The US is betting $5 billion on the future of electric vehicles

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We love to talk about electric vehicles. There’s endless news about Tesla and solar-powered vehicles. Even Dodge is moving its gas-powered muscle cars to full electric.

There’s a constant stream of EV chatter and the future seems to be heading in a direction that ends our dependence on fossil fuels. That’s easier said than done, however.

You have numerous geopolitical issues with just dumping fossil fuels and moving forward with a total EV future. Just think of the car graveyards, not to mention the oil industry packing the pockets of politicians around the world.

Then, there has always been one other issue floating just above the future horizon — infrastructure.

READ MORE: Toyota EVs will cost more as the company loses its tax credit

While we can talk about having all the EVs we want, we live in a country that can’t even take care of its bridges. What makes us think we can just start driving EVs everywhere without some sort of government-level support for such an endeavor?

That thought, of being able to drive somewhere without running out of battery power, has stymied EV sales and created market anxiety, while car manufacturers slowly shift to a heavier EV production.

Biden has announced a $5 billion investment into electric vehicles

There are currently around 47,000 EV charging stations across the U.S. The Biden administration wants that number to swell to around 500,000. This is why it announced a $5 billion investment to build EV charging stations across the U.S.

That is an infrastructure step in the right direction for sure. The caveat is the money will be distributed to states that have a plan in place for installing the charging stations.

Considering certain lawmakers in certain states and their reliance on oil industry paper bags full of money, that might not go so great country-wide.

Infrastructure has been a topic of conversation since electric vehicles started gaining popularity. While a bunch of charging stations around the U.S. is a great start, it doesn’t even begin to touch on the infrastructure needed for the next evolution of EVs, which is self-driving cars.

But we’re not going to talk about that today. That requires more social engineering and political wrangling than this country is capable of today.

This step by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sounds great on paper, but it really is a gamble

Not only is this taxpayer money and will rely on the states to implement (really thinking Texas is going to be the issue here), but it’s up against actual EV sales.

The average price for an electric car is around $56k. That price has got to come down if the government hopes for widespread adoption, EV charging stations be damned.

“We got to get that sticker price down,” Buttigieg said during a visit to Heartland Community College in Normal, Illinois. “That’s why we got to accelerate these things being produced on a widespread basis. And it’s why we want more tax incentives to help buy down that upfront cost.”

This means more manufacturers in the U.S. will be receiving support to build more EVs. Whether or not that actually reduces the sticker price of vehicles is up for economical debate. Corporate greed appears to outweigh true community support these days.

Regardless, it might lower it just enough in tandem with an increase in charging stations to turn the tide in electric vehicle sales.

Will more charging stations across the U.S. directly translate to electric vehicle sales and a dwindling reliance on fossil fuels? The government is betting five billion dollars of our money to find out.

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