Federal and local leaders gathered Tuesday in Dallas to celebrate a push toward getting more electric vehicles on North Texas roads.
Under Secretary of Transportation, Carlos Monje announced $100 million in federal funding for Texas.
Some of the money will be used to build 100 new EV charging stations across North Texas, part of President’s Biden goal to build a network of 500,000 across the U.S. by 2030.
“The future of the auto industry is electric and the auto companies are running toward it and what we’re trying to do here is enable that future to happen,” said U.S. Transportation Under Secretary Carlos Monje.
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Automaker General Motors has set a goal to be fully electric by 2035.
It also recently announced a $500 million investment in its Arlington assembly plant that only produces gas-fueled SUVs.
The plant boasts that it churns out a truck nearly every minute.
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“It’s absolutely key to the future success of General Motors. And from that point of view it’s one of those plants that we continue to invest in,” said President of GM North America Rory Harvey.
“The Arlington plant is one of the crown jewels of General Motors,” said economy professor Mike Davis with SMU’s Cox School of Business. “They’re producing the kinds of vehicles that people want to buy.”
Davis said the EV market still faces challenges including a lack of accessible charging stations and consumer confidence.
“I think there’s still a huge reluctance to buy an expensive vehicle when you don’t know you can use it the way you want to use your car,” Davis said.
Challenges the auto industry and the federal government said they’re working to address.
“We’re not going to get anybody to do anything they don’t want to do. People will over time recognize there’s a huge advantage to electric vehicles,” Monje said.
