The U.S. Joint Office of Energy and Transportation has created a committee of electric vehicle industry and policy leaders to help shape the nation’s EV ecosystem.
Although the Electric Vehicle Working Group was established last year as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Joint Office announced its members and initiatives Thursday.
The 25-member committee includes representatives from the UAW, the National Automobile Dealers Association, Daimler Truck North America, charging companies, electric utilities, federal agencies and other industry and policy groups. The members will focus on issues that include EV adoption among low- and moderate-income Americans and underserved communities; the cost of vehicle and battery manufacturing; shortages of raw materials; charging infrastructure; grid capacity; and EV cybersecurity.
“It’s absolutely crucial to bring together what might look in some ways like a disparate group to give their input, feedback, expertise so we don’t miss things,” Gabe Klein, executive director of the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, told Automotive News. “In the private sector, there’s a lot of innovation happening, and so we want to be aware of all that.”
The group will meet quarterly beginning this fall and will make recommendations that include expected costs and benefits to the secretaries of energy and transportation. Large meetings will be open to the public to attend virtually or in person. The group may also break into subcommittees for discussions on specific issues, Klein said.
“It’s pretty high profile, but it’s not window dressing,” Klein said. “We really need the opinions of our private sector partners, technical experts, as well as folks that are within the government.”
The group is another recent example of the Joint Office tapping industry experts as it develops EV policy. The office established the National Charging Experience Consortium in May. Last week, Argonne National Laboratory said that the Joint Office and the Vehicle Technologies Office would fund data sets on EV adoption and infrastructure by J.D. Power.
The Electric Vehicle Working Group is “in the spirit of what the Joint Office is all about, to facilitate and bring people together to address not only the opportunities and challenges that we know of now, but also things that pop up over the next few years,” Klein said.
