The Click Times: The president announced the first phase of a $7.5 billion plan to build a national electric vehicle charging network.
President Biden, a self-proclaimed “Autobot” and Corvette owner, visited the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Wednesday and announced the approval of an initial investment of $900 million to begin construction of electric vehicle charging stations throughout the federal highway system.
The president’s announcement marks the start of a multi-year plan funded by the infrastructure bill he signed last year that allocates $7.5 billion to build a network of charging stations that will make long-distance travel easier for battery-powered car owners.
The White House believes that will eventually be enough to build about 500,000 stations on most of the federal highway system and in more remote rural areas.
Biden’s aggressive push to increase Americans’ use of electric vehicles has been at the center of his climate and economic agenda.
Unless American drivers replace the gasoline-powered cars they have used over the past century with new zero-emission vehicles, experts say the U.S. is unlikely to meet Mr. Biden’s goal of halving global warming emissions by 2030. Scientists say major economies will have to cut emissions over the next decade to avoid the most catastrophic effects of global warming, and cars are the largest single source of pollution in the United States.
Achieving this goal, however, will also require a transformation of the country’s auto industry — not least because most of the materials needed to make EV batteries are mined and processed in other countries.
The president’s visit on Wednesday showed how far his administration has come on its electric vehicle goals since visiting the Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Detroit more than a year ago.
Mr. Biden has pledged that by 2030, 50 percent of new cars sold in the U.S. will be electric, up from just 6 percent today, and he has pushed through a slew of new policies aimed at forcing the country’s automakers and drivers to meet this requirement.
In August, he signed into law a sweeping new climate, tax, and health bill that would provide rebates of up to $7,500 for people buying new electric vehicles over the next decade.
