,” said Sterling.
“Last year, Ford sold 72,608 EVs. GM sold 75,883. Chrysler sold 0. Tesla sold 1,808,581. What a freaking joke,” he said.
Ridiculous
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 21, 2024
Tesla CEO Musk replied with a simple, “ridiculous.” It doesn’t make sense at all with Chrysler on stage, when they sold zero cars last year, while Tesla led EV sales in America and beyond.