Biden Bets Big on EVs with $174 Billion Proposal

President Joe Biden has included a proposed $174 billion investment in to electric vehicles in the outline of his infrastructure plan. An outline of the infrastructure plan can be found on the Biden administration’s website.

In the outline, you can find a proposed $174 billion electric vehicle investment that according to the administration will: “Create good jobs electrifying vehicles. U.S. market share of plug-in electric vehicle (EV) sales is only one-third the size of the Chinese EV market. The President believes that must change. He is proposing a $174 billion investment to win the EV market. His plan will enable automakers to spur domestic supply chains from raw materials to parts, retool factories to compete globally, and support American workers to make batteries and EVs. It will give consumers point of sale rebates and tax incentives to buy American-made EVs, while ensuring that these vehicles are affordable for all families and manufactured by workers with good jobs. It will establish grant and incentive programs for state and local governments and the private sector to build a national network of 500,000 EV chargers by 2030, while promoting strong labor, training, and installation standards. His plan also will replace 50,000 diesel transit vehicles and electrify at least 20 percent of our yellow school bus fleet through a new Clean Buses for Kids Program at the Environmental Protection Agency, with support from the Department of Energy. These investments will set us on a path to 100 percent clean buses, while ensuring that the American workforce is trained to operate and maintain this 21st century infrastructure. Finally, it will utilize the vast tools of federal procurement to electrify the federal fleet, including the United States Postal Service.”

The funds from the investment will go towards helping automakers secure essential materials for electric vehicle production as well as converting existing factories to produce them.

The outline also confirms that there will be an update to consumer incentives when purchasing an electric vehicle. It will still be in the form of a tax credit but will apparently also be available at the time of purchase. According to the outline, this incentive will be for “American-made” electric vehicles only.

Lastly, the announcement confirmed a portion of the $174 billion investment will go towards the incredibly important aspect of charging infrastructure as well as mass transit EVs.

With Democrats recently taking over the White House as well as Congress, they have started working on several new legislations in order to make some much needed EV tax incentive reform. Something that is long over due as over the last four year, all things regarding electrification seemed to have gone stagnant during the Trump administration.

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