GM’s Commitment to Electric Cars Still Has Skeptics

tech.hindustantimes.com:

In a surprise move, General Motors Co. this week joined forces with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to recommend tougher emissions rules for passenger vehicles. But skeptics remain unconvinced by the company's professed commitment to going green, citing GM's history of battling tougher fuel economy rules.

GM and the EDF are recommending that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) establish standards ensuring at least 50% of new vehicles sold by 2030 are zero-emitting while achieving a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, a roadmap that matches up nicely with GM's plan to make all of its own models electric by 2035.

But the automaker has made promises before only to later move away from them, says Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Transport Campaign at the Center for Biological Diversity. Becker cites GM's commitment to backing California's right to set its own clean-air rules, which it later walked back by supporting former President Donald Trump's lawsuit to end the state's exemption.

“They have reneged in really big ways,” Becker says. “I think they want to be seen as making clean cars, but they don't really do it.”

Kristen Siemen, GM's chief sustainability officer, says the electric push is real: The EVs are coming, and GM wants government rules that give all automakers a clear path to get there. The company's Chevy Bolt EV has been on the market for six years, and GM has already spent a chunk of its $35 billion budget to bring 30 electric vehicles to market by 2025. “We're committed,” Siemen says. “The plans are very much aligned with our product plan.”

While GM's biggest push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions comes from its electrification plan, Siemen says the automaker will also improve