Joe Biden plans to attend Detroit auto show

President Joe Biden said on Friday he prepares to attend the Detroit auto show happening later this month as his administration has encouraged the increasing number of investments in electric vehicles and battery manufacturing.

“I’ll be there. I’m a car guy – as you kind of noticed,” Biden said at an event.

The Commerce Department on Friday awarded $52.2 million to a Detroit regional program called the “Global Epicenter of Mobility”. The amount is supposed to help Michigan’s automotive sector transition to EVs and autonomous vehicles.

The Commerce Department said despite over $5 billion in private investment the Detroit region’s “prospects are threatened by an increasingly global competition in the electric and autonomous vehicle mar,ket, by the rapid pace of innovation in new mobility solutions and by an aging workforce that needs continuous reskilling to keep up with new products and technologies.”

The last Detroit auto show was held in 2019.

Biden administration wants at least 50% of new vehicles sold by 2030 to be either electric or plug-in electric hybrids.

The Detroit show, open to the public from September 17 to September. 25, is expected to focus on the transition to electric vehicles.