Biden Slows Down Electric Vehicle Transition... Watching Auto Union Votes

Decision to Relax Automobile Emission Standards

U.S. President Joe Biden has decided to slow down the transition to electric vehicles, mindful of opposition from the auto workers' union ahead of the November presidential election.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to major foreign media including The New York Times (NYT) on the 18th (local time), the Biden administration plans to ease the vehicle emissions standards announced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last April.

The EPA standards aim to significantly reduce carbon and pollutant emissions from vehicles over five years, from 2027 to 2032. To meet these standards, automakers would need to greatly increase the sales proportion of electric vehicles instead of internal combustion engine vehicles. However, there were concerns about a sharp decline in jobs in the auto parts industry during this process. Electric vehicles require fewer parts compared to internal combustion engine vehicles, resulting in less labor needed for vehicle manufacturing.

As a result, the United Auto Workers (UAW), one of President Biden's traditional support bases, declared withdrawal of support. Biden, who had been pushing for an accelerated green transition, ultimately decided to ease the emissions standards compared to the original plan. After the EPA reported the eased emissions standards to the White House earlier last month, the UAW expressed support for President Biden on the 24th of the same month.

With the UAW's support declaration, President Biden was able to expand his support base in battleground states located in the "Rust Belt."

However, the Biden administration decided to maintain the final goal of having 67% of new car sales be electric vehicles by 2032. Initially, the EPA projected that with the new standards, electric vehicles would account for 67% of passenger cars sold in 2032. The Biden administration chose to keep this target but revised the approach to gradually strengthen emissions standards until 2030 and then significantly tighten them after 2030. This move is seen as a patchwork measure made ahead of this year's election, prioritizing votes over aggressively pushing a strong green policy without considering the auto industry's pace of electric vehicle transition.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.