Auto Dealers Ask Biden to Pump the Brakes on EV Mandates

November 30, 2023

This week, a nationwide coalition with over 3,000 auto dealers sent President Biden a letter asking him to “tap the brakes” on his administration’s electric vehicle mandates. The coalition includes dealers in all 50 states who oppose the Biden administration’s tailpipe emissions standards. The new regulations proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would make the majority of new vehicle purchases electric within a decade.

Fox Business reports, 

“With the mandates they are putting in place, they are forcing the consumer to buy something that they don’t want,” said Tom Maoli — one of the letter’s signatories and the founder of New Jersey-based auto group Celebrity Motor Cars which operates multiple dealerships — in an interview with Fox News Digital. “Consumers are not buying into the electric vehicle market right now because the infrastructure is not there, they’re concerned about the range and it’s 20 to 30% higher to buy the vehicle.”

Consumers do not want electric vehicles, and neither do the dealers. While EVs are stacking up on the car lots, the Chinese Communist Party is stacking up cash from all the rare minerals that go into these vehicles.  

“Gas-powered cars represented 93% of all new car sales in 2022, according to a report from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. And EVs remain far more expensive and less efficient than alternatives. In addition, experts have warned that switching too quickly to EVs may present a national security risk given China’s dominance of the global EV industry. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), for example, China produces about 75% of all lithium-ion batteries, a key component of EVs, worldwide. The nation also boasts 70% of production capacity for cathodes and 85% for anodes, two key parts of such batteries.”

Auto dealers are tired of having EVs sit on their lots, and we are tired of China’s increasing dominance in the rare earth minerals space. Earlier this year, we released a report that sheds further light on Biden’s green agenda, leaving our nation vulnerable to China’s growing dominance. In Where Green Meets Red: How the Environmental Agenda is Making America Dependent on China, we put forward a five-part policy roadmap to reverse our growing dependence on China before it’s too late.