In a stunning announcement, GM says it will stop making all diesel and gas-powered cars and trucks. Its goal is to be carbon neutral by 2040 so to that end it will stop all diesel and gas-powered production by 2035. That’s it. No more Duramax Silverados. No more V8 Corvettes. In fact; no more internal combustion anything.

All combustion-engine vehicles will cease to be manufactured

With this news, we’re sure to see other manufacturers follow. So in less than 15 years, all combustion-engines will cease to be manufactured. It’s the end of an over 100-year epoch. 

If you have been wondering why you’ve seen so much angst and attention focussed on expanding EVs by different manufacturers now you know why. They saw this day this coming. While EV sales amount to 3% of all sales in the US automakers have been scrambling to get into the EV parade. If it seemed odd there was so much hubbub for such a small percentage of sales the writing was already on the wall.

Global warming is increasing with arctic ice melting three times more than expected for 2021. Raging fires in California and Australia and crop failures in some farming areas are all results of the rapidly increasing global warming. So merely manufacturing zero-polluting vehicles is not viewed as enough. Now carbon-neutrality is on the minds of many corporations. 

GM has for years been shooting for a “triple zero vision”

The markets responded positively with GM stock fluctuating between a 4% to 7.5% gain. GM has for years been shooting for a “triple zero vision.” But there never seemed to be any urgency placed behind it. Nor was there ever a deadline set. Two other targets have been zero congestion and zero crashes as the second and third zero vision goals. 

“For General Motors, our most significant carbon impact comes from tailpipe emissions of the vehicles that we sell — in our case, it’s 75 percent,” GM CEO Mary Barra said on LinkedIn. “That is why it is so important that we accelerate toward a future in which every vehicle we sell is a zero-emissions vehicle.”

“We feel like this transition is one that will protect all of our futures,” said Dane Parker, GM’s chief sustainability officer. “And it will help us create a future that will benefit not only the planet but the people.” GM is already preparing to ramp up EV production by changing over three US assembly plants to making EVs. The transition of other GM plants will take place over the next few years. 

GM already announced it will release 30 new EVs by 2025

GM has already announced it will release 30 new EVs by 2025. That represents a $27 billion investment. And it plans on making Cadillac its first all-EV brand by 2025. 

“This is the time for this technology; this is the time for this change,” Parker told CNBC. “The convergence of those things has made this an inflection point that we want to seize.”