from personal health to big business,

can the Biden administration's  policies to clean up emissions

also jumpstart America's  effort to beat Europe and China

as the world leader in  electric vehicle production?

His two trillion dollar infrastructure plan

offers a possible roadmap  for how the U.S. can lead

and grow its economy.

Creating good-paying jobs by leading the  world in the manufacturing and export

of clean electric cars and trucks.

Electric vehicles, also  referred to as EVs, are not new.

The U.S. began experimenting  with them in the late 1800s,

and by the turn of the century,

they accounted for a third of  all vehicles in the country.

But the discovery of new domestic oil sources

and the rise of Ford's more affordable,

mass-produced Model T eventually  squashed the electric car market.

And in the century that followed,

gas-powered cars took over the roadways,

contributing to skyrocketing  global carbon emissions.

Modern EVs can help clean up  the transportation sector.

Electric vehicles do reduce overall CO2 emissions,

both from a tailpipe point of view and  also from a life cycle point of view.

It does vary depending on where  the vehicles are being used

and the electricity grid mix  in that country or region,

and it also varies where you make the battery

and the type of battery chemistry you're using.

Even factoring for these variables, EVs almost

always mean lower carbon emissions  than their gas-powered counterparts.

At the moment, U.S. EV sales  are still pretty small,

accounting for only about two  percent of all vehicles sold in 2020.

Somewhere around five percent of sales  is where things really start to take off.

Experts say it will take government  policy to reach that five percent.

There are already some U.S. tax credits  that make EVs cheaper for consumers

but nothing like what's available in Norway,

where 54% of new cars sold in 2020 were electric.

In addition to exempting EV drivers  from certain taxes and road tolls,

Norway's government has also built  a massive charging infrastructure

and subsidizes free parking for EV  owners in many parts of the country.

China has similar incentives.

In China, there are substantial subsidies.

They're supporting electric vehicle companies.

Automakers get larger subsidies the  farther their EVs can go per charge,

and that incentivizes the  production of better batteries.

They have done so much to try to  build out the charging infrastructure.

Like this massive charging station in Shenzhen,

which can charge up to 15,000 vehicles each day.

The government investments seem to have paid off.

China is home to about half of  the world's electric vehicles

as well as more than 400 companies  building EVs for global consumers.

In January, Wuling's Hong Guang  Mini, which costs just 4,500 dollars

surpassed the Tesla Model 3 as the  world's best-selling electric car.

Generally the U.S. has been behind,

but there's a lot of things that might  make you think that's about to change.

The president and his team haven't been  shy about their electric vehicle ambitions.

We're going to look at the opportunities  that electric vehicles provide

to actually make our air cleaner  and address our climate challenge.

One of their key priorities is expanding  the nation's charging infrastructure

by more than quadrupling the number of

publicly accessible charging plugs in the country.

Building a nationwide network  of 500,000 charging stations.

Another priority is making EVs more  affordable for everyday buyers.

We're going to provide tax incentives

and point of sale rebates to  help all American families.

And the White House wants to lead by example.

The federal government also owns  an enormous fleet of vehicles,

which we're going to replace  with clean electric vehicles.

Currently only 0.6% of that fleet  of 650,000 is battery powered.

Even 100% of the fleet makes up only a  small portion of total American vehicles,

but electrifying it can still have a big impact.

The procurement tool is particularly  powerful because it gives us

a way to pull on the entire supply chain  and bring it here into the United States.

Biden has said that he wants a federal fleet

that is made and sourced  by American union workers.

But as of now, he may have trouble  finding EVs that match his wish list.

Three large American automakers currently sell

fully electric vehicles: Tesla, GM and Ford.

None of their EVs on the market  are made by union workers with

enough American-made parts to meet Biden's goals.

GM, however, recently announced  a number of upcoming EVs,

opened a plant exclusively for their assembly,

and is investing in a  massive supply chain shakeup.

Doing our own battery and cell  production and battery assembly

allows for all the key elements of  the supply chain to be right here

in the U.S. with American workers doing  the doing the manufacturing for us.

The U.S. Postal Service operates  a third of the federal fleet.

The problem is that the USPS is run more like

a corporation than a typical federal agency.

It's funded through payments for its  services rather than federal funding,

and how it spends that money is  determined by a board of governors

rather than the president and Congress.

The current board is made up  of Trump appointed holdovers,

and Biden is hoping to fill three  vacancies with nominees of his own.

The USPS recently awarded a long-term  contract for new postal delivery vehicles,

and so far, only 10% of them  are committed to be electric.

I think it's a missed opportunity.

Look, vehicles that go small  distances on predictable routes,

those are the easy wins.

But Oshkosh Defense, the  company that won the contract,

says that all of its vehicles  are built for flexibility.

If there's a use case today that  needs an internal combustion system,

a couple of years from now it can be retrofitted

that exact vehicle to a battery electric vehicle.

And the USPS says it's open to ordering more EVs

if it can get Congress to  offer a funding lifeline.

A group of House Democrats recently  introduced legislation that would

provide an additional six billion  dollars of funding for the Post Office.

Experts point out cleaner cars are only one part

of the overall climate change puzzle.

Certainly increased demand for electric vehicles

will put more strain on the U.S. grid,

which is still largely powered by fossil fuels.

But for an American industry  coming to terms with its role

in helping to clean up the planet, some  clear government policy may help it

become a leader in an electric vehicle revolution.