News Story

Biden infrastructure law was a $30B push for EVs

What will become of the EV when subsidies dry up?

If it seems that news stories often focus on the electric vehicle, they should. There’s $30 billion of federal spending attached to the EV this decade.

The EV is not just preferred in spirit by politicians and regulators in Lansing and Washington, D.C. It has significant financial support from government officials. Due to President Joe Biden’s 2021 infrastructure law, electric vehicle interests were granted $30.2 billion in subsidies over several years.

These subsidies include:

  • $5 billion for a national charging infrastructure
  • $5 billion for the Clean School Bus Program
  • $5.6 billion to help transit companies replace diesel buses with electric ones
  • $6.2 billion for various EV battery initiatives

Read the full list for yourself here: U.S. Department of Energy: Projects funded by 2021 Infrastructure Law

That list does not include programs such as the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, which offers low-interest loans for projects meant to reduce emissions. That program predates the infrastructure law. Last year, the department loaned Ford Motor Co. $9.2 billion to support three three EV battery projects — two in Kentucky and one in Tennessee.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer believes Michigan needs the infrastructure for 2 million EVs by 2030.

In 2022, Michigan had only 33,100 electric vehicles registered, according to federal data.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.