Former CARB chairman joins Ford’s Farley as co-chair of mobility group

Mary Nichols, previous chairman of the California Air Sources Board, has been named co-chair of the Commission on the Potential of Mobility.

The fee is a team of business, tech and plan leaders which include Hyundai, Ford, Valeo and Cox Automotive tasked with driving sustainable and equitable mobility plan.

Nichols joins Ford CEO Jim Farley, who assumed his co-chair job in 2020, changing the automaker’s previous CEO Jim Hackett.

“We have to re-imagine the way that we go individuals and products across the world to meet up with our important local climate and public well being needs,” Nichols claimed in a assertion Tuesday.

The fee “is bringing jointly a world-wide coalition of small business, technologies and plan leaders that are uniquely positioned to rethink mobility plan in a systematic, interconnected way,” she claimed. “Now is exactly the proper time to embark on this effort.”

Nichols — 1 of Automotive News’ 100 Top Ladies in the North American vehicle business for 2020 — retired as California’s best environmental formal in December after leading the thoroughly clean-air company considering that 2007.

Below her leadership, CARB forged forward with actions to tackle air quality difficulties, which include a lawsuit led by California and 22 other states about the Trump administration’s rollback of Obama-era fuel performance expectations. She also finalized binding agreements last calendar year with significant automakers, which include Ford, to slash motor vehicle emissions in the condition, defying the Trump administration’s force to loosen expectations.

The fee plans to focus on 5 spots to tackle world-wide mobility troubles. The effort features supporting a shift toward alternate electrical power sources which include electrification and hydrogen, modernizing infrastructure and assessing novel mobility technologies and small business styles for passenger transportation.

“The vehicle business is at the edge of a profound transformation,” Farley claimed in a assertion. “Bringing jointly various perspectives will allow us to unlock new chances that strengthen and equalize transportation in our metropolitan areas and communities whilst safeguarding our particular security and the earth.”

Farley claimed he looks forward to functioning along with Nichols, “who has been the two a instructor and a leader on our journey to combat local climate transform and whose abilities will be invaluable as we operate to fix these advanced troubles.”