{"id":1571814,"date":"2024-03-25T05:58:01","date_gmt":"2024-03-25T05:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=316999"},"modified":"2024-03-25T05:58:01","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T05:58:01","slug":"heres-why-you-cant-afford-an-electric-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/03\/25\/heres-why-you-cant-afford-an-electric-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s Why You Can\u2019t Afford an Electric Car"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>\n
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Cybertruck, Tesla.<\/p><\/div>\n

It seems that there has never been a better time than now to buy an electric vehicle in the United States, especially if you read news headlines<\/a> and White House press releases<\/a>. You might be forgiven for thinking that you can actually afford to upgrade your old gas-guzzling sedan with a sleek, new zero-emissions EV. And if you can\u2019t afford one, the various local, state, and federal rebate programs<\/a> will surely knock thousands off the price tag, right?<\/p>\n

Wrong. In order to be able to qualify for the ever-changing and complicated federal $7,500 rebate<\/a> on EVs, one has to be rich enough to be able to afford to buy a new EV (some used ones qualify but good luck figuring out which one, and then even better luck finding such a car available for purchase). But, in order to qualify for the rebate, one can\u2019t be too rich. If you\u2019re middle-income, like me, you can lease an EV, but then you don\u2019t qualify for the rebate\u2014your leasing company does\u2014and you\u2019re left paying a hefty monthly lease.<\/p>\n

News headlines about Tesla slashing its EV prices<\/a> might still convince you that a new EV is within reach\u2014that is if you don\u2019t mind enriching one of the worst humans on the planet<\/a>. But Teslas are still among the more expensive cars on the market.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, there are sensationalist headlines about EV sales falling<\/a> over the past year, so much so that one might be forgiven for thinking that maybe most people wanting an EV already purchased one and demand is simply weakening. Dig past the headlines however, and the news reports all come to the same conclusion: EVs are still unaffordable for the majority of Americans, especially those who simply want to reduce their carbon footprint and their financial expenses at the same time. \u201cPricing is still very much the biggest barrier to electric vehicles,\u201d according to one research analyst<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A Los Angeles Times report<\/a> agreed: \u201cAlthough the cost of building EVs continues to drop, it has yet to reach price parity with conventional gasoline-powered vehicles.\u201d But the paper then bizarrely blamed Americans for the high price tags, saying, \u201cAmericans\u2019 preference for larger vehicles necessitates larger, heavier and costlier battery packs, contributing to the high prices.\u201d There was no mention of auto manufacturers spending years aggressively marketing SUVs<\/a> and other giant gas guzzlers to Americans. Indeed, there is a whole range of EV trucks on the market<\/a> right now\u2014still out of the grasp of ordinary middle-income Americans looking for an efficient commuter family car.<\/p>\n

Too bad these consumers don\u2019t have access to China\u2019s new EV, the BYD Seagull, a car that test drivers in the U.S. are gushing over<\/a>, and whose price tag begins at a mere $9,698. \u201cThat undercuts the average price of an American EV by more than $50,000,\u201d explained Bloomberg<\/a>. In fact, more than 70 percent of all EVs sold globally are Chinese manufactured. You don\u2019t have to live in China to buy a Chinese EV. You just have to live outside the U.S.<\/p>\n

What most headlines aren\u2019t saying overtly and what the Biden administration is also keeping relatively quiet about is that the U.S. is engaging in a fiercely protectionist trade war with China in order to shield American automakers. Forget the TikTok war<\/a>\u2014it\u2019s Chinese-made EVs that keep U.S. auto CEOs up at night.<\/p>\n

To protect them, the Biden administration is fanning the flames of anti-China sentiment and claiming it is worried about \u201cNational Security Concerns<\/a>\u201d over the computer systems of Chinese-made EVs. \u201cChina is determined to dominate the future of the auto market, including by using unfair practices,\u201d said Biden<\/a> in late February. \u201cChina\u2019s policies could flood our market with its vehicles, posing risks to our national security.\u201d The president has even ordered an investigation into China\u2019s so-called smart cars, which most EVs are these days.<\/p>\n

But the Biden administration\u2019s climate goals<\/a> for auto emissions rely on a mass transition to EVs across the nation. Already, it\u2019s behind in ramping up towards its goal of wanting half of all vehicles sold in 2030 to be EVs, likely because most Americans can\u2019t afford them, or can\u2019t access the far-cheaper Chinese-made cars. On top of that, the GOP has now made attacking EVs part of its new culture war<\/a>. It\u2019s no wonder EVs remain out of reach for most Americans.<\/p>\n

Why are Chinese cars so much cheaper, more varied, and just better<\/a> than American ones? It doesn\u2019t all boil down to the cost of labor as one might imagine. Chinese labor costs are not as low<\/a> as they used to be. China\u2019s government has simply made EVs a massive priority. An analysis in MIT Technology Review<\/a> explained, \u201cthe government has long played an important role\u2014propping up both the supply of EVs and the demand for them,\u201d and that there have been \u201cgenerous government subsidies, tax breaks, procurement contracts, and other policy incentives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of adopting a similarly aggressive approach to making EVs a priority, the Biden Administration\u2019s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has created a complex series of tax credits that require all EV materials and labor to be sourced in the U.S.\u2014a goal whose math just doesn\u2019t add up<\/a>. And, the IRA doesn\u2019t even protect<\/a> U.S. workers enough. The United Auto Workers (UAW) denounced the IRA on its first anniversary for failing to require fair labor standards in the transition to an EV economy.<\/p>\n

Still, UAW did the job itself. Fresh from a major union victory<\/a> in late 2023 the union won job protections<\/a> from the three biggest U.S. automakers for workers transitioning into the EV industry.<\/p>\n

Our economy relies far too much on cars and most American cities are planned around car-centric living<\/a>. It\u2019s no wonder that petroleum-powered vehicles are the single largest U.S. source<\/a> of climate-changing emissions. There are many ways to reduce this source, including redesigning cities to be more walkable<\/a>, improving the quality and cost of public transportation<\/a> and train systems<\/a>, and encouraging bicycle transportation<\/a> when possible\u2014all of which will take concerted effort, time, and resources.<\/p>\n

But the climate clock is ticking fast<\/a>. After decades of scientists and climate activists sounding the alarm and being ignored, we are only now starting to take baby steps to mitigate climate change and it\u2019s simply not enough. Even when accounting<\/a> for the mineral extraction needed to make EV batteries, EVs have a far lower carbon footprint than petroleum-based cars and are perhaps the best, most accessible tool we have to quickly reduce our carbon impact.<\/p>\n

his article was produced by <\/em>Economy for All<\/em><\/a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Here\u2019s Why You Can\u2019t Afford an Electric Car<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems that there has never been a better time than now to buy an electric vehicle in the United States, especially if you read news headlines and White House press releases. You might be forgiven for thinking that you can actually afford to upgrade your old gas-guzzling sedan with a sleek, new zero-emissions EV. And if you can\u2019t afford one, the various local, state, and federal rebate programs will surely knock thousands off the price tag, right? More<\/a><\/p>\n

The post Here\u2019s Why You Can\u2019t Afford an Electric Car<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":340,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,266],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571814"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/340"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1571814"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1586413,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571814\/revisions\/1586413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1571814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1571814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1571814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}