Electric vehicles (EV) at an Electrify America charging station, Atlanta, Aug. 28. PHOTO: MEGAN VARNER/BLOOMBERG NEWS
By The Editorial Board | The Wall Street Journal
The House on Friday voted, 215-191, to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s vehicle emissions rule, with eight Democrats joining Republicans. Kamala Harris says she doesn’t support an electric vehicle mandate, but that’s what the Biden EPA rule effectively is.
The EPA in March finalized greenhouse gas emissions requirements for auto makers through 2032. EPA’s models show that gas-powered cars will make up no more than 30% of sales by 2032. EVs made up a mere 7.6% of auto sales last year and less than 4% for General Motors and Ford. In eight years they will have to increase their EV sales by some 15-fold.
The emissions standards are especially punitive for U.S. manufacturers that mostly sell trucks and SUVs. Companies will effectively have to produce one to two electric trucks for every gas-powered one in 2027 and closer to four to one by 2032. Yet electric trucks cost much more to produce than sedans since they require much bigger batteries.
Ford lost $44,000 on each EV sold in the second quarter, which is more than some of its trucks retail for. Auto makers are scaling back EV investment amid slowing demand. Ford announced last month it is cancelling production of an electric SUV and delaying an electric pickup. The same week Stellantis delayed retooling a shuttered plant in Belvidere, Ill., for EV production. The Energy Department awarded Stellantis $335 million in subsidies to convert the plant to make EVs. President Biden boasted about the plant in his State of the Union address this year.
“Before I came to office the plant was on its way to shutting down. Thousands of workers feared for their livelihoods,” he said. “A new state-of-the art battery factory is being built to power those cars . . . 4,000 union workers with higher wages will be building that future, in Belvidere, in America.” Or not.
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