While buyers of new electric vehicles are eligible for up to $7,500 in federal tax credits, only 18 models are currently eligible for that full credit, down from about two dozen last year. One of those eligible models, the Ford F-150 Lightning, an all-electric pickup truck that once had a waiting list of 200,000, last year saw sales of 24,000, far short of the 150,000 sales projected by Ford.
And while construction of EV chargers is expanding, nearly doubling from about 87,000 in 2019 to more than 172,000 last year, analysts project that the nation will need more than 2 million chargers by 2030 to support the growth in electric vehicles envisioned by the proposed rules.
All that worries auto companies, which have invested about $146 billion over the past three years in researching and developing electric vehicles, according to the Center for Automotive Research, a nonprofit organization in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Auto companies would face billions of dollars per year in fines if the emissions associated with their auto sales exceed the limits set by the new regulations.
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents 42 car companies that produce about 97% of the new vehicles sold in the United States, asked the administration for the same slowdown sought by the UAW.
“Pace matters,” John Bozzella, president of the alliance, said in an interview. “Give the market and supply chains a chance to catch up, maintain a customer’s ability to choose, let more public charging come online.”
Analysts say the current lag in electric vehicle sales is to be expected, as the market for early adopters – typically wealthier, coastal residents who have bought an EV as a second car – is saturated.
