GM and Rivian's CEO have something in common: They didn't think EVs would become a political stick.
On Thursday while speaking at the New York Times Climate Forward event Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said “I think it's very important that we don't do that. make EVs a political phenomenonand it makes me sad that they are.”
“It doesn't make sense that they are,” Scaringe said.
But EVs have become political. The 2024 election has two candidates with very different positions on EVs, climate science, and democracy itself. Trump plans to intestinal EV policy. Harris supported the proposed Green New Deal and was a key player in the VW cheating scandal.
Electric cars have been associated with politics to some degree since the 1950s. Ike Eisenhower loved EVsbut his major public works projects including the modern Interstate highway system may be the ones to achieve short-range EVs.
Scaringe said he never predicted that electric cars would be talked about as a good thing or a bad thing depending on one's political affiliation. But he believes that there are different interpretations of what it is the best for our children.
“We as living animals, we are about 8 billion in the world, there is no reasonable way we can live anywhere other than the earth. It is our only home, a beautiful home, and we need to do everything we can to protect it. ,” said Scaringe. That will require a major transformation of the big industries we've built around renewable energy, and that will be difficult for existing businesses and disruptive for legacy job changes, Scaringe admits. “And that charges people,” he said.
Scaringe is not alone. On Sunday, GM CEO Mary Barra told Kris Van Cleave during an interview that “I never thought a driverless car program would be (political).”