DETROIT — General Motors plans to stop selling gasoline-powered vehicles worldwide by 2035 as it works toward a goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2040.
The seismic shift in product strategy will have a significant impact on showrooms and manufacturing plants in China and North America, where the company is a leading producer and seller of light trucks and cars.
“General Motors is joining governments and companies around the globe working to establish a safer, greener and better world,” CEO Mary Barra said in a post Thursday on LinkedIn. “We believe that with our scale and reach we can encourage others to follow suit and make a significant impact on our industry and on the economy as a whole.”
GM’s commitment to carbon neutrality follows promises from other automakers, including Ford Motor Co., Volvo Cars and Nissan. GM’s goal is a decade ahead of the targets Ford and Nissan have set but in line with Volvo’s.
“To get there we’ll have 100 percent of our portfolio fully electric, and that’s the vision we’re setting,” Dane Parker, chief sustainability officer, said on a call with reporters.
GM has said it will invest $27 billion in electric and autonomous vehicle development and launch 30 EVs globally through 2025. GM aims to sell zero-emission vehicles across a range of price points and segments, power its facilities with renewable energy and work with stakeholders to build a charging infrastructure and promote customer adoption of EVs.
The automaker signed a pledge called the “Business Ambition for 1.5 Degrees Celsius” to help limit global warming and meet the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which the U.S. rejoined shortly after President Joe Biden took office last week, GM said in a statement.
GM said it also will work with the Environmental Defense Fund to eliminate tailpipe emissions from new light-duty vehicles by 2035, when California plans to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles.
“GM is making it crystal clear that taking action to eliminate pollution from all new light-duty vehicles by 2035 is an essential element of any automaker’s business plan,” Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp said in GM’s statement. “EDF and GM have had some important differences in the past, but this is a new day in America — one where serious collaboration to achieve transportation electrification, science-based climate progress and equitably shared economic opportunity can move our nation forward.”