Automakers Push for More Aid for EVs

Despite $25 billion to help automakers retool plants, a $7,500 tax credit and billions in stimulus funding for charging stations and related infrastructure, automakers continue to lobby the federal government for more aid to spur sales of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

If President Barack Obama’s goal of putting a million EVs on the road by 2015 is to be reached, industry lobbyists say more aid is needed for utilities, car companies and tax breaks for consumers. Without that help, they say sales could stall due to the technology’s high cost and a lack of places to charge the vehicles.

Of course, lobbyists and industries asking for money are like dogs begging for table scraps: There's no situation where they won’t. However, the ideas they propose are largely sound: Tax credits so homeowners can install outlets for EVs, money for public charging stations and additional tax incentives for battery-makers and consumers all make the list. The request was sent by letter to the White House.

Programs like these cost billions of dollars, which makes their passage through Congress difficult. Even less politically palatable than giving away free money is encouraging EV sales by raising the gas tax. One of the key factors in EV adoption, as we’ve said many times, is the price of gas. In the past, the Obama administration has ruled out raising the federal gas tax, but it's being debated in Congress along with other climate and energy legislation. Higher gas prices will always make the premium for an EV that much easier to stomach.

Source: The Miami Herald, by Stephen Markley, 19th April, 2010