Not long after Paris and China both declared that they will ban internal-combustion engines in the not-so-distant future, American automakers have made pledges to vastly expand their electric car lineups. First, it was General Motors that pledged to increase its electric lineup, followed by Ford. These American companies follow the Germans, such as Volkswagen Daimler and BMW, who’ve already vowed to expand their electric portfolios in the very near future.

GM’s recent announcement claims that the Detroit giant will add 20 new electric cars by the year 2023, not long after BMW’s 2021 goal of model increase. Two of those new electric vehicles, GM says, will come in the next 18 months. “General Motors believes in an all-electric future,” said Mark L. Reuss, G.M.’s global product chief. “Although that future won’t happen overnight, G.M. is committed to driving increased usage and acceptance of electric vehicles.”

Following GM’s announcement, Ford made one of its own, with 13 new EVs coming within the next few years. Ford’s investment will be $4.5 billion in five years, which is a pretty massive investment. Apparently, Ford will also have an electric car that can do 300 miles of range by 2020, which is just a few short years away. This will compete with what both Tesla and Audi have claimed they will have by then.

All of this comes after the Germans, who’ve been talking about intense electric offenses for about a year now. BMW has claimed that it will not only have long-distance electric vehicles by 2021 but fully autonomous vehicles as well. The latter of which BMW claims to be the next be automotive frontier. The BMW i Vision Dynamics is the concept car that the Bavarians are using as the benchmark for their 2021 goals. According to BMW, the i Vision Dynamics concept will be able to do 400 miles of real-world driving while also having full, Level 5 autonomy.

These aggressive pushes by global automakers follow announced government regulations that will begin to heavily crack down on automotive emissions in the coming years. With Paris being the first to announce the eventual ban on gas-poweredvehicles, followed by China and even California is toying with the idea. The future that we hear about, the one where most of the cars on the road are powered by electricity rather than gasoline, is closer than we think. Soon, it won’t be the future, but the present.

[Source: New York Times]