On Wednesday night, US Eastern time, US President Joe Biden posted a tweet that attracted the attention of the industry: "When I say electric cars are the future, I'm not kidding. Pay attention to tomorrow's big news.。”

In what Biden called the "big news", it is widely expected that the White House, together with major US car companies, will jointly announce electric vehicle sales targets and new car fuel efficiency standards.

According to sources, at 3: 00 p.m. et on Thursday (3: 00 a.m. Beijing time on Friday), Biden is likely to attend an event with major US automakers such as GM, Ford and Fiat parent company CEO on the theme of car electrification and announce electric vehicle sales targets for 2030:Increase electric car sales to 40% to 50% of total new car sales by 2030. In addition, the Biden administration is expected to release proposals to revise the 2026 U. S. car fuel efficiency standards.

The Biden administration is expected to announce sales targets for electric vehicles

In fact, as early as last week, a person familiar with the matter revealed that the White House had privately contacted US automakers in the hope that they would voluntarily commit to increase electric car sales and support the goal of raising electric car sales to at least 40% of total new car sales by 2030.

But the White House did not reach an agreement with the automakers at the time. On the one hand, many details of this sales target were not clear at the time, such as whether various types of hybrid cars should be included in the scope of electric vehicles; on the other hand, this sales target is difficult for car companies. At a time when fuel vehicles still dominate the mainstream market in the United States, it may take hundreds of billions of dollars to promote the popularity of electric vehicles. In addition, the electric car sales target is likely to be opposed by corporate unions, as it may put some car workers at risk of losing their jobs.

In the announcement of the event, expected in the early hours of Friday, automakers are likely to commit to the Biden government's goals and specify details, extending the sales target of electric vehicles to all-electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. At the same time, automakers are expected to make it clear that the electric car sales target will depend largely on government support for electric vehicles and the charging industry.

Biden is also expected to be happy to respond to carmakers' calls. Earlier, Biden called on the government to spend $174 billion to promote the development of electric vehicles, including $100 billion in consumer incentives.

Although GM, Ford and Stellantis have not explicitly expressed support for the Biden administration's sales targets, they have all recently expressed support for the direction of electric cars: GM has said it "wants to stop selling gasoline-powered light vehicles in the United States by 2035", and Ford plans to "at least 40% of its global car sales will be fully electric by 2030." Stellantis has said that "the goal is to account for more than 40 per cent of its total US sales by 2030".

However, union pressure may still be a problem. Ray Curry, president of the United Auto Workers (UAW), said in a statement on Wednesday that the union's focus "is not on strict deadlines or percentages, but on retaining wages and benefits, which has always been the core and soul of the American middle class."

Biden is also expected to revise fuel efficiency standards

In addition, there was news that the Biden administration would propose a revision of the 2026 car fuel efficiency standard this week, which could also be announced at the event in the early hours of Friday.

In 2012, the Obama administration proposed the strictest fuel efficiency standard in American history, which is to increase fuel efficiency by 5% a year. But in February 2020, the Trump administration significantly lowered that standard to increase fuel efficiency by 1.5% a year by 2026.

As soon as Biden took office in January, he immediately asked agencies to re-evaluate fuel efficiency standards. At the moment, the Biden administration may be ready to readjust fuel economy standards, but the increase may not meet the demands of environmentalists.

The standard, drafted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and covering the period from 2023 to 2026, is expected to be drawn up on the basis of agreements reached by some automakers, including Ford and Volkswagen, with California local governments in 2019, according to people familiar with the matter. In the 2019 agreement, it plans to increase fuel efficiency by 3.7% a year.

This will clearly disappoint environmentalists and some electric carmakers, who have been calling for Biden to restore Obama-era fuel efficiency standards of 5 per cent a year.

Chris Nevers, senior director of environmental policy at electric carmaker Rivian, responded: "after several years of reversals, this proposal will push us in the right direction-but it will not be enough just to get back on track slowly."

Musk: I wasn't invited?

In this grand event with the theme of car electrification, one detail is particularly worth chewing: Tesla, America's most successful electric car company, was not invited.

Tesla is not only a globally recognized leading brand of electric vehicles, but also the US car company with the largest delivery volume of electric vehicles in the world. at the same time, he has also built the largest electric vehicle factory in the United States, which can be called the leading force in promoting the popularization of electric vehicles in the United States, but Biden just excluded it from the event list.

Biden hoped to use the event to boost America's position in electric cars, but omitted the popular American electric car company from the list and instead invited Stellantis, which is not even an American car company and is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Tesla CEO Musk obviously couldn't figure it out either, saying directly on Twitter: "Yes, it seems strange that Tesla was not invited (to participate in the White House electric car event)."