This is probably not the news the Biden campaign had been hoping for seven months before November’s general election.
As his administration continues to push electric vehicles, the American people are not with him. Just the opposite, in fact.
EV ownership has risen over the past year, of course — no surprise there. The increase hasn’t been huge — from 4 percent to 7 — but still, I’m sure President Joe Biden sees almost doubling the number of American EV owners in one year as something of a victory for his policies.
Not looking so good for Team Biden, however, is the fact that number of people who told Gallup that they were “seriously considering” a purchase of a new EV was down by a similar 3 points, from 12 percent to 9 percent.
If you’re Joe Biden, however (and I’m assuming you’re not, because I don’t think he has the sense to read The Western Journal), the news gets worse.
Last year, about 43 percent of the people asked by Gallup whether they consider purchasing an EV in the future was approaching half — about 43 percent.
This year, that number dropped to just barely over a third — 35 percent.
Overall, Gallup reported, the number of people considering the purchase of an EV either now or sometime in the future has dropped from 55 to 44 percent, while those who say they won’t buy one has risen from 41 to 48 percent.
That’s not how the Biden administration would like to see these numbers moving.
Gallup noted that Biden had set an ambitious goal of 60 percent of all new vehicle production being electric in just six years. “But that appears unlikely to occur unless consumer preferences change rapidly in the coming years,” the self-described global analytics and advisory firm said.
Gallup considers only about one in six consumers to be in the EV market, as they either already own an EV or they’re seriously considering buying one in the near future. And given that expressing a willingness to purchase one soon would be considered virtue signalling by some, even that number might be exaggerated.
Biden thus faces the difficult challenge of quadrupling the EV market by 2030. That might not be impossible, but it’s probably the next best thing.
EV ownership rates are higher among upper income families and lowest among lower income families, strongly suggesting that the high cost of EV ownership presents a headwind that Biden is unlikely to overcome in the very near future.
The one thing Biden might have going for him is the fact that younger Americans are more likely to purchase an EV than older Americans.
Interestingly, even those who claim to worry “a great deal” about climate change aren’t much more likely that those who worry a “fair amount” or “not at all” — another suggestion that virtue signalling may be skewing these figures and that the cost of EVs is a significant factor in preventing consumers from adopting them more quickly.
The conclusions are obvious, but Gallup spelled them out anyway.
“Unless that market expands greatly in the next few years, it is unlikely auto companies doing business in the U.S. will be able to meet the emissions targets laid out by the Biden administration,” the outlet wrote. “Those targets may need to be relaxed further if Biden is reelected, or they may be done away with under a second Trump administration.”
There’s a third option, of course. Biden could be re-elected but not move the goalposts, simply ignoring the disconnect between his target numbers and reality.
Leftists, after all, tend to be fairly skilled at ignoring reality when doing otherwise might be inconvenient.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
