US President Joe Biden has signed an executive order that requires 50 per cent of all new cars sold by 2030 to be electric.
The move reportedly has the backing of the US’s biggest automakers such as Ford and General Motors.
President Biden announced on Twitter: “The future of the auto industry is electric – and made in America.”
“Today I’m signing an executive order with a goal to make 50 per cent of new vehicles sold by 2030 zero-emission – and unveiling steps to reverse the previous administration’s short-sighted rollback of vehicle standards.”
Several European countries have announced they will ban the sale of petrol and diesel powered vehicles in the next couple of decades.
Most European car makers have also announced similar plans to phase out internal combustion engined vehicles in the next decade as the European Union enacts increasingly strict emissions regulations that make the sale and development of petrol and diesel vehicles too expensive and difficult.
Ford is leading the charge to electrify vehicles in the US having developed the Mustang Mach-E electric SUV and the soon to arrive electric F-Series pick-up truck. The F-Series truck is the best selling vehicle in the US and one of the highest selling vehicles in the world.
These two vehicles form the core of the brand’s more than $28b global investment in electric cars.
The F-150 Lightning isn’t just about zero-emissions. It also claims some very impressive performance numbers.
A combination of two electric motors – one on each axle for all-wheel drive ability – and an extended range battery delivers a supercar beating 420kW and 1050Nm. The standard range battery makes 318kW/1050Nm.
It has a driving range of 370km when equipped with the standard battery and more than 480km when fitted with the extended range battery.
The big boy ute can be used to power electric tools on worksites and even your house.
General Motors is bringing back the Hummer as an electric vehicle, which is a wild change from the previous versions that used a petrol-guzzling big 6.2-litre V8.
Triple electric motors are powerful enough to hurl the hefty Hummer from 0-100km/h in about 3.5 seconds, which is faster than top-shelf performance cars such as the BMW M3.
With Europe and the US now working to put in place electric vehicle targets, the choice of zero-emission vehicles on offer to Australia is expected to increase as the world’s car makers ditch petrol and diesel power in the near future.
Australia has no such federal targets on electric vehicles, but several states such as NSW and Victoria now have incentives for buyers of electric vehicles. These include free registration and thousands of dollars towards the cost of the vehicle.
According to the latest Australian new car sales figures released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, electric cars only make up about 0.4 per cent of all vehicles sold this year. This number, which doesn’t include Tesla vehicles because the company refuses to reveal its sales figures, is four times higher than 2020.
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