ExxonMobil anti-EV ad signals an end to the partnership between oil companies & American carmakers. The oil companies were happy to play along and pretend they were on board with EV adoption as long as it helped their public image and EV car sales were a niche maket. With the major car makers now pushing EVs, consumers buying EVs and the federal government mandating EVs - they are back to climate denial and protecting their revenues.

Amy Westervelt reporting for The New Republic:

“This ad illustrates the regressive shift from excessive greenwash back to blatant climate denial,” Christine Arena, a former advertising executive, told me. In the 2010s, Arena helped the fossil fuel industry greenwash its product as a V.P. at Edelman; since then, she has been called upon to testify about oil companies’ advertising tactics in congressional hearings. “High on war profits, Exxon is done pretending to be advancing climate solutions. By celebrating oil as freedom and condemning clean energy as a kind of captivity, it demonstrates the classic propaganda tactic of warping the truth and cloaking its polluting product in a universally accepted ideal.”