A note on GM's electric-vehicle trial balloon

The comment period for the Trump plan to upend vehicle standards has just closed and we're starting to see what the automakers' response looks like. GM has drawn a lot of attention for a suggestion that we introduce a national electric vehicle rule to replace national emissions standards - and California's zero-emission vehicles rule. GM is getting a lot of coverage and some frankly unearned credit here, because their proposal falls apart the moment you start looking at the details. 

If you're interested in the wonky details, we're happy to talk this through with you. In short, GM's proposal could leave us worse off from an emissions perspective than we are under today's policies. The company's suggested policy is based on credits, not actual vehicles, and includes "credit multipliers" for specific kinds of vehicles to make meeting the proposed standard even easier. 

Under today's rules, we have a 50-state emissions and efficiency standard that's working; gasoline vehicles have gotten more efficient every year, saving consumers billions at the pump. Meanwhile, forward-thinking policies in California and other states have spurred the development of an EV market with 30 models and lots of room for growth. 

Under GM's proposal, 95+% of the vehicles coming to market between now and 2030 would essentially be gasoline-powered, and these would have no requirement to reduce emissions. Although GM didn’t specifically say anything about state authority in their proposal, it seems likely that they would want to pre-empt the existing state ZEV programs – therefore this proposal would short-circuit both California’s post-2025 ZEV and GHG regulation development. While CAFE standards could still remain, EPA would lose the ability to help shape future regulations on fleet GHG emissions through modeling and technology analysis.  

Please let me know if you have questions - we're happy to get into our analysis of why this proposal would actually undermine the progress we've made. 

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