Frequently Asked Questions

Cars hold immense importance for American families, serving as more than just modes of transportation.  They symbolize freedom, mobility, and convenience, enable people to connect with loved ones, access essential services, and explore their vast country.  Cars play a pivotal role in daily life, facilitating commutes, school runs, grocery shopping, and recreational activities.  They foster independence, allowing families to create their schedules and adapt to diverse needs.  Cars provide a sense of security during emergencies and natural disasters, ensuring people can evacuate or access resources when necessary.  In a nation as expansive as the United States, cars are not merely vehicles; they are integral to the American way of life.  

The reduction in the number of personal vehicles has long been a goal of the left because automobiles provide a measure of personal mobility and autonomy that is fundamentally contrary to their vision of what they consider to be a well-ordered society.  To realize this goal, the Biden Administration and California Governor Gavin Newsom have launched two different regulatory programs.  The first is the federal fuel economy program, known as the CAFE program.  The other is the California car program, which is driven nationally by California’s ability to seek and obtain a waiver from certain federal laws.  These are both directed at gradually eliminating the sales of gasoline-powered cars (eventually to zero) and, as a corollary, mandating the sale of electric vehicles.

Among other problems, such a transition would require much greater amounts of the critical materials used to make electric vehicles.  Given that the current administration opposes mining, and given that mines still take on average more than 15 years from permit application to production, it is clear that the timelines involved in producing those minerals are not remotely aligned with the timelines proposed by California or the Biden Administration (which call for, at the moment, about two-thirds of cars and trucks to be electric by 2032).

Most importantly, as prices for both kinds of vehicles increase, some significant percentage of the population will lose the ability to purchase automobiles of any variety.

That is a feature and not a bug of these efforts.  The real aim of the program is to reduce the absolute number of vehicles on the road or available for purchase.

Finally, it is conceivable that the automakers may ultimately go along with the regulatory programs that reduce the number of conventional vehicles they sell, provided that their overall profits are protected.  Management of the automakers have made it as clear as they possibly can that they are prepared to go along with the mandates provided that the government continues to subsidize them.

The Save Our Cars Coalition is committed to preserving the consumers’ right to choose the car or truck that is best for them.  We will work to ensure that access to personal transportation remains affordable and equitable for everyone.  We will promote rational policies that empower individuals and encourage fair competition and consumer choice in the automotive industry.  To address this challenge, we must first alert and educate the public to the threats posed by these harmful regulatory programs, which will add even more to the price tag of vehicles that are already at record highs, pricing people out of the ability to own a car or truck. 

President Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released regulations to ensure that electric cars represent between 54 and 60 percent of all new cars sold in the United States by 2030 and 64 to 67 percent by 2032—in 9 years.  The purpose of the new EPA regulations is to essentially regulate cars with combustible engines out of business by making the rules so stringent that car companies cannot comply, which is a de facto ban on conventional vehicles. Today, about six percent of cars are electric.

In 2020, California’s Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order to ban the sale of new diesel and gas powered cars and light trucks (such as the Ford F-150) in California by 2035.  The California’s Air Resources Board followed up with regulations to achieve this goal by essentially requiring that 35 percent of new car sales are EVs by 2026, 68 percent are EVs by 2030, and 100 percent EV-sales by 2035.

The federal Clean Air Act preempts states from adopting their own emissions standards for new cars and trucks except that for states that had emissions standards before March 30, 1966 and the only state that did was California.  This section of the Clean Air Act (Section 209) allows California to petition the federal government to allow it to set its own vehicle emissions standards.  The Clean Air Act also allows other states to adopt California’s new motor vehicle emissions regulation and 17 states have rules tied to California’s program.   

There is trouble brewing for auto sales as regulations and government intervention continue to distort the auto market.  According to Kelley Blue Book, the average transaction price of a new vehicle in July 2023 was $48,334, and the average EV price was $53,469.  Just one car model — the Mitsubishi Mirage — had an average new-vehicle transaction price below $20,000 in July 2023.

