Electric vehicle infrastructure is getting $15 billion in US government funding in a new bipartisan proposal. It’s less than originally planned, but it’s still a decent amount.
Some EV detractors are already suggesting that the proposed $10,000 EV rebate is being left behind, but it is apparently still in play.
Earlier this year, Biden proposed $174 billion in investment in electric vehicles as part of a new infrastructure plan.
The actual bill was expected to not be as generous after going through the legislative process.
Now, sure enough, a bipartisan group in the US Senate has built a new framework for the infrastructure bill and it now includes $15 billion for EV infrastructure. The odds are good that it will pass in the Senate.
Here’s the new framework that is reportedly going to get support from the Senate and the White House:
It shows $7.5 billion for “EV infrastructure,” which is going to include money to deploy charging stations, and another $7.5 billion for electric buses and transit vehicles.
However, the biggest new electric vehicle investment that has been proposed was a reform of the federal tax credit.
The fact that it’s not mentioned in the framework has led some people to believe that it isn’t being considered anymore, but the situation is a little more complicated.
The current federal EV incentive is part of tax laws. The reform would have to address it directly, and several bills have already been proposed to do just that.
Democrats have confirmed that they still plan to seek reform of the EV rebate.
The latest plan was the new “Clean Energy for America” bill, which has passed the US Senate Finance Committee, and it includes a rebate of up to $12,500 for new all-electric vehicles.
It would remove the cap of 200,000 deliveries in the US per manufacturer and instead, a three-year phase-out period is going to be triggered by electric cars reaching a 50% market share of new passenger car sales in the US.
This is far more ambitious than any previous EV incentive program in the US.
It might not be the final form of the EV incentive reform, but legislators are still trying to have a new rebate passed by the end of the year.
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Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
