The Biden administration rolled out new rules on Wednesday designed to thrust the United States — the greatest car culture the world has ever known — into the era of electric vehicles.

With new tailpipe pollution limits from the Environmental Protection Agency, automakers will effectively be forced to make a majority of new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the United States all-electric or hybrids by 2032. To meet the new standards, 56 percent of new cars sold by 2032 would be zero-emissions and another 16 percent would be hybrid, according to the E.P.A.’s analysis.

E.V.s account for only 7.6 percent of new car sales today, so the targets represent an ambitious attempt to overhaul one of the country’s biggest industries in a remarkably short amount of time.

A successful phaseout of gas-powered cars and trucks would also make a big dent in the fight against climate change; cars and other forms of transportation are the biggest source of planet warming emissions generated by the United States.

But there are plenty of things that could derail the White House plan.

Politics

Electric vehicles are now squarely a part of the culture wars. A Gallup poll found that 71 percent of Republicans would not buy an E.V., compared with 17 percent of Democrats.

Former President Donald Trump has used increasingly brutal language about electric vehicles and their effect on the American economy, claiming they will “kill” America’s auto industry and calling E.V.s an “assassination” of jobs. It is a virtual certainty that he will continue that theme in his presidential campaign.