Automakers have made loads of guarantees about electrical autos. General Motors, Ford, and Volvo—among the extra formidable—have pledged to promote solely zero-emission vehicles by not less than 2035. That’s fairly a dedication, as solely 14 % of recent vehicles offered globally final yr had been electrical, with the share within the US being half that.

But a brand new proposal launched by the US Environmental Protection Agency right this moment threatens to carry automakers to their electrical large speak—and to up the ante. The company instructed tighter emissions requirements that it calculates would require electrical autos to make up two-thirds of recent passenger car gross sales by 2032, sending hundreds of thousands extra EVs onto dealership heaps. It additionally desires to toughen requirements for heavy vans, albeit much less aggressively.

During a media briefing Wednesday, EPA administrator Michael Regan referred to as the proposals, which might kick in in 2027, the “strongest-ever federal pollution standards for cars and trucks.” If enacted, the principles might stop the discharge of virtually 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide by means of 2055.

The new air pollution guidelines would function by forcing automakers to make sure that annually between 2027 and 2032, the overall emissions of all of the autos they promote will get smaller. To meet these shrinking targets with out slashing gross sales, producers must provide a greener slate of autos. That might imply boosting gasoline financial system, providing extra hybrids, or launching extra vehicles powered by hydrogen or batteries. Consumers’ booming appetite for EVs, and the more than trillion dollars that automakers have earmarked for electrification, means that constructing extra battery-powered vehicles could be the business’s best path to reducing emissions.

The proposals might change into one of many Biden administration’s most vital strikes in the direction of decreasing air air pollution and decarbonizing the US transportation system, which is alone answerable for greater than 1 / 4 of the nation’s greenhouse gasoline emissions.

Two years in the past, a bipartisan infrastructure deal poured $7.5 billion into constructing a nationwide EV charging community, in order that drivers powered by plug may at some point roam with out worry of operating out of energy. Just final summer season, the Inflation Reduction Act created new incentives for companies pondering of electrifying their very own fleets of vehicles and vans, and launched new tax credit rewarding firms that manufacture batteries and electrical vehicles within the US.

Automakers have complained that these new guidelines make it onerous to build EVs that qualify for tax credits right now. But they’ve spurred new mining, battery constructing, and manufacturing tasks within the US, the seedlings, the White House hopes, of a worldwide automotive business driven by the US and not China.

Dave Cooke, a senior autos analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists, says the EPA’s proposal builds on these earlier insurance policies to clarify what is predicted of automakers because the US tries to curtail carbon emissions. “We’ve given them the carrot,” he says. “Now here’s the stick.” 

What does that imply for drivers? If the EPA’s robust new guidelines take impact, Americans ought to see many extra inexpensive electrical autos in dealership heaps within the subsequent decade.