President Joe Biden plans to replace the government’s fleet of cars and trucks with electric vehicles assembled in the United States, he said Monday at the signing of a new “Buy American” executive order.
The government is a major buyer of vehicles. However, replacing such a fleet with electric vehicles produced in the US will be costly and time consuming. Currently, there are only a handful of electric vehicles that are assembled in the US. Tesla, General Motors and Nissan Motor produce electric vehicles domestically, while Ford Motor and others have announced they will do so.
“Current supply is quite weak, but the industry is about to unleash an avalanche of new products and many of them built in North America,” said Kristin Dziczek, vice president of industry, labor and economics at the Research Center. Cars. CNBC. “Almost every factory in the United States will have a hybrid or electric product.”
It is unclear whether the Biden plan includes plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, which use a combination of EV engines and traditional internal combustion engines. When discussing the plans, he referred to the new fleet of “zero net emissions” electric vehicles.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A man is driving his Tesla car, while Starship SN8 from SpaceX is seen in the back, a few days before the launch of the test of the company’s new super-heavy Starship rocket from their facilities in this small town in Boca Chita, Texas, December 4, 2020 .
Gene Blevins | Reuters
Biden did not specify a time frame for switching the government’s “huge fleet” to electric vehicles, which cost much more than traditional vehicles. He said changing the fleet will help his administration plan to create 1 million new jobs in the US auto industry.
Biden also announced plans for stricter use of parts made in America in government-purchased vehicles, which will make it even more difficult for the fleet to cross. He said current standards require parts of a vehicle to be at least 50 percent US
“50% content threshold [isn’t] big enough, and the way we measure content doesn’t take into account jobs and economic activity in the United States, “Biden said.” We’ll change that as well. The executive action I’m signing today won’t just require companies to do their part. several components in America, but also the fact that the value of these components contributes to our economy, as measured by things like the number of American jobs created and / or supported. “
GM said in a statement that it was “encouraged by President Biden’s commitment to support US production and is looking forward to reviewing the details of the order.”
Ford, which launched an “Built for America” advertising campaign last year, said it “believes that investing in America, its people, goods and services must be a national mission.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.