Portrait of Mary Barra
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Mary Barra on Joe Biden

Critical of EV policy (strong) Position evolved

TL;DR

Mary Barra has privately corrected President Biden on EV credit, while publicly blaming his standards for risking GM plant closures.

Key Points

  • Barra privately told President Biden that Elon Musk and Tesla deserved credit for the EV transition, correcting praise given to GM in 2021.

  • She publicly claimed that the Biden administration's fuel economy rules were so tough they risked forcing GM to start shutting down gasoline-engine plants.

  • GM previously showed support for the administration's EV agenda, with Barra visiting the White House eight times by September 2023.

Summary

General Motors CEO Mary Barra has expressed a mixed position toward Joe Biden, highlighted by her efforts to correct the President regarding credit for the electric vehicle (EV) transition. During a private conversation after a 2021 White House event where Biden credited her company, Barra stated that the credit for leading the EV market should instead go to Elon Musk and Tesla. This interaction followed a 2021 White House EV summit from which Tesla was excluded, a move that the administration later acknowledged as a mistake.

Concurrently, Barra publicly criticized the stringency of the efficiency standards enacted under the Biden administration, claiming they were so aggressive that compliance could have forced GM to curtail gasoline-powered vehicle sales or even start shutting down plants by 2031. This stance represents an evolution from GM's earlier support for such policies, which Barra characterized as necessary to build vehicles people want while operating within the regulatory framework set by the sitting administration.

Frequently Asked Questions

Mary Barra's position appears mixed; while GM previously embraced the administration's EV agenda, she later claimed the associated fuel efficiency standards were set too aggressively. She argued that these strict standards presented a risk of forcing plant shutdowns if EV sales did not grow fast enough to meet the benchmarks.

The President credited Mary Barra and GM for leading the EV revolution at a 2021 event, but she later stated privately that she corrected him. Barra insisted that the majority of the credit for driving the US EV market should go to Elon Musk and Tesla.

Yes, her stated stance appears to have evolved or been expressed differently depending on the setting. She supported the administration's goals publicly but later framed the resulting regulatory requirements as a significant business pressure that risked plant closures.