Should the government build a network of electric vehicle charging stations?

California Sets A Nationwide Electric Vehicle Mandate

Where are the antitrust cops when you need them? Stellantis and California this week struck a deal to protect the state’s electric-vehicle mandate from future political and legal challenges. Here’s another illustration of collusion between big government and big business that hurts Americans.The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has banned the sale of new gas-powered cars in the state by 2035. Unlike Biden Administration officials, progressives in Sacramento are honest about their plan to phase-out gas-powered cars. EV sales will have to ramp up fast over the next decade, making up 51% of sales by 2028 and 100% by 2035.A Clean Air Act waiver from the Biden Environmental Protection Agency lets California impose its own greenhouse-gas emissions standards and other states to follow them. While California is waiting on the EPA to extend its waiver through 2035, its EV mandate is already creating headaches for car companies.Auto makers essentially hedged their regulatory risk, knowing Mr. Trump could lose re-election or that his Administration could lose its legal battle with California. Their hedge paid off when Mr. Biden won and restored California’s waiver. Other auto makers that didn’t cut deals with California now operate at a regulatory disadvantage.In any case, the biggest losers of this “partnership” with California will be Americans across the country who will have fewer gas-powered options. California is imposing its EV mandate nationwide by using regulation to take auto makers hostage. Mr. Newsom may not be running for President in November, but he already acts as if he governs the country.

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Car Dealers to Biden: EVs Aren’t Selling

You can subsidize a buyer into the auto showroom, but you can’t make him buy. That’s the word from some 3,900 car dealers across the country who on Tuesday wrote President Biden that electric vehicles are piling up unsold on their lots. They want relief from his onerous and unrealistic EV sales mandate.Dealers have a 103-day supply of EVs compared to 56 days for all cars. It takes them on average 65 days to sell an EV, about twice as long as for gas-powered cars. EV sales are slowing though manufacturers have slashed prices and increased discounts. Consumers paid on average $50,683 for an EV in September, compared to $65,000 a year ago.The reason, as the dealers explain, is that “early adopters formed an initial line and were ready to buy these vehicles as soon as we had them to sell.” But most consumers aren’t “ready to make the change,” in part because EVs are still too expensive. Many apartment renters also don’t have garages for home charging, and public charging networks are spotty with one in four not functional, according to one study.The dealers want the Administration to “tap the brakes” on its proposed tailpipe emissions rules that would effectively mandate that EVs comprise two-thirds of car sales by 2032. Auto makers might meet the government’s quotas in leftwing cities where Teslas are a political fashion statement, but price and convenience matter more elsewhere.