Can electric vehicles continue to get federal aid in a capital dominated by President Donald Trump? We’ll find out.
A partisan battle is shaping up as part of the massive highway-policy bill that is rewritten every few years. The last cycle started in 2021 with the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure law under former President Joe Biden, which dedicated billions of dollars for EVs and their charging networks. That cycle is ending with the Trump administration trying (but not quite succeeding ) to prevent those dollars from being spent .
Now, lawmakers are starting to write a new surface transportation reauthorization bill they hope to enact by next October. And congressional Democrats are signaling they won’t play ball if EVs aren’t a priority — even if it’s hard to imagine the Trump White House suddenly embracing battery-powered cars.
In a letter to committee heads , the signers said the bill won’t move without “critical investments in zero-emission vehicles and associated charging and fueling infrastructure.”
They have some leverage. The transportation bill requires 60 votes in the Senate, meaning that it won’t move without some Democratic support.
Leading the effort are Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.). Both sit on the committees that produce major portions of the bill — Padilla on the Senate’s Environment and Public Works and Davids on the House’s Transportation and Infrastructure.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Trump has spent years railing against Biden-era EV policies , and this year, he stripped away the industry’s consumer tax credits. Then again, he bought a Tesla .
EV advocates argue that chargers have become basic transportation infrastructure, like concrete and steel. They point out that the last transportation bill was part of the bipartisan infrastructure law and that many EV-related dollars flowed through traditional funding channels.
“It’s clear that this is infrastructure,” said Albert Gore, executive director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association, a trade group for EV-related companies.
Republicans have a counterargument. House Transportation and Infrastructure Chair Sam Graves (R-Mo.)’s proposal is not to fund EVs but to assess fees on people who drive them.
An annual fee of $250 on EVs and $100 on hybrids, he argued earlier this month , is necessary to replenish the perpetually underfunded Highway Trust Fund. That fund pays for highway and transit improvements and is sourced from excise taxes on every gallon of gasoline and diesel sold.
“If you’re using that infrastructure, then you should be paying for it,” Graves said.
EV lobbyists say that fee is too high, citing estimates that the average traditional-car driver pays only $82 per year into the fund . Pegging the EV fee so high would be unfair and discourage EV adoption that is needed to reduce climate-warming emissions, said Bridget Sanderson, the head of the Coalition Helping America Rebuild and Go Electric, an umbrella group for EV advocates.