High prices mean that Americans are holding onto their older cars for longer as the average age of a car on the road in the United States is 12 years and continues to rise annually.  According to Kelly Blue Book, the average car owner spent $12,182 to drive last year, according to a new study from AAA. That figure — $1,015 a month – is a sharp increase over 2022’s total of $10,728, or $894 monthly.  Additionally, inflation and lack of economic growth are forcing Americans to default on their car loans at rates not seen since the financial crisis of 2009.

According to data released by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association, the average inventory for passenger vehicles ranged from 58-63 days at the end of August 2023 against 50-55 days in the previous month. For comparison, in August 2022, the average inventory stood at 30-35 days.  Those inventory issues are especially pronounced for EVs as their average inventory is currently about double that of all vehicles.  Because of this, Insider reports that some dealers don’t want new electric vehicle deliveries.  Despite all of this, government policy is leading manufacturers to decrease their internal combustion engine product offerings.  This is why the coalition is critical. Already, even before the pending regulations put forth by the president and Governor Newsom, consumer preferences are taking a back seat to political pressure to eliminate the internal combustion engine. 

No.  Consumers should be free to choose the types of vehicles that make sense for them and that includes electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.  However, we are opposed to efforts that force changes in the marketplace that have nothing to do with consumer preferences, which is exactly what the Biden administration and California proposals would do.

Although there is a market for electric vehicles, that market is currently limited to only about 1 percent of vehicles on the road.  Because of their high price tags, most current EV owners tend to have higher incomes and often use their EV as a second or third option.  The CEO of Ford Motor Company, Jim Farley, said it best in a recent media interview.  When asked if he thinks EVs are better than their internal combustion predecessors, he said “For some customers they are, but not for everyone.  If you're pulling a fifth wheel in Wyoming you probably don’t want to own an electric vehicle.  But if you have three cars in your household and one is for short distances, running around town or a hundred, two hundred mile range, it’s a better car.”   

Despite recent growth in EV sales, serious concerns still persist about a wide range of issues including driving range, vehicle reliability, price, the buildout of charging infrastructure, charging time, the cost and lifespan of batteries and their environmental impact, the actual impact electric vehicles will have on reducing carbon emissions, problems with battery recycling and end-of-life management, as well as human rights issues related to the electric vehicles’ supply chain.

Electric vehicles are not cost-competitive with traditional gasoline and diesel vehicles, costing on average about $5,000 more than the average gasoline vehicle.  According to data from Cox Automotive, parent of Kelley Blue Book, the average transaction price for electric cars was $53,438 in June 2023, vs. gas-powered vehicles at $48,808.  At the beginning of this year, the price difference was over $15,000 on average, but was lowered as Tesla cut its electric vehicle prices late last year.  Electric vehicle prices have varied over time as manufacturers have cut or increased them as demand and component costs have changed.  Most EV purchases have aligned with luxury models as the average EV buyer has an annual income of about $150,000, which is twice the U.S. average.  

Automobile buyers also want vehicle range, towing capability and refueling times to be comparable to gasoline vehicles.  Recharging times can take 20 minutes to well over an hour depending on the charger type.  The availability of charging infrastructure is still an issue despite the incentives in bills passed by Congress during the Biden administration.      

The production of the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles results in more carbon dioxide emissions than the production of gasoline-powered cars, and their disposal at the end of their life cycle is a growing environmental concern.  About 40 percent of the climate impact from the production of lithium-ion batteries comes from the mining and processing of the minerals.  Mining and refining of battery materials, and manufacturing of the cells, modules and battery packs requires significant amounts of energy which generate greenhouse gas emissions.  China, which dominates the world’s battery supply chain, gets almost 60 percent of its electricity from coal—a greenhouse gas-intensive fuel.  Production of the average lithium-ion battery uses three times more cumulative energy demand compared to a generic battery in an internal combustion vehicle.

The disposal of the batteries also creates environmental risks.  If the battery ends up in a landfill, its cells can release toxins, including heavy metals that can leak into the soil and groundwater.  A study from Australia found that 98.3 percent of lithium-ion batteries end up in landfills (rather than being recycled), which increases the likelihood of landfill fires that can burn for years.

