Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was accused of making false promises after the Biden Administration said it would build half a million electric vehicle (EV) charging stations along U.S. highways by 2030.
Buttigieg was pressed for answers by CBS News’ “Face The Nation” host Margaret Brennan grilled him on why only eight EV charging stations have been constructed since President Joe Biden took office.
“Now, in order to do a charger, it's more than just plugging a small device into the ground,” Buttigieg said. ”There's utility work, and this is also really a new category of federal investment. But we've been working with each of the 50 states.”
However, Brennan pointed out that only “seven or eight” EV charges have been built since the administration began pushing appliances and vehicles to go electric.
In 2021, Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which earmarked $7.5 billion for EV charging stations. In addition, Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act expands tax credits for EVs and charger installations.
“Again by 2030, 500,000 chargers," he reaffirmed. "And the very first handful of chargers are now already being physically built."
A study from J.D. Power shows that many consumers were less likely to buy EVs due to the lack of charging stations in the U.S.— especially in rural areas.
Nearly 24 percent of people said they are "very likely" to consider purchasing an EV in 2024— a decrease from the 26 percent who said the same thing last year.
Meanwhile, the percentage of Americans who said they would be willing to buy an electric to declined to 58 percent from 61 percent in 2023.
During the interview, Brennan play a video clip of former President Donald Trump saying “Do you notice [Biden]’s trying to save the electrical vehicle but not the gas-powered, which is the vehicle that everybody wants. They’re going crazy with the electric car, costing us a fortune. We’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars subsidizing a car that nobody wants and nobody’s ever gonna buy.”
The host agreed with Trump’s remarks, admitting that the 2024 hopeful is “not wrong.”
However, Buttigieg insisted that Trump was wrong.
“On the purchasing, he’s not. Of the 4 million vehicles purchased, you know what- 269,000 electric vehicles were sold in the US market. It’s up like two percent,” he said.
As a result of the Biden Administration’s empty promises, car makers such as Ford and Mercedes-Benz have pivoted away from producing EVs as the demand for electric vehicles has fallen.