USA plans e-car revolution
The new US president has announced a new era for American carmakers. He is fully committed to the conversion to e-cars. In contrast to the EU, however, he does not want to initiate this with driving bans for internal combustion engines, but rather promote e-cars through subsidies and incentives.
The 46th US President Joe Biden has already set a lot in motion in his first days after taking office. There are also plans to change things on American roads. Biden is planning an e-car revolution in both the private and public sectors. The focus is to be on technical innovation and an expansion of the infrastructure, but also on government subsidies as an incentive for buyers.
The American car company Tesla is far ahead in building electric cars. But General Motors and Ford are also focusing more and more on electric cars. Now the state wants to subsidise the purchase of e-cars more again to promote the market and thus give the corporations further incentives to advance the technology. The president also wants to invest about 5 billion dollars (about 4.1 billion euros) in the further development of batteries and energy storage systems. This should improve the still often criticised range of e-cars.
The charging structure is also to be advanced: Half a million charging points are to be installed throughout the country by 2030. This should not only enable driving within the cities, but also travelling with an electric car between the conurbations. Until now, corporations like Tesla had to expand their charging structure at their own expense.
The new Democratic president also wants to switch to e-cars in the public sector. State vehicles are to be completely electrified with a 400-billion-dollar investment. The country's half-million school buses are also to be completely electric by 2030.
In this overall concept, the approach of driving bans is completely absent. In contrast to the EU, Biden does not advocate driving bans, but incentives for companies and buyers to promote the switch to electric cars. In the EU, internal combustion vehicles are increasingly being banned from cities. With the new emissions standard 7, which is expected to be introduced from 2025, the rules for carmakers are so strict that, in effect, no more combustion cars can be produced in the EU.
Whether the US approach will succeed remains to be seen. What is certain, however, is that the EU's ban concept, with ever stricter and more complicated rules, is increasingly causing frustration among European motorists. In addition, European governments often lack a role model function, as diesel vehicles continue to be the vehicle of choice among German politicians, for example, but also in public spaces.