One landfill in the Pacific Northwest was reported to have had 124 fires between June 2017 and December 2020 due to lithium-ion batteries.  Fires are becoming increasingly more common, with 21 fires reported on the site in 2018, increasing to 47 by 2020.

While batteries can be recycled, only about 5 percent of the world’s lithium batteries are recycled compared to 99 percent of lead car batteries that are recycled in the United States.  Recycling lithium batteries also can be hazardous.  Cutting too deep into a cell or in the wrong place can result in it short-circuiting, combusting, and releasing toxic fumes.  Because batteries differ widely in chemistry and construction, it is difficult to create efficient recycling systems, and because the cells are often held together with tough glues that make them difficult to take apart, it is often cheaper for battery makers to buy newly mined metals than to use recycled materials, even with rapidly increasing prices.

Electric vehicles need cobalt, the majority of which is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  The mining of cobalt produces hazardous byproducts that can toxify the environment.  Cobalt mine sites often contain sulfur, which generates sulfuric acid when exposed to air and water that infiltrates rivers, streams and aquatic life.

Child labor is also being used in the Congo to mine cobalt, and about 80 percent of the industrial cobalt mines in the DRC are owned or financed by Chinese companies.

Finally, battery charging is an issue because coal and natural gas represent about 60 percent of the current U.S. generation mix.  While massive subsidies and state mandates have increased the share of renewable energy, producing the electricity to charge the batteries still results in releases of greenhouse gas emissions.

According to President Biden, mandating electric vehicles will create new, high-paying, jobs.  He says that his policies will result in “one million new jobs in the American automobile industry.”  However, he fails to mention how many of the current workers will be losing their jobs, actually resulting in a net loss as fewer workers are needed to produce and maintain EVs compared to traditional cars due to their fewer parts. 

Ford Motor Company announced that it lost $2.1 billion on its electric vehicle business in 2022, double its losses in 2021, and it lost $722 million on the business over the first three months of 2023, putting it on track for roughly $3 billion in yearly losses.  In 2022, Ford made 61,575 electric vehicles, resulting in a loss of about $34,000 on every electric vehicle it sold last year. In the first quarter 2023, Ford sold 10,866 electric vehicles for a loss of $66,446 on every electric vehicle it sold. 

According to GM’s CEO Mary Barra, electric vehicles won't be profitable until 2025.  By that date, the company plans to sell 1 million electric vehicles a year. Its gas and diesel cars business is expected to keep funding the losses and other technological developments in the meantime. Even once the electric vehicles break even, Barra reports that electric vehicles won't be as profitable as gas-powered cars.

Finally, the Inflation Reduction Act and other legislation passed during the Biden administration, have created incentives for battery production, such that taxpayers are paying between $3.4 million and $7.7 million per job associated with manufacturing electric vehicles.  Further, the average wage at electric vehicle factories is estimated to be about $46,000 per year or about $22 per hour, which is far less than the wages paid to top union members at GM’s engine and transmission plants, who earn about $31 per hour.

China dominates the market for batteries and will do so for the foreseeable future as it is ahead of other countries’ supply chains and manufacturing capability by decades.  Despite billions in Western investment, China is so far ahead — mining rare minerals, training engineers and building huge factories — that it will take decades for the rest of the world to catch up. 

According to estimates from Benchmark Minerals, by 2030 China will make more than twice as many batteries as every other country combined.  China controls every step of lithium-ion battery production, from getting the raw materials out of the ground to making electric vehicles.

Electric vehicles use about six times more rare minerals than conventional vehicles because of the battery, and China decides on the price and the availability of those minerals.  Although China has few underground deposits of the essential ingredients, it has pursued a long-term strategy to buy its way into a cheap and steady supply elsewhere.

Chinese companies acquired stakes in mining companies on five continents.  They own half of the large cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has the majority of the world’s supply of cobalt needed for battery production.  China controls 41 percent of the world’s cobalt mining and 28 percent of lithium mining.

