Biden: Visits GM plant in Michigan to promote electric vehicle tax breaks

US President Joe Biden will visit a General Motors (GM) electric vehicle plant in Michigan next week as the White House pressures Congress to vote on a large tax on zero-emission electric vehicles (EVs).

The largest automaker in the United States announced that the reported factory unit “Factory Zero” will mark the start of its operation with Biden’s visit on Wednesday. The plant, which spans parts of Detroit and Hamtramk, became operational in 1985, but GM announced in 2020 that it would redefine its activities to produce electric trucks and SUVs.

Biden will discuss $ 7.5 billion in funding for EV electric vehicle charging stations in a bill recently passed by the House of Representatives to upgrade infrastructure in the United States. It will also discuss how EVs will reduce harmful gas emissions, improve air quality, but also “create well-paid jobs for union members across the country,” the White House said in a statement. .

GM CEO Mary Barra will attend Wednesday’s event.

President Biden signed an executive order in August, aiming to convert 50% of all new vehicles to electric vehicles, with a benchmark for 2030 sales. The 50% target is not legally binding and includes hybrid models with electric and conventional engines. , has the support of American and foreign carmakers, who have said that fulfilling it will require billions of dollars in government funding.

The proposed $ 1.75 trillion social spending bill in its climate change forecasts includes tax breaks for EV vehicles over $ 12,500, including a $ 4,500 incentive for vehicles built by co-workers who are members of a workers, but also $ 500 for vehicles that will use US-made batteries. The cost of tax breaks is estimated at $ 9.6 billion over a decade.

It also includes tax breaks for used EVs, $ 3.5 billion in funding for carmakers to convert existing plants to EV power plants and components, and $ 9 billion in funding for the U.S. government and postal service. in order to procure EV vehicles and build infrastructure for their charging.

Republican Sen. Joe Manchin on Thursday voiced opposition to a preference for vehicles made by workers who are members of U.S. trade unions.

Biden has repeatedly refused to support a specific date for the phasing out of new technology gasoline vehicles. The United States has not aligned itself with some other Glasgow countries that have supported the phasing out of internal combustion vehicles by 2040.

The tax breaks for EVs will disproportionately benefit Detroit’s three major automakers (GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler’s parent company Stellantis NV). These companies produce their vehicles in factory units where the workers are members of trade unions.

Foreign carmakers have sharply criticized the decision to exempt vehicles produced by union workers in the United States.

The Democrats’ proposal eliminates the phasing out of tax breaks after the manufacturers set a target of selling 200,000 electric vehicles, which would again make it legal for GM, as well as Tesla, to participate in the tax breaks.

Tesla and foreign manufacturers do not have trade unions representing American workers, and many have opposed the United Auto Workers (UAW) efforts to organize the trade union movement into their US units.

GM announced in 2020 that it was renaming its plant in the town of Hamtramk “Factory Zero”, announcing a $ 2.2 billion investment to convert the plant to an EV vehicle plant. The said plant has produced more than four million vehicles.

In September, Detroit won $ 4 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce to repair damaged roads that support the operation of the Factory Zero plant.

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