Biden aims for 50% electric vehicles by 2030

President Joe Biden on Thursday signed an executive order aimed at making half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. electric models by the year 2030... and proposed new emission rules to cut pollution through 2026.

“I'm following through on the campaign commitment to reverse the previous administration's short sighted rollback of vehicle emissions and efficiency standards. I'm doing so with the support of the automobile industry.”

Biden's 50% goal, which is not legally binding, does have buy-in from Detroit's Big Three: General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, now a unit of Stellantis.

But some Democrats are pushing the White House for even more stringent measures including a binding requirement for EV adoption like ones in Europe or the state of California, which mandate a phase-out of fossil-fuel vehicles by 2035.

Biden has been reluctant to go that far and The United Auto Workers union opposes a similar federal requirement.

Not in attendance at Thursday's event outside the White House was Tesla CEO Elon Musk, head of the world's leading electric automaker.

In a tweet earlier on Thursday, the billionaire entrepreneur appeared to be put off by the snub, saying QUOTE "Seems odd that Tesla wasn’t invited."

After signing the order, Biden walked away and jumped into an EV Jeep, which he drove around the White House grounds, even honking at one point to let people know to get out of his way.