Regardless of who mines the minerals, nearly everything is refined into battery-grade materials in China due to its cheap coal power and lack of stringent environmental rules.  Battery minerals require three to four times as much energy to make as steel or copper.  Supported by the government with cheap land and coal-fired electricity, Chinese companies have been able to refine minerals at larger volume and lower cost than anyone else, causing its competition to close.

By making battery components efficiently and at lower cost, China was able to become the largest battery producer, making 66 percent of the world’s battery cells. China also leads the world in electric vehicle production, equipment and product design, manufacturing 54 percent of the world’s electric vehicles.

Due to China’s control of the battery supply chain, the United States will become dependent on slaving, genocidal China as it pursues its transition to electric vehicles.  When the United States was dependent on the Middle East for oil at its peak in 2001, that region provided 23 percent of the energy used in the United States.  Under an electric vehicle mandate, the United States will be about 4 times more dependent on China as it was on the Middle East for oil, as China processes over 80 percent of the world’s critical minerals.

The total cost of the manufacturing subsidies offered by the Inflation Reduction Act are expected to top $1 trillion, with subsidies for the electric vehicle battery packs alone topping $130 billion.

President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will cost roughly $1.2 trillion–three times more than the Congressional Budget Office’s forecast that the IRA’s energy and climate provisions would cost $391 billion between 2022 and 2031.

The difference in cost mainly arises from lucrative tax credits in the law that are not capped and that Biden Administration’s generous interpretations of the legislative language.

The differences include electric vehicles ($379 billion increase above projection), “green energy” manufacturing ($156 billion increase above projection), renewable electricity production ($82 billion), energy efficiency ($42 billion), hydrogen ($36 billion), biofuels ($34 billion) and carbon capture ($31 billion).

A study by the Anderson Economic Group found the cost to fuel electric vehicles under certain conditions to be higher than similar gasoline-powered cars.  In the fourth quarter of 2022, drivers fueling a typical mid-priced gasoline-powered car paid $11.29 to fuel their vehicle for 100 miles of driving.  That cost was $0.31 cheaper than the amount paid by drivers in mid-priced electric vehicles charging mostly at home, and over $3 less than the cost borne by comparable drivers charging commercially.  This difference occurred because gasoline prices were declining, and electricity costs were increasing. 

The opposite was true for luxury cars.  During the fourth quarter of 2022, luxury EV owners paid $12.4 to drive every 100 miles on average if they charge their cars mostly at home or $15.95 if they charge their cars mostly at commercial charging stations.  The fuel costs for luxury gasoline-powered cars totaled $19.96 per 100 miles on average.  Assuming mostly home charging, the cost benefit to fuel a luxury electric vehicle vs. a luxury gasoline-powered car was $7.56 and about $4 for commercial electrical vehicle charging.

The fuel costs are based on real-world driving conditions including the cost of underlying energy, state taxes charged for road maintenance, the cost of operating a pump or charger, and the cost to drive to a fueling station.

The U.S. electric grid does not currently have the capacity to handle the increased power load required to charge the volume of new electric vehicles that the Biden team wants on the roads over the next decade (EPA proposed new rule will require two-thirds of new cars sold to be all-electric vehicles by 2030. 

California, the nation’s largest car market, is phasing out the sale of gasoline and diesel vehicles within the next 13 years.  All new cars, trucks, and SUVs will be required to run on electricity. The rule requires that the state reach 35 percent electric vehicle sales by 2026, 68 percent by 2030 — two years earlier than EPA’s proposed rule for the nation--and 100 percent by 2035.

The Western States Petroleum Association indicated that California’s electrification of the transportation sector will increase demand by around 300,000 gigawatt-hours statewide, which would be equivalent to a doubling of present electricity demand.  Charging an electric vehicle is like adding one or two air conditioners to a residence in terms of its energy demand increase, and many households have multiple vehicles that would need to be replaced by electric vehicles. 

