GM Latest Car Maker to Turn Against CA’s 2035 Gas Powered Car Sales Ban Mandate

Over the weekend, General Motors shifted their stance on California’s 2035 new gas powered car sales ban mandate, introducing lobbying efforts to help end the mandate, as well as urging employees to help as well by contacting Senators to vote against the mandate in Washington.

According to e-mails sent out to thousands of white-collar employees, GM said that they are now opposed to the mandate as it doesn’t reflect current market realities. Specifically, limiting the number of vehicle options while making pricier electric vehicle (EV) models doesn’t make sense. Instead, they want to push for a national emissions policy over individual state ones. The company also noted that there is now a decreasing demand for EVs despite a growing auto market, as well as manufacturing costs of EVs climbing to record amounts.

“Emissions standards that are not aligned with market realities pose a serious threat to our business by undermining consumer choice and vehicle affordability,” said the e-mail by GM.

It is notable that GM was originally against the mandate and the State of California having its own emission standards at the beginning of the decade. However, the company changed tune in late 2020 following President Joe Biden’s election and his administration pushing for electric car expansion. A climb in electric car sales at this time also influenced this decision. But, with market forces and consumer demand shifting, GM simply needed to shift with it. Last year, they cancelled an internal goal to make 400,000 electric vehicles by mid-2024 because of low demand. And with sales continuing to slump this year, they went back to more of what customers want, as seen by their email during the weekend.

GM opposition

While California saw incredible growth of electric cars for the first several years of the 2020s, partially because of Governor Gavin Newsom’s law to ban the sale of gasoline powered cars beginning in 2035, recent years have seen something of a downturn. Electric car sales dipped for the first time in a decade in the final quarter of 2023. According to the California New Car Dealers Association, the sale of electric vehicles did in fact continue surging in the first half of 2023. However, by the third quarter, sales crested. And in the 4th quarter of 2023, the number of new ZEV cars sold for the final three months of the year was only 89,933, a drop of 10.2%.

Despite experts hoping for a rebound in 2024, all electric sales flatlined instead. In Q2 2024, the growth rate of electric cars fell by 1.2% compared to Q2 2023. Even worse, the 2026 goal of having a 35% market share of electric cars became farther out of reach as the market share stayed the same at 21.4% for the second quarter in a row. It was also far below the 21.8% seen in Q2 2023.

In February, the California New Car Dealers Association unveiled all Q4 2024 statistics, showing that the total number of new electric vehicle registrations went down by 0.3% from Q4 2023. In terms of figures, it went from 1,764,767 of registered EV vehicles to 1,759,141. While the group did predict that the total number of registered electric vehicles would top 1.8 million this year, the total number will still be far below the 1.89 million recorded in 2019 and the peak number of 2.03 million registrations seen in 2016.

Current figures aren’t optimistic on that front either, as right now it is estimated that only around 20%of new car sales in California are electric, meaning that consumers would need to have a drastic shift towards buying electric cars in the next year and a half to keep on pace with the mandate. The downturn in sales has been seen nationally too, with EV sales dipping 5% across the U.S. last month, something that GM’s email hinted at.

GM now joins several other auto makers, as well as the Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AAI), in repealing the Biden Administration era Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) waiver that approved of California’s mandate in December 2024. Earlier this month, their opposition helped the House voting to repeal the waiver. A Senate vote on the waiver is next, with the industry seeing that as the last major hurdle. GM’s added support over the weekend, as well as urging their employees to help contact Senators in Washington, serves as a small boost, especially being so close to the vote.

Should it pass by simple majority in the Senate, President Donald Trump would then need to sign off on it, something which he has indicated that he is more than happy to do. While some California lawmakers have vowed to block the waiver and mandate repeal, it would likely have little effect, as California being brough under national emissions standards once again would effectively kill the 2035 mandate and end one of Governor Newsom’s signature laws.

It is currently expected that the Senate will vote to repeal the waiver, with Republicans holding a slight 53-47 majority over Democrats in Washington.