By Adam Andrzejewski for RealClearPolicy
Earlier this month, President Joe Biden showed up at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit to announce spending $900 million to build about 500,000 charging stations across dozens of states, CBS News reported.
The first tranche of $900 million — out of $5 billion in infrastructure money over five years — will be used to build electric vehicle chargers in 35 states.
The chargers will be found across 53,000 miles of highway with the goal of promoting electric vehicle use.
“The great American road trip is going to be fully electrified,” Bident said to a crowd of autoworkers and supporters. “Whether you’re driving coast to coast along I-10, or on I-75 here in Michigan, charging stations will be up and as easy to find as gas stations are now.”
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Carmakers have ramped up efforts to make more electric vehicles — in April, Ford started building electric pickup trucks at a new Michigan factory and said last September it would build the next generation of electric pickups at a plant in Tennessee, CBS News reported.
General Motors is using an old factory in Detroit to make electric Hummers and pickups, and it announced EV assembly plants in Lansing, Michigan; Spring Hill, Tennessee; and Orion Township, Michigan.
They’re also making batteries — a government loan will help GM build its battery factories, while a GM battery plant in Warren, Ohio, has already started manufacturing.
Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, said in May that it would build another joint venture battery factory in Indiana, and it has announced a battery plant in Canada, CBS News reported.
None of this addresses the issue of price: Most EVs are more expensive than gas powered vehicles, with the average price recently hitting $66,000, whereas gasoline-powered cars average $48,043.
While various tax credits are available for buyers of EVs, the price is still staggering. For people struggling to pay their bills amid high inflation, the price puts EVs completely out of reach.
Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.
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