Further, forcing more electricity demand from electric vehicles onto an electric system that is supposed to transition to all renewable technologies that are intermittent and essentially unreliable literally makes no sense as there will not be enough dependable capacity.  Under such an approach, U.S. residents should expect brownouts and blackouts, similar to developing countries.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) includes a tax credit worth up to $7,500 for qualifying electric vehicles, but limits the number of vehicles that qualify for the credit. According to the Inflation Reduction Act, to qualify for $3,750 of the credit, an increasing share of a vehicle’s battery minerals such as lithium and nickel has been extracted or processed in the United States or in a country with which the United States has a free-trade agreement.

The other half of the credit is supposed to be available only for vehicles in which most of its battery components are made in North America, starting at 50 percent and up to 100 percent by 2029.  Few electric vehicles currently on the market are expected to qualify for even half of the credit.

The Biden Administration, however, has been finding loopholes in the law to widen the scope of those who qualify.  The Treasury Department is offering U.S. automakers leniency in being able to use more foreign-sourced minerals and battery parts without losing the tax break and allowing European and Japanese companies to get a piece of the incentives.

According to the Treasury Department’s proposed rules for the tax credit, electric vehicles leased to consumers will be able to qualify for a separate commercial vehicle tax credit, which does not entail sourcing, income or price restrictions.  This is a huge loophole, because the law imposed an income limit to qualify for tax subsidies of $150,000 for individual buyers, and a price cap for vans, SUVs and pickups ($80,000), and sedans ($55,000).

In the Treasury’s determination, dealers or auto finance companies could receive the tax credits or pass them on to customers.  Electric vehicle buyers have typically been high-income individuals, and this leasing loophole will allow them to reap tax subsidies through a backdoor approach.

Very few of the critical minerals such as nickel, lithium and cobalt needed for electric vehicle batteries are able to be mined in the United States, despite having the resources.  While the United States has some of these minerals, regulatory roadblocks and lawsuits from environmentalists are in the way from developing those mining industries.
A new mine in the United States can take seven to10 years to complete all the permitting and paperwork before going online. In other countries, such as Canada and Australia, that process only takes two to three years.
The Biden Administration has not helped the process. It has revoked the leases for the Twin Metals Mine in Minnesota, delayed federal permits in several mine development cases, and placed fauna and flora on endangered lists to stop mining development, which has helped China get a greater foothold on the EV battery supply chain. 

The conversion of the federal government’s more than 380,000 nonmilitary cars and trucks to EVs was mandated by President Joe Biden’s 2021 executive order that set a 2035 deadline to complete the process.  Twenty-six federal departments and agencies plan to buy 9,500 electric vehicles to replace existing cars and trucks and will have to spend nearly $500 million more than if they opted for new conventional fossil-fueled models, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).  The total represents almost $200 million in estimated increased incremental costs between electric vehicles and gasoline-powered vehicles and almost $300 million in estimated costs to design and install the necessary infrastructure, among other potential expenses, according to the GAO analysis.  The 26 departments and agencies with approved transition plans operate nearly 90 percent of all federally owned nonmilitary vehicles.

Batteries for electric vehicles are heavy, particularly for electric trucks.  That will require additional road and bridge maintenance and cost.  Batteries are heavy because the chemicals and materials in battery cells are densely packed.  According to a study by the University of California’s Institute of Transportation Studies, long-haul electric trucks with a range of 300 miles are expected to be 5,328 pounds heavier than fossil-fuel versions in 2030.  Short-haul and medium-duty box delivery electric trucks are expected to weigh 1,400 extra pounds.  Based on average market penetration, the batteries on electric trucks in 2030 could collectively equal 59.3 million pounds.

A recent Pew Research Poll found that half of U.S. adults are not too or not at all likely to consider purchasing an EV, while another 13 percent say they do not plan to purchase a vehicle.  About four-in-ten Americans (38 percent) say they’re very or somewhat likely to seriously consider an electric vehicle for their next vehicle purchase.  The share of the public interested in purchasing an EV is down 4 percentage points from May 2022.