behind the wheel of a new
Chevrolet Volt during his tour of the
General Motors Auto Plant in Hamtramck,
Michigan in 2010 In his 2011
State of the Union address, President
Barack Obama set the goal for the U.S. to become the first country to have one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. This goal was established based on forecasts made by the
U.S. Department of Energy (DoE), using production capacity of PEV models announced to enter the U.S. market through 2015. The DoE estimated a cumulative production of 1,222,200 PEVS by 2015, and was based on manufacturer announcements and media reports accounting production goals for the
Fisker Karma,
Fisker Nina,
Ford Transit Connect,
Ford Focus Electric,
Chevrolet Volt,
Nissan Leaf,
Smith Newton,
Tesla Roadster,
Tesla Model S and
Th!nk City. Considering that actual PEV sales were lower than initially expected, as of early 2013, several industry observers have concluded that this goal was unattainable. Other local and state governments have also expressed interest in electric cars.
Governor of California Jerry Brown issued an executive order in March 2012 that established the goal of getting 1.5 million
zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) on California roads by 2025.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act President
Barack Obama pledged billion in federal grants to support the development of next-generation electric vehicles and batteries. $1.5 billion in grants to U.S. based manufacturers to produce highly efficient batteries and their components; up to $500 million in grants to U.S. based manufacturers to produce other components needed for electric vehicles, such as electric motors and other components; and up to $400 million to demonstrate and evaluate plug-in hybrids and other electric infrastructure concepts—like
truck stop charging station,
electric rail, and training for technicians to build and repair electric vehicles (
green collar jobs). In March 2009, as part of the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the
U.S. Department of Energy announced the release of two competitive solicitations for up to $2 billion in federal funding for competitively awarded cost-shared agreements for manufacturing of advanced batteries and related drive components as well as up to $400 million for
transportation electrification demonstration and deployment projects. This initiative aimed to help meet President
Barack Obama's goal of putting one million
plug-in electric vehicles on the road by 2015.
Tax credits New plug-in electric vehicles Federal incentives with
A123Systems CEO on the
White House South Lawn examining a
Toyota Prius converted to plug-in hybrid with
Hymotion technology test driving the
Ford F-150 Lightning all-electric pick up at Ford's Rouge Electric Vehicle Center First the
Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008, and later the
American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES) granted
tax credits for new qualified plug-in electric drive motor vehicles. As defined by the 2009 ACES Act, a PEV is a vehicle which draws propulsion energy from a traction battery with at least 5
kwh of capacity and uses an offboard source of energy to recharge such battery. The qualified plug-in electric vehicle credit phases out for a plug-in manufacturer over the one-year period beginning with the second calendar quarter after the calendar quarter in which at least 200,000 qualifying plug-in vehicles from that manufacturer have been sold for use in the U.S. Cumulative sales started counting sales after December 31, 2009. After reaching the cap, qualifying PEVs for one quarter still earn the full credit, the second quarter after that quarter plug-in vehicles are eligible for 50% of the credit for six months, then 25% of the credit for another six months and finally the credit is phased out. The
Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid, released in January 2012, is eligible for a tax credit due to its smaller battery capacity of 5.2 kWh. All
Tesla cars and the
Chevrolet Bolts and
BMW i3 BEV are eligible for the tax credit. A 2016 study conducted by researchers from the
University of California, Davis found that the federal tax credit was the reason behind more than 30% of the plug-in electric sales. The impact of the federal tax incentive is higher among owners of the
Nissan Leaf, with up to 49% of sales attributable to the federal incentive. The study, based on a stated preference survey of more than 2,882 plug in vehicle owners in 11 states, also found that the federal tax credit shifts buyers from
internal combustion engine vehicles to plug-in vehicles and advances the purchase timing of new vehicles by a year or more. In July 2018,
Tesla Inc. was the first plug-in manufacturer to pass 200,000 sales and the full tax credit will be available until the end 2018, with the phase out beginning in January 2019.
General Motors combined sales of plug-in electric vehicles passed 200,000 units in November 2018. The full tax credit will be available until the end of March 2019 and thereafter reduces gradually until it is completely phase out beginning on April 1, 2020. In order of cumulative sales, ,
Nissan has delivered 126,875 units,
Ford 111,715,
Toyota 93,011 and the
BMW Group 79,679 plug-in electric cars. A January 2024 study from the
University of Michigan Center for Sustainable Systems found that the $7,500 tax credit and other federal incentives were needed to make BEVs cost competitive with ICEVs in many locations and for many vehicle classes.
