WashPo: Congress and Car Companies Love Electric Vehicles – but Americans Aren’t Buying In

The White House appears to have convinced Congress to spend big on electric vehicles, but now it faces the challenge of convincing tens of millions of American drivers to purchase them. According to a report by the Washington Post, Americans aren’t buying in. One woman said, “I want to believe these are good cars, but I am like, ‘Is this a repeat of the flip-phone era? Should I be sitting this out for now?’”

The Washington Post reports that while the White House is celebrating Congress agreeing to invest in electric vehicles, there now remains a new hurdle – convincing tens of millions of motorists to purchase the cars.

The administration is attempting to upend the current auto market dominated by fossil fuel-powered vehicles. But many Americans still see electric vehicles as inefficient, awkward to charge, expensive, and largely owned by coastal elites.

The belief that Electric cars like those made by Tesla are best for elites in big cities is driven in part by the lack of chargers in many places, including West Virginia. The Post reports:

The roadblocks to mainstream adoption of the cars are particularly daunting in states like West Virginia, where driver suspicion of the reliability of the technology is compounded by underinvestment in charging infrastructure.

When Robert Fernatt gets asked how easy it is to drive across West Virginia in an electric car, the answer is frequently that you can’t.

In other cases, consumers have had poor experiences with electric vehicles. The Washington Post describes the experience of one driver who purchased a Chevy Bolt electric vehicle:

“I want to believe these are good cars, but I am like, ‘Is this a repeat of the flip-phone era? Should I be sitting this out for now?’ ” said Kara Cooper, a 32-year-old photographer in Washougal, Wash.

Cooper took the plunge in 2020 when she bought a used Chevy Bolt, but the battery wouldn’t charge properly, she said.

“I was pretty turned off by the experience,” Cooper said. She returned the Bolt to the dealership and has been on the hunt for an affordable electric replacement for her gas-powered Volkswagen Jetta since then. “It is stressful,” Cooper said. “I have spent so many hours researching this that it is kind of embarrassing.”

Read more at the Washington Post here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan