A final rule on tailpipe-emissions standards for vehicles that could have a significant role in shaping the US EV transition could come down any day now—though experts say nothing is set in stone in a presidential election year.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rule for model year 2027–2032 vehicles has gotten caught up in electoral politics and has found industry, labor, consumer, and environmental stakeholders pitted against each other amid debates about how quickly the clean-energy transition should move.

At the heart of the debate is a proposal released last spring that would implement the EPA’s toughest-ever tailpipe-emissions rule, which, according to estimates, would ensure EVs make up 60% of new light-duty vehicle sales by 2030 and 67% by 2032.

But the Biden administration is reportedly prepared to finalize a rule that would allow a slower transition through 2030, per a New York Times report last month that suggested the White House was slowing electrification plans amid opposition from car dealers, automakers, and auto workers ahead of the November presidential election.

Concerns centered on a recent slowdown in EV demand, raw materials constraints, possible job losses for workers who make combustion-engine vehicles and their parts, and inadequate charging infrastructure.

On the other side are consumer and environmental advocates who contend that the climate crisis demands the swiftest and strongest possible action to curb the transportation sector’s greenhouse-gas emissions. Among the proponents of more stringent standards is the Zero Emission Transportation Association (ZETA), a coalition of EV makers, charging companies, battery manufacturers, and others that are all-in on electrifying transportation.

Tech Brew caught up with ZETA Executive Director Albert Gore III on the group’s advocacy for a stricter rule, why he doesn’t buy the arguments for a slower transition, and why he hopes swift progress can still be achieved even if an alternative rule is finalized.

Keep reading here.—JG

Marketing plans usually follow three key flows: planning, budgeting, and team alignment. Want a peek into the process? Uptempo breaks it all down through three different conversations with industry leaders.

Hear from industry pros at Forrester, HubSpot, and IKEA on how they solved their planning and budgeting pain points. Here’s a quick breakdown of what you’ll learn:

• Forrester sets the stage by examining the state of marketing planning and addressing the replanning challenges marketers can expect.
• HubSpot reveals how they design better planning processes, getting their entire team on board by establishing a single system of record for marketing plans, budgets, and work.
• IKEA displays their solution in action alongside the success that digital transformation can bring to a brand.

Soak up all of these insights.

The transportation sector is the biggest contributor to greenhouse-gas emissions in the US. Medium- and heavy-duty trucks account for nearly a quarter of those emissions.

Enter the Biden administration’s newly unveiled strategy for electrifying the US freight industry.

The National Zero-Emission Freight Corridor Strategy spells out a four-phase plan for establishing a charging and refueling network for medium- and heavy-duty trucks by 2040.

The first phase calls for establishing infrastructure along 12,000 miles of roads, targeting the busiest freight routes first as well as several key ports, through 2027.

From there, the strategy focuses on connecting hubs along “critical freight corridors,” expanding the network, and having the national network built out by 2040. It centers on two clean-energy technologies: battery-electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cells.

The administration’s goal is for zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles to make up at least 30% of sales by 2030 and 100% by 2040.

Keep reading here.—JG

Justin Timberlake is slated to appear at San José’s SAP Center later this spring, but this week, a crowd of thousands filed into the home arena of the city’s NHL team to see a middle-aged man in a leather jacket talk about semiconductors.

That’s where Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced his company’s much-anticipated new generation of AI chips on Monday, aiming to prolong a hot streak for the biggest money mint in the generative AI race.

The company claims its new line of Blackwell graphics processing units (GPUs) can outperform its current top offerings, the Hopper architecture, manyfold across several metrics. The chip giant is betting that the new GPUs will extend its wide lead over competitors as the go-to source for processors that can handle giant AI models, a dominance that’s rocketed Nvidia to a $2-trillion-plus company in the past two years.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you to a very, very big GPU,” Huang told the crowd of developers.

Despite all the fanfare, investors greeted the news with a lukewarm reception, with the share price dipping around 2% in morning trading on Tuesday. The slippage perhaps reflected just how sky-high expectations were for the event.

Keep reading here.—PK

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