Former President Donald Trump is lighting up President Joe Biden after the release of restrictive new vehicle emission regulations designed to accelerate electric vehicle production.
Trump pledged to put the brakes on the Biden electric vehicle mandate “on Day One” of his administration if he wins the November presidential election.
The Biden administration and the Environmental Protection Agency announced the changes Wednesday, including “the most aggressive multi-pollutant emission standards ever finalized,” which are intended to force wider use of electric vehicles, Fox News reported.
The changes are geared toward drastically reducing the tailpipe emissions of new car and light trucks, beginning with the 2027 model year.
According to Fox News, Biden’s regulations would require nearly 70 percent of most new car purchases to be electric or hybrid by 2032.
The Trump campaign seized the opportunity of the White House announcement to score some points with American voters, many of whom have proved extremely reluctant to embrace the pricey and flawed EV technology.
Biden’s policy “will force Americans to buy ultra-expensive cars they do not want and cannot afford while destroying the U.S. auto industry in the process,” Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“This radical policy is anti-jobs, anti-consumer and anti-American,” she added.
“It will destroy the livelihoods of countless U.S. autoworkers while sending the U.S. auto industry to China.”
She further pledged that “President Trump will reverse Joe Biden’s extreme electric vehicle mandate on Day One” of his new administration — if he wins the November election, of course.
This could very well be a fruitful line of attack for Trump. Consumers have made it very clear that they don’t want to be forced toward EVs. Even government tax incentives haven’t been enough to spark demand. Still, Biden forges on, forcing citizens into something they have said they don’t want.
Trump should continue to hammer this point home.
Leavitt’s label of this policy as an “extreme electric vehicle mandate” should prove advantageous to the Trump campaign in increasing his popularity, not just with consumers, but also the auto industry and blue-collar workers.
While electric vehicle sales in 2023 were up from 2022, those vehicles still make up less than a tenth of car purchases, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation.
It seems that Americans overwhelmingly do not want electric vehicles. Not only are they more expensive, but they can also present problems in terms of reliability.
Consumer Reports found that the dependability of an EV battery is subject to weather conditions.
“In our winter testing, we found that cold weather saps about 25 percent of range when cruising at 70 mph compared with driving in the same conditions during mild weather in the mid-60s, and 31 percent during warm weather in the mid-80s. In the past, we found that short trips in the cold with frequent stops and the need to reheat the cabin after a parking pause saps 50 percent of the range.”
While variables like hills, traffic and cargo weren’t accounted for, this information could help consumers make a decision when considering an electric vehicle. The choice may come down to the temperatures where they live.
Then there’s the cost-prohibitive aspect of EV ownership: The average cost of an electric vehicle is almost twice as much as a subcompact car — $52,500 compared to $24,000, respectively.
Biden is not keeping the consumer in mind. He is not promoting choice. He has an energy agenda in mind which is anti-consumer.
Consumers do not prioritize Biden’s grand scheme regarding the environment and emissions.
They care about affordability when purchasing a vehicle and how much they are paying at the pump.
Trump’s campaign is smart to go after these policies leading up to November.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.