The Biden administration is mulling new more aggressive auto emission
requirements and they pushed the US down an accelerated path
towards E V adoption even as electric vehicle sales hit
an all time high. So here with more on
this, as our senior reporter Chloe Alo and Chloe
, what are these new requirements? Exactly while the
US Environmental Protection Agency's proposed standards are the most aggressive
to date. They would require a 56% reduction in
auto emissions from 2026 levels by 2032. Experts anticipate
that in order to achieve that goal, automakers would
need about one in three or about 67% of new
vehicles sold to be electric vehicles. By that time
, this plan is projected to cut close to 10
billion tons of carbon emissions by 2055. And this
is crucial as transportation accounted for 27% of overall US
emissions, which is the largest share by economic sector
that was in 2020. And this category it's worth
noting also includes ships, planes and trains according to
the EPA. Now the effects could well ripple through
other portions of the economy too like fuel, the
EPA reports that these standards if implemented could cut oil
imports by about 20 billion barrels and there could be
health benefits as well that cut down on the impacts
related to particulate matter like lung disorders and cancer,
heart diseases and premature death. Shannon. Oh,
wow. Ok. Well, I definitely want to
eventually get an E V vehicle. But how many
people are already buying these? There's good news on
that front too. In 2022 E V adoption cost
a crucial 5% of overall vehicle market share. And
Cox Automotive released a report today showing E V market
share has hit a new all time high. A
full 7.2% of new vehicle sales are about 250,000 in
Q one or electric vehicles. This comes on the
back of improved inventory and expanded options as more competitors
enter the space still, Tesla did dominate sales in
Q one helped by price cuts even if as its
overall market share did fall, Chevy Bolt took the
second spot and then Ford in third. Ok.
So maybe you can enlighten us on some of the
challenges that are still in the way of a broader
adoption because I'm still waiting for more chargers stations.
You're exactly right. There are pretty much two main
factors standing in the way of the adoption that includes
charging anxiety and cost. So although are still broadly
more expensive than traditional internal combustion vehicles, the EPA
estimates that its new emissions requirement would save the average
consumer about$12,000 over the lifetime of their vehicle.
These savings would mostly come from fuel and maintenance cost
savings and that takes care of cost. But what
about charging? Anxiety? This is essentially the concern
that an E B owner won't be able to find
a charging station when they need it or if they
do it might not work. Now, a 2022
J D Power survey found that one in five customers
who visited a public charging station didn't end up charging
their vehicle. This was because of outages or malfunctions
. Can you even imagine if the same was true
of gas stations? But as far as the overall
availability, the Biden administration is investing big time,
a White House statement from February reports that the number
of public charging ports has grown 40% since Biden assumed
the presidency and there are now more than 130,000 public
chargers nationwide. The administration is looking to increase that
with the infrastructure bill allocating$7.5 billion toward electrical vehicle
charge uh toward electric vehicle charging infrastructure overall. Shannon --> .