The Obama administration said it isn’t “walking away” from a goal of 1 million EVs on the country’s roads by 2015.
Heather Zichal, deputy assistant for energy and climate change at the White House, praised the soon to be sold in the US BMW i3. She said despite lower-than-expected electric vehicle and plug-in sales, the White House is not giving up on President Barack Obama’s announced goal in 2008 to get 1 million plug-in vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015. There are about 100,000 such vehicles on U.S. roads today.
“We haven’t walked away from that goal,” she said in an interview. “We’re going to stay committed to making investments in electrification.”
Obama in recent years proposed increasing the EV tax credit to $10,000 and changing it to a point of sale rebate, but Congress has never taken up the proposal. Zichal said the administration hasn’t given up on the proposal.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who spoke at the event, said Congress could take up the issue as part of tax reform legislation.
