Americans Should Choose the Car They Drive

President Biden and Democrats are leading a radical rush-to-green agenda that takes away people’s vehicle choice and forces Americans to drive electric vehicles. Electric vehicles are unaffordable and unrealistic for many Americans and a reliance on EVs cedes U.S. leadership to the Chinese Communist Party.

Americans don’t want President Biden’s aggressive EV mandates—they want to choose what vehicle best suits their needs.

That’s exactly what nearly 5,000 American car dealers told President Biden—twice—after EVs stacked up on their lots. They’re demanding the Biden administration “hit the brakes” on its unrealistic agenda.

Electric vehicles continue to be more expensive than other alternatives and aren’t practical for many Americans—especially those living in rural communities. Furthermore, despite allocating $7.5 billion in 2021 to speed up its forced EV transition, the Biden administration just got its first vehicle charger up and running in Ohio one month ago. Hertz, a major rental car company, recently announced its plan to sell 20,000 electric vehicles and buy gas-powered cars instead.

Additionally, according to a recent study by Consumer Reports, EVs have almost 80 percent more issues and are generally less reliable than vehicles with internal combustion engines. Earlier this month, electric vehicles across the country were failing to charge—or keep a charged battery—as a result of cold weather. Electric vehicles lose an average of 41 percent of their range when temperatures drop to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. As reported by Fox Business, in Chicago, “charging stations essentially turned into car graveyards as temperatures have dropped.”

This forced EV transition also plays right into China’s hands. China controls the vast majority of critical minerals mining, processing, and manufacturing for electric vehicles. China has 78 percent of the world’s cell manufacturing capacity for EV batteries. To further their grip on EV technology against America, China implemented export controls on graphite, the single largest mineral component of any EV battery, on December 1, 2023. There is currently only one graphite-producing mine in North America.

Policy experts across the board are sounding the alarm on the national security consequences of Biden’s forced EV transition and how it will strengthen China’s foothold in the American auto industry for decades to come. More than a dozen former senior military officials recently warned President Biden that his rush-to-green agenda “will undoubtedly open the U.S. up to economic manipulations by China, identical to what Russia is doing with Ukrainian grain exports, and [poses] a major threat to our national security.”

Senior administration officials, like U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, are also raising concerns about Chinese influence over the electric vehicle market, recently stating in a letter to President Biden that “China has developed and implemented a plan to target the EV sector for dominance.”

Energy and Commerce Republicans are leading to stop the administration’s radical EV agenda, preserve people’s vehicle choice, and ensure America—not China—is leading:  

• H.R. 1435, the Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act, led by Rep. John Joyce (R-PA), protects America’s automotive future by stopping California and President Biden from dictating the vehicles Americans can drive. The bill passed the House in September 2023, by a bipartisan vote of 222-190. 
• H.R. 4468, the Choice in Automobile Retail Sales (CARS) Act of 2023, led by Reps. Tim Walberg (R-MI) and Andrew Clyde (R-GA), prevents the Biden administration from imposing a de facto EV mandate and ceding America’s auto future to China. The bill passed the House in December 2023, by a bipartisan vote of 221-197. 
• H.R. 4469, the No Fuel Credits for Batteries Act of 2023, led by Rep. Greg Pence (R-IN), ends the EPA’s radical agenda that is reducing people's access to reliable, affordable transportation fuels and forcing them to transition to EVs.

Bottomline: Americans—not the Biden administration—deserve to have the freedom to choose what vehicle suits them best.