General Motors Manages To Somehow Piss Off Everyone With Ham-Fisted Last Minute EV Plan

[hatrack]

General Motors Co. was hoping for a positive reaction when it made an eye-popping announcement last week about boosting electric vehicles. Instead, America's largest automaker was flooded with criticism. Environmentalists blasted the announcement as a "distraction" meant to burnish the company's green image, while an industry source called it a "thumb in the eye to President Trump."

Perhaps more importantly, GM's announcement blindsided its allies in the auto industry, a source familiar with their reactions told E&E News. Companies such as Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles learned of the proposal just hours before it was unveiled Friday morning, the source said. So did a powerful trade association: the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. That's problematic because the auto industry was trying to present a unified front and coordinate its response to the Trump administration's rollback of clean car standards, the source said.

EDIT

In another bizarre turn of events, industry and environmentalists are aligned in condemning GM's proposal. Tom Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, said his group opposes GM's proposal because it amounts to a government handout for EVs. He also hinted that GM may be betting on Trump exiting the White House in 2020. "GM's proposal is a tacit admission that they can't sell electric vehicles without government subsidies and mandates," Pyle said. "Politically, it is a thumb in the eye to President Trump, who is was doing exactly what the [automakers] wanted him to do when he reopened the unworkable Obama rule."

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Environmentalists, for their part, blasted the proposal as a "PR stunt" aimed at distracting from GM's lobbying in support of the rollback.

https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060104815

[defacto7]

1. Just use public transportation and be done with them.

Bicycles are good.