Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg was doing the media circuit this weekend when he got hit really good on electric vehicles.
CBS host Margaret Brennan told Buttigieg right to his face that Trump got it right about Biden trying to force American car owners to go electric.
Talking Points…
- Trump on EVs
- Buttigieg called out
- Analysis
Donald Trump has gone after the Biden administration hard on the electric vehicle (EV) front. The auto industry is getting massacred right now because of this forced EV push, losing money on virtually every car they sell. Even worse is the fact that EVs are sitting in lots, unwanted by American car buyers. Trump got Dems and the media all wound up by predicting a “bloodbath” for the industry, stating:
“We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those guys if I get elected.
“Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole – that’s gonna be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it.”
The media and Democrats immediately jumped all over this to suggest that Donald Trump was suggesting actual violence if he did not win rather than the ruination of the auto industry in this country. One publication cited Donald Trump’s “violent rhetoric,” and the Biden campaign immediately responded to the comments:
“This is who Donald Trump is: a loser who gets beat by over 7 million votes and then instead of appealing to a wider mainstream audience doubles down on his threats of political violence.”
Beyond all that rhetoric from the media and Dems, people seemed to miss the point that Trump was saying that industry was getting destroyed by this massive push, mostly because the American people do not want to drive EVs, the proof of which is the staggering number of EVs remaining on car lots. Brennan called out Buttigieg on this over the weekend, stating:
“I want to ask you about something that we hear quite a lot about on the campaign trail and that is electric cars, electric vehicles. Donald Trump repeatedly talks about President Biden’s decision to force the industry towards making 56% of car batteries electric by 2032, 13% hybrid.
“He’s not wrong on the purchasing.”
When Buttigieg tried to say that Trump was wrong, Brennan cut him off, citing that only about six percent of all vehicles sold are electric vehicles, a number that has only gone up by about two percent over previous years. Buttigieg fought back, claiming that the number goes up every year, but Brennan pushed back again, saying that the changeover was simply taking too long.
The Biden administration is pushing to have 67% of all cars sold in this country be EVs by the year 2032, but I just don’t see that happening due to a major lack of interest in these cars in their current form. Even the best vehicles can only travel about 300 miles on a full charge, and with no nationwide charging system, buying an EV is a risky proposition for those who love to drive rather than fly.
Recent polling backs all that up, with only 12% saying they would “seriously consider buying” an EV in a 2023 Gallup Poll. Only 43% said they would even “consider” buying one, while 41% were dead set against them. Those numbers were worse in 2024, with only 9% seriously considering buying one, 35% considering one, and a whopping 48% saying they are not even considering it.
This is precisely why Trump is making this such a big issue and why he plans to gut all of the Biden subsidies for EVs. I have nothing against EVs, but I would never purchase one. Of all the people I know, maybe two or three are even considering an EV and much of this is work or leisure-time related because the EVs on the market right now cannot deliver the performance they get from a gasoline-powered car. And that is the biggest challenge the industry faces right now. I am sure that EVs will catch on at some point, but it is likely not to happen in the next decade, which means if Biden has his way, auto manufacturers will be making a lot of EVs that are doing nothing but taking up space in their lots as Americans hold onto and maintain their older gasoline-powered vehicles.
