President Joe Biden took a victory lap on Wednesday at the Detroit auto show as he highlighted automakers’ electric-vehicle push, including billions of dollars in investments in battery plants, on the back of new government support.
Self-declared “car guy” Biden climbed into a silver electric Cadillac SUV and an orange Corvette, glad-handed with the industry’s union workers, and declared the city, the birthplace of the auto industry, was making a comeback.
Detroit’s auto show is the largest in North America and a key stop on Democrat Joe Biden’s stepped-up midterm election travel agenda, as he showcases new laws to fund infrastructure and give consumers grants to buy EVs.
Related Biden will say that $900 million will be given to charge electric vehicles in the U.S.
“We’re choosing to build a better America, an America that is confronting the climate crisis, with America’s workers leading the way,” Biden said in a speech at the show.
The president was introduced by local auto union worker Ryan Buchalski, who said the president was “kicking ass for the working class.”
Biden announced the approval of the first $900 million in U.S. funding to build EV charging stations in 35 states, part of a $1 trillion infrastructure law approved last November.
When he served as vice president in the Obama administration, Biden attended the Detroit auto show as a strong advocate of the 2008-09 bailouts of General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) and Chrysler, which is now part of Stellantis NV.
Now Detroit’s Big Three automakers — GM, Ford Motor (NYSE: F) Co., and Chrysler — are showing off new EVs at the car show, as Congress and Biden pledge tens of billions of dollars in loans, manufacturing and consumer tax credits, and grants to speed the transition away from internal combustion vehicles to cleaner EVs.
The “great American Road Trip is going to be fully electrified,” Biden declared.
In August 2021, Biden set a goal that EVs or plug-in hybrid vehicles would represent 50% of all U.S. new vehicle sales by 2030. The Detroit Three back the nonbinding goal of 50%, but Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc. dominates the U.S. electric vehicle market and outsells the Detroit automakers combined on EVs.
U.S. sales of EVs jumped 83% last year, but represent a meagre 3% of the market, and gasoline-powered trucks were well-represented at the exhibition.
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White House National Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi told Reuters that automakers and battery firms in 2022 will announce “$13 billion into EV manufacturing” as they accelerate “the pace of their investment into capital projects here in the United States.”
In July, the U.S. Energy Department stated it expects to lend Ultium Cells LLC, a joint venture of GM and LG Energy Solution, $2.5 billion to assist in the development of new lithium-ion battery cell production facilities.
Honda Motor Co. Ltd. has announced it will develop a new $4.4 billion lithium-ion battery facility for U.S. EVs with Korean battery supplier LG Energy Solution Ltd.
Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM) Corp. announced it will expand its planned investment in a new U.S. battery facility from $1.29 billion to $3.8 billion.
Related: Biden will put more limits on how much the U.S. can sell chips and tools to China.
GM and LG Energy Solutions commenced production in August at their $2.3 billion joint-venture battery production factory in Ohio. The businesses are evaluating a location near New Carlisle, Indiana, for a fourth U.S. battery cell manufacturing factory projected to cost roughly $2.4 billion.
“I think we can own the future of the vehicle market. “I believe we can own the future of manufacturing,” Biden stated. “American manufacturing is back. Detroit is back. America’s back, and folks, we’re demonstrating it’s never, ever, ever a wise idea to gamble against the American people.”
