Biden Wants American-Built, All-EV Federal Fleet
We asked you a bit ago what the Biden administration might mean for the automotive industry.
We now have a partial answer.
President Biden plans to use an executive order to replace the federal fleet of about 645,000 vehicles with fully electric vehicles. This will be done over time.
Oh, and he wants them to be built in America.
“The federal government also owns an enormous fleet of vehicles which we are going to replace with clean electric vehicles, made right here in America by American workers, creating a million auto-worker jobs, and clean energy, and vehicles that are net-zero emissions,” Biden said Monday. “Together this will be the largest mobilization of public investment in procurement, infrastructure, and R&D since World War II.”
There’s more. Biden wants to raise the content threshold needed to make a vehicle for the feds to 50 percent. And there will be a cross-agency review of domestic preferences when it comes to federal purchasing, according to Green Car Reports.
“This order is deeply intertwined with the President’s commitment to invest in American manufacturing, including clean energy and critical supply chains, grow good-paying, union jobs, and advance racial equity,” a White House press release said.
Biden’s team pointed out that the regulations that help define “domestic” have not changed since the 1950s, which has led to “loopholes” allowing manufacturers to claim less-valuable parts as “domestic” while more valuable parts – think engines – are made in other countries.
Federal purchasing rules already put more weight on domestic content, at least on the more expensive components.
The White House didn’t clarify whether Canada counts as “domestic”, as it does now.
That matters, since one potential EV the government could purchase, the GM EV600 delivery van, is slated to be built in Oshawa, Ontario.
We don’t know how much this will really change the overall industry. Surely it will incentivize some EV action among makes, although most OEMs have already been working feverishly on EV development.
I also struggle to picture fully electric armored SUVs for the Secret Service, or the president’s limo – aka The Beast – going full-on EV. But it could happen. Not to mention the phrase “over time” means that the feds have plenty of time to turn the fleet over.
I wouldn’t be shocked to see the low-hanging fruit handled early – think Ford and Chevy sedans being replaced by Teslas and Chevy Bolts, say – while the more difficult to replace vehicles hang around longer.
Then again, there is a slew of electric pickups, including the F-150, slated for launch in the near future.
This could be simply a “lead by example” move. Certainly, it will help get more EVs on the road, and that’s probably a good thing for the environment. Certain automakers will benefit from some fleet sales, and maybe EV adoption will be sped up, especially if federal workers like their company cars so much they start buying more EVs for the rest of the family.
On the other hand, this feels like a relatively small step towards further EV adoption. The retail market is just different from the fleet side, after all.
It will be interesting to revisit this in a few years. For now, Biden’s taking action – but the result isn’t yet clear.
[Image: lev radin/Shutterstock.com]
Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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I don't give a rat's ass what Biden wants. I for one will never buy an electric car, even if the psychopaths in charge use violence and coercion to make it more expensive to own a gasoline vehicle. (Yes, I know this article is about the federal mafia's fleet, but they're going to be pushing this nonsense on the rest of us as well.)
Glad to see this didn't devolve into a political diatribe; No Sir not at all. To gleefully plagiarize there are too many ICE vehicles to outlaw them. Ditto with guns. With the obvious out of the way, I have some questions. Did anyone care to total up vehicles in the GSA fleet? The GSA fleet, not diesel burning Humvee's, JP-8 (kerosene) burning jets, and nuclear powered aircraft carriers? If someone did total up the GSA fleet, could we get a count of sedans? Yes, just sedans. As of now there are no EV 15 passenger vans or EV half ton pick up trucks whatever you want to call them. How many of these GSA sedans are for daily or work week use only? How many of you have driven a GSA vehicle? They seemed to have been bought at Sucky McSucks dealership who sells the lot pigs to the government. No one has determined how often GSA sedans are used to go to a meeting on the other side of town. The government might come up with a new job: "Fleet Technician" or such. Make sure the EV is plugged in correctly and Billy and Lurlene from Sector 7-G didn't leave any McDonalds wrappers in the car. Will the GSA fleet ever go 100% EV? No, too many specific use vehicles. Will someone with a car and driver choose an EV? Again, maybe. For single day, short route use? Yes.