HOUSTON – The Biden Administration and the EPA are attempting to shift the green revolution into a much higher gear and dramatically ramp up sales of electric vehicles.
They are proposing making it mandatory for electric vehicles or EVs to make up at least 54% of all new car sales by 2030, and by requiring two-thirds of all new car sales to be electric by 2032, which is just nine years from now.
But with the average price of an electric vehicle sitting at $58,000, David Gantz, a fellow at the Baker Institute at Rice University, says as it stands now, the prices of EVs are just too high to get many Americans to switch.
”They just cost too much. There’s a limited number of people in the United States that can go out and spend $55,000 or more for an electric vehicle,” Gantz said.
In Houston, real estate agent Thurayah McBride is in the market for a new car.
In fact, she practically lives in her car, driving 40,000 miles a year on her job, which requires her to take clients home in both Houston and Austin. But as far as buying an EV, she says there is just no way right now.
“No, I would not buy one. I’ve researched the cost of buying an electric vehicle and the costs are just astronomical,” Thurayah said.
So far this year, only 7% of new cars purchased in this country have been electric vehicles.
Professor Gantz says a lot of that has to do with the lack of electric charging stations in so many cities in the United States.
“One of the reasons is the lack of charging stations in a lot of places where some people desperately need it, including people like us who live in apartments. And that sort of leads into the whole range anxiety problem, where you’re afraid you are going to run out of battery power before you get to your next destination,” Gantz said.
Still, the EPA is moving forward with the proposal of this plan to eliminate more and more gas-powered cars and trucks from the road.
Thuraya, for one, is against the government forcing families to have to switch to EVs, if only for the cost alone.
“Some of the prices for these electric cars are more than half of what some of these families earn in a year. I just don’t think you should be able to force people like that to have to pay for something like that. I think people should be able to drive what they want,” Thurayah said.