Biden announces electric vehicle charging station investments in Detroit
By Nikki Carvajal and Maegan Vazquez, CNN
President Joe Biden delivered a speech in Detroit on Wednesday announcing the approval of the first $900 million for electric vehicle chargers across the country, which he says will help build charging stations across 35 states.
“It used to be that to buy an electric car, you had to make all sorts of compromises. But not now. Thanks to American ingenuity, American engineers, American autoworkers — it’s all changing,” Biden said in a speech following a tour of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
He added, “Today, I’m pleased to announce we’re approving funding for the first 35 states, including Michigan, to build their own electric charging infrastructure throughout their state.”
The money is part of the bipartisan infrastructure law and will help build chargers across 53,000 miles of the nations’ highway system. The funding will build a half-million chargers across the country, Biden said.
During his speech in the Motor City, the President said Michigan is “building the future of the electric vehicle” and that funding from his major legislative accomplishments — including the infrastructure law, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act — will “advance America’s electric vehicle future.”
“The great American road trip is going to be fully electrified, whether you’re driving coast-to-coast along I-10 or on I-75 here in Michigan,” Biden added. “Charging stations will be up and as easy to find as gas stations are now.”
He added that American manufacturing “is back” and that the American people “should be confident that we’re on the right track.”
“Since President Biden took office, companies like Toyota, Honda, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Panasonic have announced investments of nearly $85 billion to make electric vehicles, batteries and EV chargers across America, including in North Carolina, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri and Kansas,” a White House official said in a statement.
Biden is also slated to talk to union workers, CEOs and local leaders “throughout the day,” the official said.
During a tour of the auto show ahead of his speech on Wednesday, Biden got behind the wheel of several cars.
Inside an orange Corvette ZO6, the President told reporters, “I’ll tell ya what, I’m telling my Secret Service detail I’m driving home!”
Biden also toured several electric vehicles, including a Silverado EV, which starts production next year in Michigan and is estimated to have a range of 400 miles on a full charge, the F150 Lightning, which he test drove last year, and the Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe 30th Anniversary Edition.
Biden also briefly — and slowly — drove an electric Cadillac Lyriq down the blue carpet at the auto show with a Secret Service agent sitting in the passenger seat.
“Come on, jump in. I’ll give you a ride to Washington,” he told reporters. “It’s an Uber.”
This story has been updated with additional developments on Wednesday.
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CNN’s Allie Malloy and Betsy Klein contributed to this report
