*General Motors reveals it is on track to meet the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy to power its facilities in the United States by 2030 and global facilities by 2035 towards going completely carbon-neutral by 2040

*US President Joe Biden lays out plans to scrap all gas-powered cars and trucks in the Federal Government’s fleet and put electric vehicles (EV) in their place

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

As part of its plan to join the league of other vehicle manufacturers to go carbon-neutral by 2040, General Motors (GM) has announced that it plans to phase out all of its diesel and gas-powered vehicles by 2035.

The company said Thursday, January 28, 2021, revealed it is on track to meet its goal of using 100 percent renewable energy to power its facilities in the United States (US) by 2030 and global facilities by 2035.

According to GM, for several years now, the company has been striving to reduce its impact on the environment by moving toward an emissions-free future.

The automaker has announced plans to release 30 new electric vehicles globally by 2025; more than 20 will be just for North America.

Mary Barra, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GM, in a message on LinkedIn said: “For General Motors, our most significant carbon impact comes from tailpipe emissions of the vehicles that we sell — in our case, it’s 75 percent.

“That is why it is so important that we accelerate toward a future in which every vehicle we sell is a zero-emissions vehicle.”

But how profitable is an all-electric switch? Dane Parker, Chief Sustainability Officer, disclosed the plans are not likely to have an impact on profitability.

Parker said: “We feel this is going to be the successful business model of the future.

“We know there are hurdles, we know there are technology challenges, but we’re confident that with the resources we have and the expertise we have that we’ll overcome those challenges and this will be a business model that we will be able to thrive in the future.”

The combination of a reduction in pricing and advancements in technologies has “made this an inflection point that we want to seize,” he stated.

Likewise, as US President Joe Biden wants automakers to build cars with more American parts, the White House has laid out plans to scrap all gas-powered cars and trucks in the Federal Government’s fleet and put electric vehicles (EV) in their place.

Consumer demand for more traditional vehicles ─ especially trucks ─ is still vibrant, but EV sales nearly doubled from 2017-2019 and are continuing to climb.

The EV rage seems to be an all-in thing. Even Cadillac has joined the race.

Biden’s promise came alongside an Executive Order signed Monday, January 25.

ConsumerConnect reports the President’s “Buy American” initiative is an administration kickstarter buoyed by an investment of “hundreds of billions of dollars” focused on supporting domestic industry, electric vehicles included.

Biden stated: “The Federal Government also owns an enormous fleet of vehicles, which we’re going to replace with clean, electric vehicles made right here in America by American workers, creating millions of jobs — a million autoworker jobs in clean energy — and vehicles that are net-zero emissions.”

According to him, “Buy American” effort will be “the largest mobilisation of public investment in procurement, infrastructure, and R&D since World War Two,” as he also played a heavy-handed card directed at automakers who rely on inexpensive imports from overseas.

“With the executive order I’ll be signing today, we’ll increase Buy American requirements for these kinds of projects and improve the way we measure domestic content requirements.”