Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
EV supporters are trying to snuff out the bipartisan AM radio bill before it can get into any must-pass legislative package.
Why it matters: Carmakers say the AM radio mandate proposal, backed by broadcasters, would particularly affect EVs because their frequencies interact with other parts of the vehicles.
Driving the news: Washington allies of the EV industry are redoubling their efforts on the bill, placing Beltway ads and circulating fresh literature on Capitol Hill.
- The Consumer Technology Association, which represents EV startups Tesla, Rivian and Lucid, has been running ads on the Punchbowl daily podcast this week opposing the legislation.
- CTA has also begun circulating a joint one-pager on the Hill with the Alliance for Automotive Innovation and ZETA, which represents companies up and down the EV supply chain.
- "Mandating analog AM radios in every vehicle stretches the traditional approach to vehicle safety, affects innovation and undermines the expansion of safer and cleaner transportation," reads the one-pager, which Axios obtained Wednesday.
What they're saying: This new offensive is aimed at preempting any effort to stick the AM radio bill into an omnibus package to fund the government or enact other must-pass bills this year, said CTA's India Herdman.
- "The ads are necessary, because as long as the broadcasters are pushing this bill, we're going to have to fight back," Herdman told Axios.
