As the industry aims to boost U.S. sales of EVs — investing hundreds of billions of dollars in electrification by 2025 — "these bills accelerate it in a meaningful way," she told Automotive News.
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade association that represents major automakers in the U.S., said it supports bipartisan efforts to pass the infrastructure bill, which includes $7.5 billion for EV charging.
As House and Senate committees move forward on the budget reconciliation process and mark up various pieces of the package by a nonbinding deadline of Sept. 15, the alliance said it "will continue to work with members of both chambers to craft the additional policies necessary," including consumer incentives to support broader EV adoption.
Byron Brown, a senior counsel at Crowell & Moring's Washington, D.C., office, said while he expects the House to pass the infrastructure bill without modification, the reconciliation bill faces "considerable uncertainty," as committees in both chambers are confronted by a tough-to-meet deadline.
"There's a lot that needs to be taken care of in a really short period of time," Brown said, citing the crisis in Afghanistan and other legislative priorities. "I don't think these issues get wrapped up over the next month."
The deadline pressure and tight vote margins could force Democrats to set aside any lingering disharmony, according to Mark Rom, an associate professor of government and public policy at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy.
"There's almost no margin of error, so they will have to find things that are acceptable to the more moderate [members] and the progressives," Rom said. "I think they know it's in their best interest that they have to get both of these bills enacted, so I would bet that they will come through on that."