GM plans to end sales of gasoline powered cars by 2035
28 January 2021
General Motors is setting a worldwide target to end sales of gasoline and diesel powered cars and light trucks by 2035, the automaker said Thursday.
Why it matters: GM's plan marks one of the auto industry's most aggressive steps to transform their portfolio to electric models that currently represent a tiny fraction of overall sales.
- Transportation — including passenger cars but also trucking, aviation and other forms — is the largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and a huge source worldwide.
The big picture: The 2035 "aspiration" would put GM on the same timeline with the state of California, and an identical or similar path t0 several countries with plans to phase out sales of internal-combustion vehicles.
How it works: The target to make all light-duty vehicles zero-emissions is part of a wider climate pledge GM unveiled Thursday. The company said it plans to become "carbon neutral" by 2040.
- CEO Mary Barra said Thursday that the target means "removing emissions from all our products, including every vehicle we produce, and all of our global operations in the next twenty years."
- "Where removing emissions is not possible — for example if the technology does not yet exist in those timeframes — we will compensate for those emissions through carbon credits or carbon capture," she said in a LinkedIn post.
By the numbers: GM said that tailpipe emissions account for 75% of its carbon footprint. The new pledge comes as the automaker has been speeding up rollout of new EVs, with a number of models hitting showrooms in the next several years.
The company plans to offer 30 all-electric models by the mid-2020s and says it's investing $27 billion over the next five years on electric and autonomous vehicle development.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.