State incentives with California's
HOV lane access green sticker , 37 states and
Washington, D.C. have established
incentives and tax or fee exemptions for
BEVs and
PHEVs, or utility-rate breaks, and other non-monetary incentives such as free parking and
high-occupancy vehicle lane access regardless of the number of occupants. In California, for example, the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP) was established to promote the production and use of
zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). Eligible vehicles include only new
Air Resources Board-certified or approved zero-emission or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Among the eligible vehicles are
neighborhood electric vehicles,
battery electric,
plug-in hybrid electric, and
fuel cell vehicles including cars, trucks, medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles, and zero-emission motorcycles. Vehicles must be purchased or leased on or after March 15, 2010. Rebates initially of up to per light-duty vehicle, and later lowered to up to , are available for individuals and business owners who purchase or lease new eligible vehicles. Certain zero-emission commercial vehicles are also eligible for rebates up to . California's zero-emission (ZEV) regulations are anticipated to result in 1.5 million electric vehicles on the road by 2025 ( i.e., 15% sales of total states in 2025); moreover, California's mixed incentives means to reach 40% of electric vehicle sales in the entire U.S. The following table summarizes some of the state incentives:
New proposals driving a Volt at the
White House Several separate initiatives have been pursued unsuccessfully at the federal level since 2011 to transform the tax credit into an instant cash rebate. The objective of these initiatives is to make new qualifying
plug-in electric cars more accessible to buyers by making the incentive more effective. The rebate would be available at the point of sale allowing consumers to avoid a wait of up to a year to apply the tax credit against income tax returns. In March 2014, the
Obama administration included a provision in the FY 2015 Budget to increase the maximum tax credit for plug-in electric vehicles and other advanced vehicles from to . The new maximum tax credit would not apply to luxury vehicles with a sales price of over , such as the
Tesla Model S and the
Cadillac ELR, which would be capped at . In November 2017, House Republicans proposed scrapping the tax credit as part of a sweeping tax overhaul.
Charging equipment Until 2010 there was a federal tax credit equal to 50% of the cost to buy and install a home-based
charging station with a maximum credit of for each station. Businesses qualified for tax credits up to for larger installations. These credits expired on December 31, 2010, but were extended through 2013 with a reduced tax credit equal to 30% with a maximum credit of up to for each station for individuals and up to for commercial buyers. In 2016, the Obama administration and several stake holders announced $4.5 billion in loan guarantees for public charge stations, along with other initiatives.
EV Everywhere Challenge On March 7, 2012, President
Barack Obama launched the EV Everywhere Challenge as part of the
U.S. Department of Energy's Clean Energy Grand Challenges, which seeks to solve some of the U.S. biggest energy challenges and make clean energy technologies affordable and accessible to the vast majority of American households and businesses. The EV Everywhere Challenge has the goal of advancing electric vehicle technologies to have the country, by 2022, to produce a five-passenger electric vehicle that would provide both a payback time of less than five years and the ability to be recharged quickly enough to provide enough range for the typical American driver. announcing the new Workplace Charging Challenge at the 2013
Washington Auto Show In order to achieve these goals, the DoE is providing up to million over the next five years to fund the new
Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), a research center led by the
Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago. An initial progress report for the initiative was released in January 2014. Four results of the first year of the initiative were reported: • DOE research and development reduced the cost of electric drive vehicle batteries to / kWhr, 50% lower than 2010 costs. • In the first year of the Workplace Charging Challenge, more than 50 U.S. employers joined the Challenge and pledged to provide charging access at more than 150 sites. • DOE investments in EV Everywhere technology topped in 2013, addressing key barriers to achieving the Grand Challenge. • Consumer acceptance of electric vehicles grew: 97,000 plug-in electric vehicles were sold in 2013, nearly doubling 2012 sales. ;Workplace Charging Challenge In January 2013, during the
Washington Auto Show, Secretary of Energy
Steven Chu announced an initiative to expand the EV Everywhere program with the "Workplace Charging Challenge." This initiative is a plan to install more electric vehicle charging stations in workplace parking lots. There are 21 founding partners and ambassadors for the program, including Ford, Chrysler, General Motors, Nissan,
Tesla Motors,
3M,
Google,
Verizon,
Duke Energy,
General Electric,
San Diego Gas & Electric,
Siemens,
Plug In America, and the
Rocky Mountain Institute. The initiative's target is to increase the number of U.S. employers offering workplace charging by tenfold in the next five years. Initially, the DoE will not provide funding for this initiative.
