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The transition to electric vehicles is inevitable. General Motors’ aim to transition to an all-electric product line by 2035 should drive home that reality. The question is no longer if the future of the automobile industry will be defined by electric power but when and how.

The stakes are high for the United States. The auto industry is one of the most important industries in the country, historically contributing 3.5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Unfortunately, fewer than 325,000 EVs were produced in the U.S. in 2019. China produced 1.2 million, by comparison.

China and other countries view advanced EV technology development and manufacturing as a national imperative to remain globally relevant and competitive in this critical jobs sector. In fact, these nations aim to use EVs as an opportunity to leapfrog all other countries and take the lead in global vehicle manufacturing.

The Biden administration and Congress must step forward with a unified vision for EV adoption in the United States or we risk falling further behind countries that are investing for the future. Sen. Marco Rubio and other members of Congress have been sounding alarm bells for years, leading the national conversation on boosting America’s competitiveness. But much more needs to be done, and done quickly.

The time for bipartisan leadership on this issue has arrived. The challenge is that private investment (including from automakers) cannot keep pace with the aggressive investment that China is applying to the transformation of its automotive sector. Their investments are comprehensive — heavy funding for research and development and the widespread installation of EV charging infrastructure, procurement mandates for fleets and purchasing incentives for consumers, and subsidies to vehicle manufacturers and to suppliers to build new battery capacity. Of 142 lithium-ion battery factories under construction globally, 107 are in China and only 9 are in the U.S. An ambitious EV strategy could put people back to work in the near-term (building and retooling factories and installing EV charging infrastructure) and over the longer-term, it could futureproof manufacturing areas with high-paying jobs.

Other common-sense efforts like incentivizing the speedy electrification of public and commercial fleet vehicles, public transit, and school buses are critical to positioning the U.S. as a global leader. Inaction in the short-term could cripple U.S. global competitiveness over the longer-term.

Reducing vehicle emissions is obviously a critical component of the overall U.S. climate strategy. But if we don’t speed up the pace of EV adoption, we are going to blow right past the 2030 climate targets that are aimed at containing global temperature rise to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius. And EVs can play a much more critical role in U.S. climate policy than just replacing traditional combustion engines.

Any serious climate strategy will require a vast amount of energy storage to capture and store variable renewable energy for the grid.

Florida will need to rely significantly on solar power as the only likely source of large-scale renewable energy available to the state, which will drive a correspondingly large need for energy storage. EVs not only provide storage capacity, but are also driving technological and cost breakthroughs related to batteries that will be critical to any holistic approach to the climate crisis.

The Florida congressional delegation has shown leadership on the issue, as have state leaders like Gov. Ron DeSantis, but without a national EV vision and clear targets — embraced widely — there will continue to be uncertainty and a lack of confidence in the market. The when and how are not small questions. The answers — which are being determined now — will have significant consequences for future generations of Americans.

Britta Gross, who is based in Orlando, is the managing director of the global carbon-free mobility program at the Rocky Mountain Institute, which is dedicated to sustainability and energy efficiency. She is the former director of advanced vehicle commercialization at General Motors.