The US will invest $15bn for developing 500,000 charging stations among the measures outlined by the President

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The Biden administration aims to develop a network of 500,000 charging stations with an investment of $15bn. (Credit: (Joenomias) Menno de Jong from Pixabay)

US President Joe Biden has pitched his $174bn electric vehicle (EV) plan during a visit to a Ford Motor EV plant in Dearborn, Michigan.

The $700m facility visited by Biden is set to manufacture F-150 Lightning, the electric variant of Ford Motor’s F-150 truck. Ford Motor expects the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center to build the all-electric F-150 by mid-2022.

During his speech at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, the President had called for grants from the government to help fund new battery production facilities in the country.

The President has proposed cost-sharing grants to be given for supporting new high-capacity battery facilities in the country.

Also, new capital is planned to be provided to the Advanced Vehicle Technology Manufacturing Program for supporting firms which domestically produce clean energy vehicles.

Biden said: “We need automakers and other companies to keep investing here in America and not take the benefits of our public investments and expand electric vehicles and battery manufacturing abroad.”

The President said that the US is in an urgent race with China in building electric vehicles.

According to the White House, the market share of the US for plug-in EV sales is one-third that of the Chinese EV market.

Last year, while China had nearly 800,000 public charging points, the US had just 100,000.

To catch up with the Chinese, the US government revealed plans to invest $15bn for developing a national network of 500,000 charging stations.

Apart from that, President Biden has outlined various measures under the ‘American Jobs Plan’ that can drive the US in becoming a leading player in EV manufacturing, infrastructure, deployment, and also innovation.

For encouraging EV deployment, the US government plans to offer point-of-sale incentives. However, the incentives will not be applicable to expensive luxury models, as per the White House.

The US government is planning to offer tax credits for zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.

The White House stated that the US government will invest $25bn in clean transit buses and $20bn to convert one-fifth of the fleet of the school buses to electric.

The government will also provide funding for federal agencies such as the Postal Service for converting their vehicle fleets to electric and also for installing charging infrastructure.