The United States has historically been slow to embrace transportation electrification, but the electric vehicle (EV) movement is finally gaining momentum. All 50 states are now moving forward to build-out a national EV charging infrastructure network with funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).
The auto industry is investing millions to create good-paying jobs in the U. S. and build new EV production plants along with battery production and EV parts processing, all fueled by the Act’s incentives. Inflation Reduction Plan (IRA). (EPA) also recently proposed emissions criteria for almost all vehicle categories, paving the way for a long-term market transformation.
As this supportive policy landscape marks a turning point for electric vehicles, the difficult work of mainstreaming electrification and ensuring a smooth transition has only just begun. And to be successful, it is imperative to get the main implementation points right.
Energy Innovation’s Senior Director of Electrification, Sara Baldwin, spoke with Zero Emission Transportation Association (ZETA) Chief Regulatory Officer Thomas Boylan about the Electrify This!to explore the most recent moves that are shaping the U. S. EV market. The U. S. Electric Vehicle Industry Overview of Why They Matter, and the Priorities of the EV Industry. Tune in to Electrify This! for a full discussion anywhere you pay attention to podcasts.
A: It is a very interesting, exciting, and dynamic time right now in the transportation sector. I think we are looking at the beginning of an absolute change in the way we go about how we move people and goods to and from places.
ZETA members cover the entire EV supply chain, so we’re focused on issues that affect vehicle manufacturing, charging equipment, battery manufacturing, critical minerals development, and the electricity providers that are going to fuel this transition.
Right now, we are aiming to implement IIJA and ERI. Many new systems have been created or modified with these laws. Therefore, as new systems are designed and developed, we need to ensure that they are implemented in the most productive way imaginable. .
We must also enable reforms and ensure a strong supply chain for the transition to electric vehicles. We work to ensure that projects are built responsibly but in a way that meets the demands we will place on the sector.
And then there’s the critical regulatory work, such as responding to the EPA’s recent greenhouse fuel emissions standards, which we’ll communicate about later.
The diversity of the ZETA club allows us to play in many other political areas.
A: There are two separate regulations that apply over time. The first are light and medium-sized vehicles, which cover vehicle categories one to three, depending on the weight of the vehicle, i. e. passenger vehicles, light trucks, and some of the smaller delivery trucks.
The EPA has proposed a set of pollutant controls (or exhaust emission standards) for emissions of greenhouse fuels, set in terms of grams of carbon dioxide per mile, and other air pollutants. exhaust gases, such as nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide. Broadly speaking, EPA has proposed other thresholds for the 2027 to 2032 design years.
The EPA’s current set of proposed regulations targets the heavy-duty truck sector. These range from cranes and concrete transporters to school buses, city buses, and 18-wheeled long-distance taxis. Since there are a number of professional programs for those vehicles, they work in other situations and have other charging needs. Therefore, this presents a different set of demanding situations than in the light and medium vehicle sectors.
Ultimately, those EPA regulations are aimed at emissions in communities where other people breathe the air near those vehicles.
Exhaust fumes come from the tailpipe of a vehicle on Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019, in Salt Lake City. Inversions loom over Salt Lake City as cold, stagnant air settles into the bowl-shaped mountain pools, trapping tailpipes and other emissions that have no way to escape and create a murky brown haze that engulfs the metro area. Doctors warn that breathing polluted air can lead to lung and other fitness disorders, especially in pregnant women and others with respiratory disorders. (AP Photo/Rick Archer)
I think the EPA has been successful, so to speak, in addressing the demanding situations that we face in terms of climate replacement and air quality. We think there are some areas where they can perhaps go a little further, but the first figures in their proposal are very important.
For the light- and medium-duty proposal, for example, they are projecting that 67% of new sales in 2032 would be EVs. That’s a really big number, and we look at that very optimistically.
We recognize that the challenge will be enormous and that there is still a long way to go and a lot of work to be done to get there. Here’s what’s so critical about those standards: they set this purpose at 10 years, which provides the entire chain of origin with a sense of certainty. They can invest and de-risk those investments because they have an idea of what their need will look like in the coming years.
EPA’s emissions criteria work in tandem with the BIL and IRA, which create a call for boosters in the form of tax credits, consumer-facing incentives, and subsidies.
A: The IRA is as much an economic policy as it is a shipping policy and an environmental policy. In ten years, the U. S. will have developed the domestic capacity to advance this industry.
Right now, our members are looking at their own individual source chains and what they want to do to meet those IRA needs: where they can be strategic in making their investments and which source chains to make sure their cars are IRA eligible. . . tax credits at the end of the day.
There is still work to be done there so we’re going to need a lot more manufacturing capacity in the coming years.
HAMTRAMCK, MI – OCTOBER 11: Assembly line personnel bring together Chevrolet Volt electric cars and Opel electric cars. . . [ ] Amperas at the General Motors Detroit Hamtramck Assembly Plant on October 11, 2011 in Hamtramck, Michigan. Officials from the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration toured the plant to highlight the Obama administration’s fuel economy standards. (Photo via Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
Even though we have great incentives now in place and we’ve got all this momentum, I think right now the biggest thing is permitting reform. As you turn the screws on these requirements and they ramp up, it’s a matter of how much of the critical mineral content in the battery needs to be domestically sourced.
I think the only way to offset that pressure is to reform the way that we permit new critical mineral development projects. As these requirements ramp up in the next few years, we must provide the ability to build new projects in a timely way. It takes up to 14 years to permit and complete from a ground discovery to production of a new, critical minerals facility or production facility. That’s not going to be fast enough to meet the demands of this moment and the challenges that we face.
I believe that there is an opportunity to reform the formula in a way that accelerates it, while maintaining the same environmental and social safeguards that we have put in place.
A: What an exciting time we are living in. The IIJA was signed a year and a half ago, and the IRA not even a year ago. We are just at the beginning and I think we will see the effect of those policies in the years to come. We all have an idea of what those policies can achieve and we are making sure we maximize their potential.
We’re just starting to see this threshold being crossed where we’re going to tip into this new generation of transportation. There’s more to come, and there’s a lot happening already. Exciting–I think that’s the word of the day.