Biden to sign executive order for 50% of new cars being electric by 2030, reiterates new point-of-sale EV incentive

President Joe Biden announces a new executive order to set “a new target to make half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 zero-emissions vehicles.”

In order to get there, Biden reiterated that they are working on a new point-of-sale EV incentive.

As we reported earlier today, the Biden administration was working on a new announcement related to electric vehicles.

In anticipation of it, Ford, GM, and Stellantis all announced a joint goal for 40-50% of new car sales to be electric by 2030.

Following the announcement, Biden announced his plan to “Drive American Leadership Forward on Clean Cars and Trucks”:

“President Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal invest in the infrastructure, manufacturing, and incentives that we need to grow good-paying, union jobs at home, lead on electric vehicles around the world, and save American consumers money. Today, the President will announce a set of new actions aimed at advancing these goals and increasing the impact of his proposed Build Back Better investments – positioning America to drive the electric vehicle future forward, outcompete China, and tackle the climate crisis.”

The main new measure is a new executive order to set a goal for “half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 zero-emissions vehicles”:

“Specifically, the President will sign an Executive Order that sets an ambitious new target to make half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 zero-emissions vehicles, including battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric, or fuel cell electric vehicles. The Executive Order also kicks off development of long-term fuel efficiency and emissions standards to save consumers money, cut pollution, boost public health, advance environmental justice, and tackle the climate crisis.”

But that’s just a goal.

The President also talked about initiatives to help get to that goal, but several of them were previously announced, like the review of the fuel standards and the new infrastructure investments in the infrastructure bill.

One important new initiative that has been elusive amid the infrastructure bill talk is the reform to the federal EV tax credit.

Since coming into power, Biden has been talking about reforming the incentive program and turning it into a point-of-sale rebate.

With today’s announcement, the White House reiterated that plan:

“Delivering point-of-sale consumer incentives to spur U.S. manufacturing and union jobs.”

The reference to US manufacturing and union jobs would hint at the “Clean Energy for America” bill introduced earlier this year.

The bill aimed to improve the EV incentive by removing the 200,000 US deliveries per manufacturer and increase the amount to $10,000 for EVs produced in the US and to $12,500 for EVs produced in the US by union workers.

It was first introduced in May, and there hasn’t been any update as the legislation has been mainly focused on the large infrastructure bill.