House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday a 500-page plan that would, among other things, ban traditional vehicles from U.S. roads by requiring that 100% of vehicles be “zero-emission vehicles” by 2035. This policy proposal is the continuation of a decades-old effort by some in Congress to promote one vehicle type – electric vehicles (EVs) – over all others. But are…
Christopher Rauwald and Bruce EinhornBloombergMay 26th, 2020 At a factory near Germany’s border with the Czech Republic, Volkswagen AG’s ambitious strategy to become the global leader in electric vehicles is coming up against the reality of manufacturing during a pandemic. The Zwickau assembly lines, which produce the soon-to-be released ID.3 electric hatchback, are the centerpiece of a plan by the world’s…
David BoothDrivingMay 15th, 2020 It wasn’t a banner year for electric vehicles in 2019. After a six-year run typified by near exponential growth — EVs averaged an incredible 60 per cent year-over-year increase from 2012 to 2018 — worldwide sales of plug-in vehicles have stagnated. Oh, pretty much any other segment in the auto business would have gladly welcomed 2019’s…
David IaconangeloE&E NewsMay 7th, 2020 The economic downturn is stirring a debate about how well President Obama’s stimulus package worked more than a decade ago — and whether the federal government should deliver a large infusion of cash for clean energy again. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), signed in 2009, offered about $90 billion for clean energy, including…
Kathiann KowalskiMahoning MattersApril 14th, 2020 COLUMBUS — A set of bills aimed at promoting electric vehicles in Ohio are on hold as lawmakers grapple with the coronavirus pandemic. Ohio’s legislature has not been friendly to clean energy in recent years. Those efforts led first to a freeze and then last year’s cut of the state’s renewable energy and energy efficiency standards. Electric vehicle measures might…
Scott CalvertThe Wall Street JournalMarch 28, 2020 More states are imposing special registration fees on electric vehicles, sparking complaints that the levies undermine efforts to get consumers to embrace alternative-fuel cars. Twenty-eight states charge from $50 to more than $200 a year for plug-in electric cars, and 14 states have annual fees for plug-in hybrids that also use gasoline, according to…
Long-term transportation and infrastructure budget challenges are concerning for all Pennsylvanians who want good roads, but even more so for the union trades that work to improve and expand our infrastructure (Feb. 16, “Rough Roads: Pennsylvania Facing Tough Decisions on Transportation Funding”).
The mechanism we use to pay for road and bridge repair is the fuel tax that feeds the Federal Highway Trust Fund. Right now, 18.4 cents per gallon of gas goes to the Highway Trust Fund, which in turn is used for transportation infrastructure repair.
Senator Chuck Grassley is seeking greater scrutiny of a tax credit program for electric cars after oversight revealed pervasive problems – including widespread fraud. Grassley’s watchdog role is important, as Democrats are pushing to expand the program. In a letter to IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig, Grassley pressed for more information about how the IRS administers the $7,500 credit for purchasing all-electric and plug-in hybrid cars.
No fewer than three separate auto manufacturers — Porsche, GM and Audi — ran ads featuring electric vehicles during the Super Bowl this year. With 30-second spots going for at least $5 million a pop, you can bet the decision to run those ads didn’t come lightly.