President Joe Biden’s support for electric vehicles could hurt his re-election chances next year as the rollout of electric vehicles continues to encounter problems.
Particularly in Michigan, a swing state that former President Donald Trump won in 2016 and Biden won in 2020, tension over the EV issue has spilled over into the ongoing UAW strike that continues to impact American auto companies.
Tensions only continue to rise as companies like Ford and General Motors spend billions of dollars designing and building electric vehicles that auto workers fear could jeopardize their jobs.
“They (EVs) are one political footballsaid Ford Motor Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley, lamenting the increasingly political climate surrounding the topic of electric vehicles.
In a recent survey of Michigan voters statewide, Trump led Biden from 46 percent to 43 percent among United Auto Workers union members.
Biden’s decline among union workers is likely due to the president’s vocal support of EVs.
Joe Biden’s administration is optimistic about the continued rollout of electric vehicles, despite ongoing challenges
Donald Trump (pictured here at the 2011 Indianapolis 500) has campaigned for the support of UAW union workers whose jobs may be at risk from the EV push
The Biden administration’s support for electric cars has taken the form of an active push to embrace the cars by his Energy Department, as well as expanding tax breaks for electric car buyers and subsidizing their production.
The current administration’s plan has come under fire from Republicans who want to oust Biden in 2024, claiming the green EV policy will eliminate jobs in the US auto industry and ultimately force unpopular policies like the future mandate of California for the sale of zero-emission vehicles.
Trump and Biden have both spent time in Michigan in recent weeks addressing the issue.
The former predicted that Biden’s EV policy would result in “hundreds of thousands of American jobs” disappearing.
“I don’t understand why Ford and GM, why these automakers, aren’t fighting … to make cars that will sell, to make cars that can go long distances,” he said at a meeting last month.
Trump’s less popular Republican competitors have also been pushing back against the perceived rise of electric cars.
Vivek Ramaswamy said he is not in favor of EV subsidies and has described EV buyers as motivated by a “psychological insecurity.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence said the current administration’s plans are “driving America’s gasoline and auto production to the graveyard.”
Electric vehicles have fewer parts and require less labor to build than gasoline-powered cars. A forced embrace of electric cars would almost certainly mean the elimination of many American auto manufacturing jobs.
Last week, General Motors announced it would delay the opening of a large EV truck factory in Michigan by a year, explaining that the company must “better manage capital investments while meeting the changing demand for electric vehicles.”
That announcement followed an earlier announcement from Ford, which pushed back its goal of building 600,00 electric vehicles annually to the end of 2024.
The major US automaker has also halted construction of a $3.5 billion battery factory in Michigan and temporarily halted a production shift for its electric pickup range.
Ford and GM have both announced significant delays in their EV targets. GM is delaying the opening of a massive electric truck factory, while Ford is reducing the number of electric vehicles it expects to produce annually
Biden, who visited a UAW picket line, positioned his push for electric vehicles as a step toward the future
One problem with the Biden administration’s continued rollout of EVs is that there aren’t enough EV charging stations in the US, and some aren’t functioning particularly well.
The first predicted that Biden’s EV policy would lead to the elimination of “hundreds of thousands of American jobs.”
Biden, who visited a UAW picket line, positioned his push for electric vehicles as a step toward the future.
“The real question is whether we will lead or fall behind in the race to the future; whether we’re going to build these vehicles and the batteries that go into them here in the United States or rely on other countries,” he said during a Ford factory shutdown during the early days of his administration.
The EV issue currently appears divided along relatively partisan lines.
According to a recent survey of new vehicle buyers, for every five Democrats in the US who own an electric car, two Republicans do so as well.
The data, from Strategic Vision President Alexander Edwards, suggests that Democrats are prioritizing “environmentally friendly” cars when purchasing, while Republicans are looking first at other qualities, including the vehicle’s prestige and performance.
In what looks to be a tight general election, any issue could create a divide between the winner and the loser.
In several recent Harvard Harris poll comparisonsTrump is performing better than Biden. In a direct match-up, Trump wins 52 percent of the vote, and Biden 48.
When third- and fourth-party candidates are added to the equation, Trump emerges victorious by an even larger margin.