GM to end gas-powered vehicles by 2035

In a dramatic shift, the largest U.S. automaker Thursday set an ambitious public goal - to end the sale of gasoline and diesel-powered cars, SUVs and light-duty trucks by the year 2035.

General Motors also pledged to become carbon neutral by 2040.

The news comes just over a week after President Joe Biden took office, promising to reduce greenhouse gas emissions... And replace hundreds of thousands of government vehicles with electric models.

GM Chief Executive Mary Barra has aggressively pushed the company to embrace electric vehicles... saying in a statement the automaker had worked with the Environmental Defense Fund to (quote) "develop a shared vision of an all-electric future..."

GM has a long way to go. It sold 2 and a half million vehicles in the United States last year, only about 20,000 of which were EVs.

But GM said in November it was investing $27 billion in electric and autonomous vehicles over the next five years, up from $20 billion in earlier plans.

GM shares surged on the news - up as much as 7 percent - but gave back some of those gains by day's end.