President Joe Biden posed in the driver’s seat of an orange electric Corvette on Wednesday as he toured the Detroit Auto Show.
I am driving home. Do you want to come with me? said the president, a self-confessed ‘car man’.
He revved the engine in amazement as General Motors CEO Mary Barra looked on.
The president then sat in the driver’s seat of an all-electric blue Silverado, before heading to the Ford section and viewing an orange electric Mustang with Bill Ford, CEO of Ford Motor Company.
Biden was in Michigan to tout $900 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Act funding that will go toward building electric vehicle chargers on 53,000 miles of highways in the United States.
Biden made the trip to promote the ‘electric vehicle manufacturing boom,’ which he takes credit for due to his administration’s policies, including new provisions found in the Inflation Reduction Act the president signed into law on last month.
“The President will discuss how his automotive vision and leadership, including through his Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the Reduce Inflation Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act, have positioned the United States to lead the future of electric vehicles, creating more jobs and earning more in America while fighting climate change,’ a senior administration official said.
It marks the first time in three years that the Detroit Auto Show has been held thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden championed electric cars during the 2020 campaign and has taken several opportunities to try them out as president.
President Joe Biden, a self-confessed “car man,” toured the Detroit Auto Show on Wednesday and announced that $900 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Act funding will go toward building electric vehicle chargers on 53,000 miles of highway.
Biden is making the trip to promote the ‘electric vehicle manufacturing boom,’ for which he takes credit due to his administration’s policies, including new provisions found in the Inflation Reduction Act the president signed into law. last month.
Biden with Mary Barra (left), CEO of General Motors, at the 2022 North American International Auto Show at the Huntington Place Convention Center in Detroit, Michigan on September 14, 2022
He released a campaign ad called “Joe Biden Gets Vetted” and shows him sitting behind the wheel of his 1967 Corvette talking about how he would like to see an electric model.
“I think we can own the 21st century market again by moving to electric vehicles,” he said.
Then, in May 2021, he surprised reporters by getting behind the wheel of a Ford F-150 Lightning and making an unannounced stop at a Ford driving center.
Secret Service agents usually discourage the president from driving.
‘This fool is fast,’ commented the president after flying around the field.
In May, he signed an executive order giving a boost to the electric car industry.
And then, on a trip to Detroit in November, Biden tested an electric Hummer made by General Motors.
The Reducing Inflation Act includes a $7,500 tax credit for Americans who buy electric cars, but it comes with plenty of caveats as a way to pressure automakers to create cheaper electric cars and look to US-made components. .and its business partners in China and China. other rivals.
Help consumers by eliminating an annual limit of 200,000 vehicles per manufacturer starting in January.
They can also use the tax credit at the point of sale, transferring it directly to a car dealer.
Buyers can also get up to a $4,000 tax credit for the sale of a $25,000 maximum used electric vehicle.
To entice automakers and dealers to make electric vehicles cheaper, the tax credits can only be used on sedans under $55,000 and SUVs and vans under $80,000.
There is an income cap of $150,000 for individuals and $300,000 for couples.
And then, as a way of shoring up domestic production, to qualify for the full $7,500, the vehicle must be assembled in the US, and over a period of several years, more of the car’s components must come from the US. or from a business partner. .
For example, in 2025 vehicles will not qualify for a tax credit if their the battery minerals were mined, processed or recycled by a ‘foreign entity of interest’.
Critics have said the new rules are too complicated and suggested they could keep Americans from electricity.
More broadly, Conservatives have continued to make electric vehicles a political punching bag.
When Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom recently called on residents to save energy, several conservative commentators grumbled that the state that wants to mandate electric vehicles doesn’t have enough energy to power them.
“California bans gasoline vehicles and then announces -d to prevent blackouts, that residents should refrain from charging their electric cars,” said radio host Larry Elder, the Republican candidate in last year’s unsuccessful race to replace Newsom. .
Broadly speaking, research published late last month found that a large majority of Americans (between 66 and 80 percent) supported major climate change mitigation policies.
However, research published in Nature Communication found that 80 to 90 percent of Americans underestimated the popularity of such policies.
