Biden plugs EVs

Democratic nominee for US president Joe Biden is making a “massive push” for EVs.

A part of his plan is to offer incentives or rebates for people to swap their older, less fuel-efficient cars for EVs made in the US.

Media such as  Car and Driver and CleanTechnica say it’s likely to benefit Tesla, Volkswagen and others but could leave some key EV makers out.

Both say the plan is similar to a proposal last year from senator Chuck Schumer of New York which offered to pay out US$454 billion over the next decade to encourage Americans to trade in their internal combustion engine (ICE) cars and buy an EV or hybrid instead.

Hydrogen fuel cell cars would qualify under the plan too, but whether it includes hybrids is unclear.

Schumer’s proposal allowed low income buyers to get larger incentives and those may apply to purchasing a used EV as well. The target is to replace up to 63 million conventional cars with EVs by 2030.

Like the Schumer plan, Biden’s proposal includes money to install a half million EV chargers across America as well as financial assistance to help car makers convert their factories to EV production.

Biden also proposes to replace the huge US government fleet with EVs and electric trucks, expected to encourage manufacturers to reconfigure factories to produce EVs while reducing EV costs.

Much of Biden’s plan is centred on making the US a leading EV producer.