Electrify America
The Biden Administration intends to put electric vehicles on track for 50 percent market share in the United States by 2030, and the recently-passed $1 trillion infrastructure bill will play a key role in achieving that vision. EV adoption has been hindered by two main obstacles: the cost to consumers, and the woefully inadequate patchwork of charging networks in this country. For the former, tweaks to the current electric vehicle tax credit system are being debated in the US Senate right now. On the latter, the White House released a plan on Monday that calls for a new joint office from the Departments of Energy and Transportation that will be tasked with spending $7.5 billion to effectively quintuple the American public charger network to 500,000 stalls and develop a universal charging standard.
In a release from the White House on its EV Charging Action Plan, the Biden Administration declared the joint office will begin by meeting with stakeholders at every level, from state and local governments to automakers to labor unions to environmental groups. It will then take all that information and produce both federal standards for chargers and formalized guidance to states on how to best roll them out. Concurrently, the office will also work with car companies and charger manufacturers to ensure the industry is prepared to meet these demands while still prioritizing American-made components.
Elsewhere » Washington Post / Roll Call / CleanTechnica / Time / The Detroit Bureau / NPR