NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Phil Kerpen with American Commitment believes that the Biden Administration's intent to switch the country to electric vehicles is fundamentally illegal, in addition to being currently impractical.
"If you typically, or frequently, or even occasionally, drive longer than the battery range on one of these electric vehicles, you're probably going to want an internal combustion vehicle, so you can pull into a gas station and refuel and continue on your way," Kerpen said. "This is why there's such a challenge in getting uptake beyond, you know, kind of the current seven, eight percent of sales that we've been at since last year. EV sales were growing very rapidly, which probably shouldn't be a surprise, considering we massively subsidized them, but they seem to have sort of flattened out, and I think that's because, for most people, it doesn't work as your main vehicle or certainly as your only vehicle."
It isn't clear how road maintenance would be paid for with a fully electric fleet, either.
"Some states have adopted higher registration fees for the electric vehicles to make up for the gas tax they don't pay," Kerpen said. "You know, the other issue, of course, is the electric vehicles tend to be much heavier than internal combustion vehicles because the batteries are heavy. They actually have more wear and tear on the roads than a comparable model of an internal combustion vehicle. Then, there also are other related issues with the weights being higher, like, you know, multi-level parking decks may not be able to fit as many cars from the weight rating if all of them are much heavier because they have, you know, the heavy batteries in them. There are a lot of sort of practical problems associated with what they're trying to do, not the least of which is that, you know, the mandates get way out ahead of where the market is."
According to the Biden Administration rules, for model year 2027, only 68% of all vehicles sold are allowed to be internal combustion vehicles. Right now it's over 85%.
If 85% of people want something, but only 68% of them are allowed to get it, well, we're going to have shortages. It's going to be hard to find an internal combustion vehicle, not in the far future, but in the very near future, just two years from now. And if you can find it, the price is probably going to be very high. Then of course, they ramp up the mandates to be much more draconian by model year 2032, only about 30% of all vehicles sold in the U.S. are going to be allowed to be internal combustion engines if the Biden rules stay in place.
There is a resolution in Congress to stop these rules, but either it has to pass, or there needs to be a change in administration to one with a philosophy that differs, or the transition to electric may happen faster than makes market sense at this point. You can write to your representative to urge their support with a form at American Commitment.
CLICK HERE to download the Hutch Post mobile app.
CLICK HERE to sign up for the daily Hutch Post email news update.