On the Dash:
- GM says Biden-era fuel rules would have required more than half of its sales to be EVs by 2031, risking plant shutdowns.
- The Trump administration is preparing weaker standards, citing affordability concerns and slower EV demand.
- Automakers have already cut EV production and are shifting some planned EV plants back to truck and SUV production.
General Motors CEO Mary Barra said the company would have been forced to scale back gasoline-vehicle production and potentially close plants if EV demand continued to fall short of the levels required under former President Joe Biden’s fuel-economy standards.
Speaking Wednesday at the New York Times DealBook conference, Barra said the Biden-era rules created a scenario in which GM would not have been able to meet mandated fleetwide efficiency targets without sharply increasing EV sales. She said the company warned the administration that the goals were out of step with market realities and that manufacturers could face dramatic production cuts without regulatory relief.
The rules, now being rolled back by President Donald Trump, would have required automakers to reach an average of about 50 miles per gallon by 2031. That target effectively pushed manufacturers to ensure more than half of their sales came from electric vehicles, a pace many automakers say is unrealistic given consumer hesitancy and softening demand.
Barra said GM’s internal forecasts showed the company would have “had to start shutting down plants” if EV sales remained below expectations, emphasizing the growing gap between mandated efficiency levels and actual retail demand. Automakers across the industry have slowed EV production in recent months, raising alarms about the feasibility of large-scale EV quotas.
The Trump administration is expected to introduce weaker standards to replace the Biden rules, part of a broader effort to dismantle what the president has called an overreaching “EV mandate.”
Industry analysts say the rollback offers temporary relief for automakers juggling EV investments and profitability. The final standards are likely to influence factory planning, model development, and the pace of the industry’s transition away from gasoline vehicles over the next decade.
