DETROIT — General Motors Co. President Mark Reuss said Tuesday, Sept. 29 that the Detroit automaker remains committed to electric vehicles, even as strict Biden-era environmental rules pushing the industry toward electrification are repealed by the Trump administration.

GM is playing the "long game," Reuss said at the Automotive News Congress conference at The Department at Hudson's. He said it would be too expensive to switch long-term plans based on rapidly changing government regulations.

"Whipsawing on technology and propulsion and regulatory administrations is not the game you want to play," Reuss said. "It burns capital. It destroys things faster than you could ever imagine, and you can't take it out fast enough when you make those big mistakes.

"So we're in for the long haul, and we're maybe a little slower on EVs, for instance. That's OK, but the whole world is moving that way, and so we invested in the platforms that are EV platforms."

President Donald Trump's new fuel economy rules, released Monday, set a goal of roughly 34.9 miles per gallon by 2031 over an automaker's entire fleet. U.S. automakers reached that goal in 2024.

The Biden target for 2031 was 52.5 mpg.

Auto industry lobbying groups have lauded Trump's efforts, which the president has said will lead to lower price tags on new vehicles. Environmental and consumer advocates say less fuel-efficient vehicles will mean drivers pay more for gas, which has spiked amid Trump's war in Iran.

Trump's administration has also undone automotive greenhouse gas rules set by the Environmental Protection Agency, ended fines for automakers that violate fuel economy standards, and eliminated tax breaks for EV buyers and lessees.

While GM is paring back EV manufacturing to align with current lukewarm demand in the United States and save on the money-losing models, the company is investing in battery research to lower costs if the vehicles eventually rise in popularity.

GM and most auto industry analysts still believe EVs will surpass gas-powered vehicles in the future.

"Our reinvestments in EV will be different than just model changes," Reuss said. "They'll be core investments into the architecture to get profitability and scale with EVs for the long run. That's playing the long game. "

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