United States to move away from combustion fleet vehicles by 2035

The United States Government is amping up its charge towards zero-emissions vehicles, with its entire fleet expected to move away from internal combustion by 2035.

President Joe Biden is set to sign an executive order which will see more than 645,000 government-owned zero-emissions vehicles implemented by 2035, with the first stage of the plan coming into effect by 2027, impacting the light-duty vehicle fleet.

From 2022, the Department of Homeland Security will begin its testing process to evaluate the Ford Mustang Mach-E for law enforcement use, a fleet which currently is roughly 30,000 vehicles strong.

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Estimates from The Washington Post have shown the US federal vehicle fleet travels roughly 7.2 billion kilometres annually, consuming 1.5 billion litres of fossil fuels in the process while emitting more than 3.1 billion kilograms of greenhouse gases.

The executive order is one pillar of the Biden administration’s aims to reach net-zero emissions by the Government by 2050, with pollution-free electricity and a 65 per cent reduction targeted by 2030.

Infrastructure for electric vehicles in the United States has recently been given a major boost with the US$1.2 trillion (AU$1.63tn) infrastructure bill allocating around US$7.5 billion (AU$10.18bn) towards a national network.

Previously Biden has asked American automotive manufacturers to sign a voluntary pledge to ensure 40 per cent of their production volume by 2030 comes from electric vehicles, mainly targeting the Big Three as the country enjoys a booming period of EV upstarts including Tesla and Rivian.