US Senate And House Working On 2 Versions of EV Bill

Although often billed as matching measures, the House and Senate versions of the Electric Drive Vehicle Deployment Act introduced today have several key differences.

One biggie: The Senate version of the measure establishes a $10 million prize for the developer of a commercially viable EV battery capable of delivering 500 miles of range on a single charge.

Another: The House version sets aside funds to incentivize hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles; the Senate version ignores fuel cell vehicles. Neither measure provides aid for development of hydrogen fuel infrastructure.

And except for a provision the House version that calls for $100 million in bonds to be sold by regional governments to help fund infrastructure development, we haven't seen anything in either bill that says discusses where the money will come from. Apparently that's something to be worked out as the measures are debated.

Both bills are being cheered by EV and environmental activists, who see the effort as the first time Congress has taken a bipartisan look at methods of promoting rapid introduction and use of electric-drive vehicles, a category that covers plug-in hybrids, battery-electric vehicles and, in at least the House version of the measure, hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles.

We brought you a broad outline of the two bills early this morning, now here's some additional detail and a look, as we understand things based on preliminary info (the full text of the measures hasn't been posted yet) at the major differences.

• The House bill would cost about $11 billion over 5 years; the price tag on the Senate measure is about $10 billion.
• The House measure would establish at least five early deployment regions - communities wouldhttp://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/2010/05/congress-gets-2-versions-of-ev-bill-all-together-now-we-can-work-it-out.html compete for the designation - and would provide funding of $800 million each to be used for EV purchase and fueling system deployment incentives.
  
• The Senate version would create five to 15 of the deployment regions but would fund each with only $250 million.
• The Senate would provide immediate rebates of up to $10,000 to purchasers of electric drive vehicles; the House would require deployment regions to provide rebates or other incentives of at least $2,000 per vehicle, but would aphttp://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/2010/05/congress-gets-2-versions-of-ev-bill-all-together-now-we-can-work-it-out.htmlply that to 100,000 vehicles in each region.
• The House version provides for tax credits of up to $2,000 for consumer purchases of EV chargers and up to $50,000 for purchases of multiple chargers by businesses.
• The Senate version earmarks $1.5 billion for battery research aimed at lowering the cost of the advanced technology batteries demanded by electric drive vehicles.
• The Senate measure would expand federal tax credits for rechargeable battery electric-drive vehicles to include medium- and heavy-duty hybrids - a category that can cover big pickups and SUVS as well as commercial trucks.

We're sure there's more, and we'll endeavor bring it to you as soohttp://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/2010/05/congress-gets-2-versions-of-ev-bill-all-together-now-we-can-work-it-out.htmln as we can successfully parse the two measures.

Meantime, we find ourselves in agreement with David Friedman, research director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' Clean Vehicles Program, who said the bills would "move electric drive technologies into the fast lane" but need to be reconciled to ensure "that they provide a level playing field for all electric-drive vehicles and the necessary infrastructure to recharge and refuel them; including hydrogen and fuel cell electric vehicle technology."

Source: Edmunds.com