WASHINGTON — Declaring the U.S. must “move fast” to win the world’s carmaking future, President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a commitment from the auto industry, including General Motors, to produce electric vehicles for as much as half of U.S. sales by the end of the decade.

Biden also wants automakers to raise gas mileage and cut tailpipe pollution between now and model year 2026. That would mark a significant step toward meeting his pledge to cut emissions and battle climate change as he pushes a history-making shift in the U.S. from internal combustion engines to battery-powered vehicles.

He urged that the components needed to make that sweeping change — from batteries to semiconductors — be made in the United States, too, aiming for both industry and union support for the environmental effort, with the promise of new jobs and billions in federal electric vehicle investments.

Pointing to electric vehicles parked on the White House South Lawn, the president declared them a “vision of the future that is now beginning to happen.”

“The question is whether we lead or fall behind in the race for the future,” he said, “Folks, the rest of the world is moving ahead. We have to catch up.”

VOLTAGE VALLEY

Part of that future is happening in the Mahoning Valley.

Last month, the top executive at Lordstown Motors Corp. said the startup electric truck maker remains fully committed to transforming the Mahoning Valley into “an electric vehicle epicenter.”

Also in Lordstown, GM and LG Energy Solutions are building the first battery-cell plant, Ultium Cells, a $2.3 billion venture to mass produce cells for GM’s Ultium platform that the automaker will use to power several GM electric vehicle models, including the GMC Hummer, Cadillac Lyriq, Cruise Origin — GM’s electric driverless vehicle — and the recently announced electric Chevolet Silverado truck.

The factory will employ about 1,100 people at full production. Early phase production is expected to begin in early 2022.

It’s being constructed on 158 acres on Tod Avenue SW that GM purchased in March 2020 adjacent to the automaker’s former assembly plant.

In addition, an Ohio company that manufactures a variety of products in the transportation industry announced last month plans to invest up to $7.5 million to build and equip a new factory in Warren Township to make doors for GM and Rivian electric vehicles.

And, Warren-based BRITE Enery Innovators is Ohio’s only clean tech and battery storage startup accelerator.

NEW STANDARDS

On Thursday, the administration announced there would be new mileage and anti-pollution standards from the Environmental Protection Agency and Transportation Department, part of Biden’s goal to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. It said the auto industry had agreed to a target that 40 percent to 50 percent of new vehicle sales be electric by 2030.

Both the regulatory standards and the automakers’ voluntary target were included in an executive order that Biden signed as a gathering of auto industry leaders and lawmakers applauded.

The standards, which must go through the regulatory process, would reverse fuel economy and anti-pollution rollbacks done under President Donald Trump. At that time, the mileage increases were reduced to 1.5 percent annually through model year 2026.

The new standards would cut greenhouse gas emissions and raise fuel economy by 10 percent over the Trump rules in car model year 2023. They would get 5 percent stronger in each model year through 2026, according to an EPA statement. That’s about a 25 percent increase over four years.

The EPA said that by 2026, the proposed standards would be the toughest greenhouse emissions rules in U.S. history.

Still, it remains to be seen how quickly consumers will be willing to embrace higher-mileage, lower-emission vehicles over less fuel-efficient SUVs, currently the industry’s top sellers. The 2030 EV targets ultimately are nonbinding, and the industry stresses that billions of dollars in electric-vehicle investments in legislation pending in Congress will be vital to meeting those goals.

Only 2.2 percent of new vehicle sales were fully electric vehicles through June, according to Edmunds.com estimates. That’s up from 1.4 percent at the same time last year.

Last week, The Associated Press and other news organizations reported that the Biden administration was discussing weaker mileage requirements with automakers, but they since have been strengthened. The change came after environmental groups complained publicly that they were too weak.

Transportation is the single biggest U.S. contributor to climate change.

The deal with automakers defines electric vehicles as plug-in hybrids, fully electric vehicles and those powered by hydrogen fuel cells.