General Motors (GM), the largest legacy automaker in the United States, announced on Thursday that it plans to stop selling all gasoline or diesel-powered cars, pickup trucks, and SUVs by the year 2035.
It’s a huge commitment for an automaker, especially because the vast majority of GM’s sales currently come from gas-burning cars rather than electric vehicles.
In General Motors’s case, success will depend on rapidly improving and ramping up production for electric vehicles. And for everyone else, seeing that increased attention on zero-emission transportation is great news for the future of our planet.
The target to make all light-duty vehicles zero-emissions is part of a wider climate pledge GM unveiled on Thursday. The company said it plans to become “carbon neutral” by 2040.
And given that 75 percent of its emissions come from vehicle tailpipes, ceasing gas-burning car sales seems like a reasonable place to start.
It had a $4 billion third-quarter profit and has used 2020 to set itself up for a bold future, announcing plans to produce 30 electric vehicle models by 2025, starting with the gold standards for Detroit car lovers: Cadillac and Hummer.
All told, GM has already started on spending what it says will be a total of $27 billion in an effort to remake 40% of its lineup.
Up till this point it was the governments who were banning the sale of gas powered vehicles but now that the call is coming from the automotive industry itself — especially one of the largest companies in the industry — it’s possible that we could finally start to see some real momentum in the push to decarbonize the ways we get from point A to B.
Reference- GM Corporate Newsroom, Bloomberg, Axios, Futurism