Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was confronted by a CBS host about the Biden administration’s aggressive electric vehicle (EV) push.
Buttigieg responded to repeated attacks from former President Trump, who claimed President Biden was spending billions of federal dollars on an unpopular car.
“You notice he’s trying to save the electric vehicle, but not the gasoline vehicle, which is the vehicle that everyone wants. They’re going crazy with the electric car, which is costing us a fortune. We’re spending hundreds of billion dollars to subsidize a car that no one wants and no one will ever buy,” Trump said.
Pete Buttigieg defended billions of dollars in federal spending to install electric vehicle chargers. (Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“He’s not wrong on the purchasing side,” CBS anchor Margaret Brennen told Buttigieg. during an interview on Sunday on “Facing the Nation”.
“He’s wrong,” Buttigieg refuted.
“That’s not the case,” Brennen replied. “Of the 4 million vehicles purchased, 269,000 electric vehicles were sold in the American market. This represents an increase of approximately 2%.”
“Each year, more Americans buy electric vehicles than the year before,” he insisted.
Later, Brennen confronted Buttigieg about the lack of progress on electric vehicle charging stations across the country.
“The Federal Highway Administration says only seven or eight charging stations were produced with a $7.5 billion investment made by taxpayers in 2021. Why isn’t this happening faster? » asked Brennen.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg discussed electric vehicles on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” (CBS screenshot)
“So the president’s goal is to have half a million chargers by the end of this decade. Now, to make a charger, it’s not enough to plug a small device into the ground. work in public services, and it’s also really a “It’s a new category of federal investment. But we have worked with each of the 50 states, each of them is given a formula of dollars to do this work,” Buttigieg responded.
“But seven or eight?” Brennen interjected, laughing slightly at his response.
“Again, by 2030, 500,000 chargers,” Buttigieg continued. “The very first handful of chargers are already under physical construction. Again, these are the very early stages of construction to come. The reason we are investing federal dollars is to fill some of the gaps in the areas where it is not yet profitable for the private sector to do so. Again, the majority of recharges will be done at home.
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In April, a Gallup poll showed declining interest among Americans in purchasing an electric vehicle, with only 9% “seriously considering” purchasing one.
President Biden previously set a goal of ensuring 50% of car purchases are electric by 2030. (Anna Moneymaker/Pool/Getty Images | Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
However, the Biden administration has finalized stricter emissions regulations meeting the president’s goal of having 50% of all U.S. car sales be electric vehicles by the end of the decade.
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