WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will visit a Michigan General Motors EV plant next week as the White House pushes Congress to approve big tax incentives for zero-emission vehicles.
GM said its “Factory Zero” will mark its grand opening during Biden’s visit Wednesday. The plant, spanning parts of Detroit and Hamtramck, actually opened in 1985 but GM said in 2020 it would repurpose it to build electric trucks and SUVs.
Biden will discuss $7.5 billion in funding for EV charging stations in a recently approved infrastructure bill, as well as how EVs will reduce emissions, improve air quality and create “good-paying, union jobs across the country,” the White House said.
GM CEO Mary Barra will attend Wednesday’s event.
“General Motors is excited to welcome President Biden to Factory ZERO on Wednesday, November 17, as we open the doors to our all-electric assembly plant in the heart of Detroit-Hamtramck,” the automaker said in a statement.
In August, Biden signed an executive order aimed at making half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 electric. The 50 percent target, which is not legally binding and includes plug-in hybrid models with gasoline engines, won backing of U.S. and foreign automakers, which said achieving it would require billions of dollars in government funding.
A proposed $1.75 trillion social spending and climate bill includes an EV tax credit of up to $12,500, including a $4,500 incentive for union-made vehicles and $500 for U.S.-made batteries. Cost of the tax credit is estimated at $9.6 billion over 10 years.
It also includes new EV used car tax credits, $3.5 billion in grants for automakers to convert existing plants to electric vehicles and components and $9 billion for the U.S. government and Postal Service to buy EVs and charging infrastructure.
On Thursday, key swing Senator Joe Manchin, speaking at a Toyota event in West Virginia, called the extra $4,500 tax credit for union-made EVs proposed in the Build Back Better Act “wrong” and “not American.”
Hannah Lutz of Automotive News contributed to this report.