More than 4,700 auto dealerships across the United States urged President Joe Biden in a letter Thursday to halt the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to enforce stricter vehicle-pollution standards.
The missive comes just weeks before the agency’s expected ruling on its tailpipe-emissions proposal, which addresses both climate change and pollutants that are harmful to health.
It is the second letter that auto dealers have sent to the White House in two months on the EPA’s upcoming ruling, which could codify the agency’s strictest-ever tailpipe emissions limits, proposed last April. The dealerships said Thursday that the Biden administration did not respond to their first letter sent on Nov. 28.
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The EPA says its proposed regulations could mean that up to two out of every three vehicles sold in the U.S. are electric by 2032. That’s higher than the administration’s target of 50% set two years ago.
We need to dismantle the auto dealer syndicate.
In case we needed another reason to hate dealers…
This is crazy to me. About a year ago I was trying to buy an ev or plug in hybrid and just could not find any. None of the dealerships around me had any.
Sure wish we could abolish the whole middle man dealership model we’re legislated into and just order what we want directly.
One year ago I tried to buy a base model lightning. There were 3 east of the Mississippi. They all wanted $30,000 over msrp. There were plenty of platinum and lariats to be found at just a bit higher price, but I’m not buying a Cadillac with a bed. I’m buying a truck to do light duty work in.
The problem isn’t just dealerships though. Ford didn’t make near enough base models to meet demand which enabled the dealerships to do this shit.
Yeah, just having direct sales as a possibility would let them reach the demand everywhere it is, not just in the few markets to which they are sending these vehicles.
Kinda the whole amazon model, you can afford to stock all sorts of weird niche items because you can reach the handful of people that desperately want it.
Can we just like… get rid of the concept of new car dealerships entirely? There’s clearly a reasonable and necessary use-case in terms of used cars, but in this day and age, anyone should be able to buy a new current-production model straight from the manufacturer without the dealership fuckery (including, but very much not limited to, dealer markups).
Ironic that they used a picture of an electric car for this article.
Not really: “The EPA says the industry could meet the limits if 67% of new-vehicle sales are electric by 2032, a pace the auto industry calls unrealistic. However, the new rule would not require automakers to boost electric vehicle sales directly. Instead, it sets emissions limits and allows automakers to choose how to meet them.”
