SEN. CARL LEVIN STATEMENT ON TAX CREDIT FOR PLUG-IN HYBRID VEHICLES.

WASHINGTON -- The following information was released by Michigan Senator Carl M. Levin:

I am delighted to join today with my brother, Congressman Sandy Levin, in an important step for the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing by nurturing the market for the next generation of electric vehicles.

The U.S. auto industry is poised for a technological explosion that promises to fundamentally change transportation here and around the world. Already, the success of GM's Volt has demonstrated that electric vehicles aren't just an engineer's dream or a science fiction story. They're real, and there's plenty more innovation ready to be unleashed.

But like almost every transformational technology, from the great railroads to the Internet, this technological revolution needs support if it's to spread. President Obama last night laid out a vision of how this kind of technology can help ensure our economic future. With the proper support, we can transform transportation and create new jobs for American workers. But if we fail to support this revolution, we risk missing an opportunity that we may never get back. We get one chance to get this right, and if we don't, there is no doubt that workers in China, India, South Korea and our other competitors will build these vehicles instead of American workers.

So I am pleased to be joining my brother Sandy today in introducing legislation to expand the availability of the $7,500 consumer tax credit for plug-in hybrid vehicles. Current law limits the availability of this plug-in hybrid tax credit to the first 200,000 vehicles per manufacturer, which is too small to support the revolutionary technological change that we are about to witness. Failure to provide this support risks falling short of the president's goal of putting 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.

Lifting this cap will give much greater certainty to manufacturers that we will support technology of great potential and it will make these vehicles more available and affordable to more consumers. It will make a difference immediately, and it is an important signal of lasting support for the transformation of our transportation sector.