Biden pledges to replace government fleet with electric vehicles

President Biden on Monday pledged to replace vehicles owned by the federal government with U.S.-made electric vehicles, doubling down on a similar campaign pledge. 

“The federal government also owns an enormous fleet of vehicles which we’re going to replace with clean, electric vehicles made right here in America by American workers,” he said while discussing an executive order aimed at increasing federal procurement of products made in the U.S.

The executive order did not discuss vehicles specifically, but said that the government should get products from “sources that will help American businesses compete” in unspecified “strategic industries.”

The government says that it is the largest consumer in the world, buying more than $550 billion dollars in goods and services each year. 

In fiscal 2019, the federal government had a total of 645,047 vehicles in its inventory. 

Prior to last year’s election, Biden’s campaign said it would use federal procurement to up the demand for “American-made, American-sourced clean vehicles,” and that he would commit to the purchase of these vehicles for federal, state, tribal, postal, and local fleets. 

Neither the president’s comments Monday nor his campaign plan specified how long it would take to replace the U.S. fleet with electric vehicles. 

The move, however, would advance Biden’s prioritization of combatting climate change, as switching to electric vehicles would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

The transportation sector is the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in the country, making up 28 percent of the nation’s emissions in 2018.