New EPA Electric Vehicle Mandates Are Not Good

By Lauren Fix

We all love Earth Day, and we want to live on this planet for a long time, but mandating the manufacture of electric cars, SUVs and trucks in an attempt to replace gasoline and diesel powered vehicles is problematic at best and, in the end, consumers will pay a hefty price.

So many issues hinder the adoption of the electric vehicle market, including but not limited to an incomplete charging infrastructure for drivers. But, what happens if you run out of [charge] on the road? No one can bring you a spare battery pack, but they can bring you a can of gas. Bringing a charging truck will leave you hours on the side of the road while the diesel generator chargers your battery or getting your vehicle towed to a charging station.

Viable renewable energy options, such as sun and wind are 50 years away from matching the cost and efficiency of energy fossil fuels, and only can cover 18% of our energy needs.

According to Rand Taylor of Fuel Ox, fire-prone Li-Ion battery packs are an issue as well. Every week there is a car, truck, e-bike, laptop or phone bursting into flames because of Lithium ion batteries. This is dangerous for the environment.

We are getting our raw materials from China, the cost, availability and supply chain risks of raw materials are still an issue. How can you call it “Investing in America” when all the raw materials come from China and are mined by children who die daily in mine pits? This helps China not the environment.

I know I have some of you fired up.

But let me digress in favor of a more practical issue, if the only car consumers can buy are electric vehicles at a price that is 4 times higher than ICE, consumers and truckers will simply avoid buying new. The average prices of an electric vehicle is $66,000 and the EV incentives are constantly changing.

What will happen is owners will keep the cars and trucks they have, and drive them until they finally break down for the last time.

Unless, as was announced this past weekend, the EPA is said to propose rules meant to drive up electric cars sales tenfold – these  mandates are a precursor to making it ILLEGAL to drive a internal combustion engine vehicle at all.

“A few years ago, the government outlawed “glider” trucks. Gliders came about when the government mandated all trucks be equipped with diesel particulate filters. This gave rise to a new industry of making trucks out of old engine parts that sidestepped the emissions controls, because this workaround got so popular, the government eventually outlawed them, thereby forcing compliance with the mandate,” stated Rand Taylor.

Either way, if manufacturers have trouble selling their new electric cars and trucks, the lack of demand will either cause upward pressure on the price of new vehicles or force manufacturers to start shutting down operations, putting hundreds of thousands of workers out of a job. Manufacturers are not making profits on electric cars and this equals reducing the size of the company. The impact on the economy will be massive.

Finally, what will happen to the mandates when better, cleaner energy sources like hydrogen force their way into the market in the next 7-10 years? Further muddying the EV marketing efforts of both the Government and private enterprise. Hyundai, Toyota, BMW, and others are working on hydrogen as an alternative.

Lets take a closer look at what the EPA stated, in what would be the nation’s most ambitious climate regulation, the proposal is designed to ensure that electric cars make up the majority of new U.S. auto sales by 2032. That would represent a quantum leap for the United States, as there are just 5.8 percent of vehicles sold last year were all-electric.

At the same time, the proposed regulation would pose a significant challenge for automakers. Nearly every major car company has already invested heavily in electric vehicles, but few have committed to the levels envisioned by the Biden administration. Even manufacturers who are enthusiastic about electric models are unsure whether consumers will buy enough of them to make up the majority of new car sales within a decade.

Remember, the Biden administration’s recent decision to approve an enormous oil drilling project on federal land in Alaska, this is against that narrative. Sounds like the climate activists are pushing in the other direction. The new requirements would attempt to ensure that electric cars represent between 54 and 60 percent of all new cars sold in the United States by 2030, with that figure rising to 64 to 67 percent of new car sales by 2032.

Let’s please just end the mandate madness and let the market guide the process. Before the government makes it ILLEGAL to drive a internal combustion engine vehicle.

There is so much more to discuss on this, put your comments below and let’s start the conversation.

Lauren Fix, The Car Coach®, is a nationally recognized automotive expert, analyst, author, and television host.  A trusted car expert, Lauren provides an insider’s perspective on a wide range of automotive topics and aspects, energy, industry, consumer news, and safety issues.   

Lauren is the CEO of Automotive Aspects and the Editor-in-Chief of Car Coach Reports, a global automotive news outlet. She is an automotive contributor to national and local television news shows, including Fox News, Fox Business, CNN International, The Weather Channel, Inside Edition, Local Now News, Community Digital News, and more. Lauren also co-hosts a regular show on ABC.com with Paul Brian called “His Turn – Her Turn” and hosts regular radio segments on USA Radio – DayBreak. 

Lauren is honored to be inducted into the Women’s Transportation Hall of Fame and a Board Member of the Buffalo Motorcar Museum and Juror / President for the North American Car, Utility & Truck of the Year Awards.  

Check her out on Twitter and Instagram @LaurenFix.

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One Response to “New EPA Electric Vehicle Mandates Are Not Good”

  1. Henry Stowe says:

    It should be clear that the Biden Administration is hostile to automobiles and the mobility they provide or they wouldn’t be tightening emissions standards. That applies to every administration since in office since 1990. President Bush signed a significant long term tightening of emissions regulations into law through the Clean Air Act. To anyone awake, it was clear where things were headed. The work of emissions reduction was largely completed by 1980. New cars were emitting less than 10 percent of the tailpipe emissions that they were in 1970. The 1990 clean air act, signed into law by President Bush set a 20 plus year timetable to phase in new emissions requirements for gasoline and diesel highway vehicles. It left the standards as open ended to be determined by the EPA instead of the United States Congress as did the 1970 Act. No longer did the EPA have to answer to congress or the American public. Simply issue a notice of proposed rulemaking, take comments and then publish a rule.

    That is bad enough. The EPA has been arbitrarily tightening emissions standards for 20 years because of “public health,” however, this is the first time the EPA has directly stated that it is using the policy to dictate vehicle choice.

    We need to contact the the 20 or so new congresspeople and think about how to cut the funding of this nasty agency. They don’t deserve another dime. Defund and disarm the EPA.