U.S. military delivered to the
U.S. Army in January 2009 as part of its plan to lease more than 4,000 of the vehicles The
U.S. Army announced in 2009 that it will lease 4,000
Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) within three years. The Army plans to use NEVs at its bases for transporting people around the base, as well as for security patrols and maintenance and delivery services. The Army accepted its first six NEVs at Virginia's
Fort Myer in March 2009 and will lease a total of 600 NEVs through the rest of the year, followed by the leasing of 1,600 NEVs for each of the following two years. delivered as part of the
U.S. Department of Defense and
General Services Administration Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles Pilot project
U.S. Air Force officials announced, in August 2011, a plan to establish
Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, as the first federal facility to replace 100% of its general purpose fleet with plug-in electric vehicles. As part of the program, all Air Force-owned and -leased general purpose fleet vehicles on the base will be replaced with PEVs. There are approximately 40 eligible vehicles, ranging from passenger sedans to two-ton trucks and shuttle buses. The replacement PEVs include all-electric, plug-in hybrids, and extended-range electric vehicles. Electrification of Los Angeles AFB's general purpose fleet is the first step in a Department of Defense effort to establish strategies for large-scale integration of PEVs. By May 2013, it was announced that, as part of a test program created in January 2013, 500 plug-in electric vehicles with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology would be in use at six military bases, purchased using an investment of $20 million. If the program succeeds, there will be 3,000 V2G vehicles in 30 bases. The
National Defense Authorization Act passed in December, 2022, requires new non-combat military vehicles be electric by 2035.
Safety laws Due to the low noise typical of electric vehicles at low speeds, the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ruled that all hybrids and EVs must emit artificial noise when idling, accelerating to or going in reverse by September 2019.
U.S. commitments to the 2015 Paris Agreement As a signatory party to the 2015
Paris Climate Agreement, the United States government committed to reduce its
greenhouse gas emissions, among others, from the transportation sector. These goals are part of the U.S.
nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to achieve the worldwide emissions reduction goal set by the Paris Agreement. On June 1, 2017, President
Donald Trump announced that the
U.S. would cease all participation in the
2015 Paris Agreement on
climate change mitigation. On November 3, 2020, then President-elect
Joe Biden announced that his administration will reverse President Donald Trump's United States withdrawal from the Paris Agreement by re-entering the United States into the Paris Agreement to continue to reiterated commitment in the agreement and move forward with the proposed
Green New Deal legislation, to fight the global climate change problems as soon as Biden is inaugurated into office on January 20, 2021, succeeding then-outgoing Trump as President of the United States. Joe Biden also criticized Trump for withdrawing and ceasing all US participation from the UN Paris Agreement on June 1, 2017, and as Biden said that withdrawing from the UN Paris Agreement is a huge mistake. Joe Biden promises to introduce and transition to more energy-efficient buildings, increase generation of renewable energy by gradually moving away from the dependence of fracking and fossil fuels as energy sources in the US, transition the entire government fleet to 100% all-electric vehicles by the 2030s, and introduce more electric vehicles to all 50 US states. , the
Biden administration expects 60% of all new vehicles sold in the US to be 100% all-electric vehicles by 2030 and expects new car sales of fossil fuel vehicles to be banned in the US by the 2035 timeframe, as a result of Joe Biden signing an executive order mandating that 60% of all new car sales in the US must be 100% all-electric vehicles by 2030. The Biden government plans to accomplish these goals by more incentivizing of electric vehicles, impose hefty government taxes and restrictions on internal-combustion engine vehicles, increase fuel prices for refilling up fossil-fuel vehicles, implement congestion-charge pricing zones, and impose more tougher and stringent
Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards and US Environmental Protection Agency regulations on automotive emissions standards, which are all climate change and green energy provisions included in the
Build Back Better Act. In December 2021, the Biden administration imposed Executive Order 14057, which is a nationwide federal government mandate that will ban new fossil fuel vehicles from all 50 US States, Washington, D.C., and all US Territories by 2035 to push the transition to electric vehicles. The order will ban new car sales of fossil-fuel powered government-owned vehicles by 2027, new fossil-fuel powered buses by 2030, and both new fossil-fuel powered privately owned vehicles and new fossil-fuel powered commercial-owned vehicles by 2035. The US Environmental Protection Agency also unveiled stringent automotive emissions and fuel economy requirements for internal combustion engine-powered vehicles that will become mandatory on all new US-market ICE-powered vehicles starting for the 2023 model year. The standards will also get tougher and more stringent for the 2026, 2029, and 2032 model years. The new regulations will also require at least 20% of all-new vehicles sold in the United States to be 100% all-electric vehicles by 2026, followed by requiring at least 55% of all-new vehicles sold in the United States to be 100% all-electric vehicles by 2030, and finally followed by requiring 100% of all-new vehicles sold in the United States to be 100% all-electric vehicles by 2035.
Tariffs on imports ==Operating costs==