Ford Motor Co. is prodding other automakers to embrace more stringent automotive clean air standards set by California in another blow to President Donald Trump’s efforts to limit the state’s ability to set tougher emissions rules as the industry prepares for the Biden administration.

A day before an industry trade group meeting, a top Ford executive encouraged his competitors to unify in supporting the California standards to prepare for more stringent rules expected from President-elect Joe Biden. The plea comes a week after General Motors Co. dropped its support for Trump’s efforts to strip California of its authority on auto emissions.

"During the last year and a half of the Trump Administration, we essentially split into two camps,” Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s president of the Americas and international markets, wrote in a Monday letter seen by Bloomberg News. "The Biden Administration will not let the Trump standards stand, and either by way of litigation and/or a regulatory reboot, the new team will move in a different, more stringent direction.”