By Duggan Flanakin
July 31, 2024
Just months after taking office, President Joe Biden issued an executive order setting a national goal that at least 50% of all new cars and trucks sold would be zero-emission vehicles by 2030. Then, in March 2024, the Biden administration passed new emissions rules for cars and trucks.
Although the new rule is intended to push the U.S. auto market “decisively” toward electric and hybrid vehicles, the EPA has curiously deviated from its original plan to make two-thirds of all vehicles sold electric by 2030. The rule favors plug-in hybrids as part of the mix.
Vice President Kamala Harris (perhaps because of her California roots) is even more zealous about the electric vehicle revolution than President Biden, even though the $42 billion fast-charging initiative she leads has so far only built nine stations.
Meanwhile, a year earlier, the European Commission had agreed to “make an exception” to its absolutist requirement for electric vehicles in order to allow the continued sale of vehicles powered by e-fuels (fuels produced using captured carbon dioxide emissions).
While former President Donald Trump has vowed to end the Biden regulations and will likely push for a rollback of the EPA's new emissions rules (as he has done before), automakers on multiple continents are quickly proving that government regulation all too often locks in yesterday's technology.
Perhaps inspired by the harsh reality that 125-year-old electric vehicle technology (though it has evolved greatly since its inception) is still unable to solve intractable problems even today, automotive engineers on four continents are designing and companies are building vehicles that may soon turn battery-powered electric vehicles into a 21st-century Edsel.
Many of these new engine designs will produce zero carbon dioxide emissions, but others will not. None of these vehicles meet the EU's definition, and all appear to fall outside the Biden administration's plans, which are entirely focused on battery-electric vehicles.
To salvage the Biden mandates, the Energy Department just last month announced $1.7 billion in new potential grants, mostly to General Motors and Stellantis, to convert existing plants in eight mostly swing states to produce electric vehicles and components. The program is not scheduled to be completed until after the November election.
But just days later, General Motors CEO Mary Barra announced that GM is delaying investments in electric vehicles to ensure that “the company does not get ahead of demand.” The company is also delaying production of a second U.S. electric truck plant and Buick's first electric vehicle. It is now certain that GM will not meet its previously announced goal of one million electric vehicles produced in North America by 2025.
Ford, which has been racking up staggering losses on its electric vehicles (almost $50,000 per vehicle sold), has just announced that it will invest $3 billion to expand the production capacity of its Oakville, Canada, plant for its highly profitable gasoline-powered F-Series heavy-duty pickup trucks. Ford had previously postponed construction of a $12 billion electric vehicle factory, including a planned battery factory, in Kentucky due to consumer dissatisfaction.
Meanwhile, Stellantis, the world's largest carmaker, has just announced that it will invest $6 billion in the South American market to build a generation of engines that can run on either gasoline or Brazilian ethanol. The flex-fuel combustion engines can switch between fuels at will. They can also be combined with plug-in hybrid technology, creating a unique combination of the flexibility of the combustion engine, an electric motor and a battery.
The new “Bio-Hybrid” family includes a basic Bio-Hybrid, which combines an internal combustion engine (a gasoline detonation engine) with electric propulsion; a Bio-Hybrid eDCT, which features a Bio-Hybrid powertrain with electric dual clutch (EDC); and a Bio-Hybrid Plug-in, an accessory that plugs into the car for charging.
Wisconsin-based Kohler Engines unveiled its carbon-free KDH hydrogen combustion engine a year ago, which can use hydrogen manufactured and developed by Kohler. The engine replaces a diesel engine's diesel injection system with a GIDE system to deliver hydrogen. Kohler's push into hydrogen is just one of many.
BMW has also decided to switch from electric vehicles to hydrogen fuel cell technology. Triton EV has launched its own new hydrogen combustion engine, an innovation originally from India. Toyota, Hyundai and other companies are also building hydrogen-powered combustion engines. Meanwhile, Volkswagen has just announced plans to cut another 1,000 jobs at its electric vehicle plant in Zwickau.
On another front, Mazda recently announced the re-establishment of its “RE Development Group” to focus on the development and engineering of its rotary engines. Mazda says the engine's design allows the rotary engine to be coupled with a lithium-ion battery pack. The company believes its lightweight engine, which can run on carbon-neutral fuels, is a better solution than hydrogen fuel cells or pure electric vehicles.
And just a few days ago, EcoNews reported on a hydrogen engine developed by Toyota that does not require fuel lines or pumps and is very temperature resistant – that is, it can operate equally well in different climates and on different terrains and has a high-quality cooling system. Toyota's fuel cell can generate electricity without converting it into heat.
The new Toyota news is reminiscent of a 2021 comment by Gill Pratt, the company's chief scientist. “Different people have different circumstances and different needs.” That's something that Biden and EU mandates seemed to have forgotten in their subsidized crusade to force the entire world into a battery-electric future that economics and physics say cannot be achieved.
This means that even if Kamala Harris is elected in November, the commitment to electric vehicle adoption may be on hold because innovation will kill it.
Duggan Flanakin (duggan@duggansdugout.com) is a senior policy analyst at the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and writes on a wide range of policy issues.
This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available through RealClearWire.
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