The Biden Administration is Delivering Boldly on EVs and Lowering Climate Pollution

WASHINGTON, DC — President Biden’s popular, affordable clean energy plan is creating good paying clean energy jobs, promoting electric vehicles (EVs), and lowering pollution from vehicles, which contribute the most to harmful climate pollution in the U.S. News outlets are reporting that tomorrow the Biden administration will announce the strongest standards for vehicles ever, aimed at drastically cutting harmful climate pollution and turbocharging our electric vehicle supply chain. 

Here is what the Biden administration has done thus far to invest in clean vehicles, create good paying clean energy jobs, and lower climate pollution from vehicles: 

1. The Biden administration aims to have 50% of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030 and has already made significant progress in switching federal fleets to fully electric.
   • In FY 2023, federal agencies acquired 13,000 light- and medium-duty zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) — about four times the amount acquired in FY 2022.
   • Biden’s Federal Sustainability Plan requires federal agencies to acquire 100% light-duty ZEVs annually by 2027 and 100% medium- and heavy-duty ZEVs annually by 2035
   • In March 2023, the White House announced the EV Acceleration Challenge, which included commitments from the federal government, nonprofits, and private companies to expand their EV fleets.
2. The Biden administration and Congress have helped increase the domestic production of EVs
   • In October 2022, the Department of Energy announced the first 20 recipients of $2.8 billion in funding to build and expand commercial-scale battery production projects in 12 states due to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The investment will create more than 8,000 clean energy jobs.
   • In March 2023, the U.S. and Canada launched a one-year Energy Transformation Task Force to accelerate cooperation on critical clean energy opportunities and the EV supply chain.
3. Through tax credits found in the clean energy plan and a rapidly expanding national charging network, Biden has incentivized Americans to make the switch to EVs.
   • As of March 2023, more than 3 million EVs are on the road, and over 132,000 public EV chargers are available nationwide.
   • EV sales have tripled, and the number of publicly available charging ports has grown by over 40% since Biden took office.
   • The Inflation Reduction Act includes a $4,000 consumer tax credit for lower and middle-income individuals to purchase used EVs, with credits up to $7,500 for new EVs.
   • In February 2023, the administration announced a set of actions to build a national network of 500,000 EV chargers nationwide.
4. In April 2022, the administration announced new fuel economy standards that increase fuel efficiency by 8% annually for model years 2024-2025 and 10% for model year 2026.
   • The new standards will reduce climate pollution by 2.5 billion metric tons and lower fuel use by more than 200 billion gallons through 2050 compared to old standards.
5. In March 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed new standards to reduce pollution of smog and soot-forming nitrogen oxides from heavy-duty gasoline and diesel engines.
   • The EPA estimated that the most ambitious option in their proposal would result in up to 2,100 fewer premature deaths and 3.1 million fewer cases of asthma and allergic rhinitis symptoms.
6. The Biden administration has been taking steps to develop made-in-America supply chains that will help bring down costs for EVs while creating jobs.
   • In the six months since the Inflation Reduction Act passed, companies have announced, or moved forward with plans to invest $65.6 billion in 24 new EV manufacturing plants and 49 new battery materials or manufacturing facilities.
   • President Biden awarded $2.8 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law grants for battery manufacturing and processing.
     • The grants, which will expand domestic battery manufacturing, were awarded to 20 manufacturing and processing companies in 12 states.
     • When matched, the investment will leverage over $9 billion to boost domestic battery production. 

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