Biden throws $1.7B at automakers to prepare fading factories for EV production The Biden administration's electric vehicle ambitions are getting another boost, this time in the form of $1.7 billion in public funding to convert 11 at-risk and shuttered auto manufacturing plants into electric vehicle (EV) factories. Plants in eight US states - Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, …
Chinese subsidies are granted only to state-owned firms, IIRC, and do not exclude exported vehicles. That's why European and North American automakers are in such an uproar.
Meanwhile, likely to comply with WTO rules, this DOE program is open to automakers based in any country with facilities in the US, not just domestic automakers. Following the link to the DOE, I see both Volvo Group (the non-Geely Volvo) and FCA (Stellantis) listed as grant recipients. So European firms are receiving some cheddar as well.
Given that Airbus has an assembly plant in Mobile, Alabama, it now qualifies as being a US civilian airline manufacturer. It just needs to get better at bribing, errr, strategically contributing to the campaigns of our most honorable members of Congress, just as Boeing, Lockheed, Orbital, and other US aerospace companies do.
The WTO has effectively been hobbled by continued failures since Trump to appoint judges to the court.
This is just subsidy business as usual in the run up to an election. Given the state of the technology – mature – there's absolutely no reason for the government to offers subsidies. If investors thought there was a market for the vehicles, they'd be providing the cash for the factories.
While subsidies ARE the wrong tactic, they're unfortunately easier to pass than what SHOULD be happening - bans on ICE vehicle production, using non-union labor, or closing factories. You want to build a ICE car after 2027? Want to close that union plant? No problem, we'll just come pick up your CEO so he can start his year in Club Fed and enjoy his lifetime ban working as corporate management or leaving the US.
I bet the next guy in line would change his mind real quick.
Carrots are for people, corporations should get nothing but the stick.
("The market" doesn't solve problems that it doesn't have to pay for creating. And it's never had to pay for the damage it's already done.)
"need to be cheaper"
Part and parcel of "tech enhancements" is that current tech becomes cheaper as newer tech gets on the market. So better range and faster charging on the next generation of cars will mean cheaper versions of the current generation. A big part of e-car cost is the battery, and that's an area where there is a lot of room for price reductions, particularly with solid-state (which somewhat sacrifice capacity/weight for stability, long life and cheaper price ).
So yes, they need to be cheaper for higher adoption, and they will be
Was it Biden who chucked this money at EV's? Didnt recent revelations strongly suggest Biden isnt with capable of his duties? Of course this is a recent revelation that nobody at all noticed previously.
As for tossing more money down the hole I hope this doesnt go the way of the chargers
Digging into the linked story, it seems much of the Charger issues are stuck in the normal partisan State legislature bollocks … before being stuck in the same county legislature bollocks.
Like many things in be US they need done at a Federal Level - esp. relative to straightforward stuff like Driving Licence’s, road laws and standards … and it seems a national EV Charger network… and then implemented locally. This is the framework legislation … just get the fuck on with it.
They might as well just have bought the recently tossed on the scrap-heap Supercharger Team off Tesla.
Irony is alive in the US.
I disagree that "political maneuvering" was a focus of this deal.
U.S. has allowed foreign manufacture for far too long, and a correction is ongoing to bring things back to the country.
The current president's issues aside, this is still a good move.
That being said, we still have a lot of work to do on making EV more environmentally friendly, giving the vehicles a longer range, and reducing "fill-up" time.
Have been on Prius since '06. Not that I drive this way regularly, but it's nice to know if I needed to I could hop in the car and go quite a distance. The joke is I like to fill up every 500 miles, whether I need to or not. It could actually do that when it was new. These days (she's nine this year), it's around 400 before I feel like refueling. Have never put more than nine gallons in at one time.
Had occasion to drive nearly a thousand miles for a work trip around eight years ago. It was a fourteen hour deadhead run. Left town with a full tank. Stopped twice on the way to fill up. Was close to empty when I got there, but made it without needing that third stop for fuel. Maybe a half-hour was spent in re-fueling and "pit stops" along the way. The rest was many, many mile markers passing by.
Did need a bit of a rest to recuperate from so much sitting, though. ;)
When EV can approach that, I'll be ready to replace my paid-off-but-quite-servicable Toyota with a shiny new American model (so long as it's not Tesla; that guy's a tool).
"Simply continuing current levels of copper use will require producing 115 percent more copper from mines between now and 2050 than has been extracted during the rest of human history combined. Meeting the sharply increased demand caused by all-EV vehicle manufacture, as the Inflation Reduction Act calls for, would require boosting this output by 55 percent, an impossibly high figure."
Story:
https://gmauthority.com/blog/2024/07/copper-cant-be-mined-fast-enough-to-support-ev-transition-study-shows-video/
Yes, more copper in the next 25 years than mined in all of human history, and that's just to stay on the current course and *just* for the US. The mandates would need twice that. The confused old man will sign whatever is put in front of him. He'll ignore facts and keep printing money to attract voters.
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