FRANKFORT, Ky. (KeynoteUSA) — Electric vehicles have gained enough momentum thanks to job growth and investment to overcome any obstacles from Donald Trump and other critics, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday.
The Democratic governor said the thousands of electric vehicle-related jobs that are emerging across the country, including in rural GOP strongholds, should be enough to overcome the political backlash against the technology.
“Jobs are much more important than the political rhetoric you hear day in and day out,” Beshear said during an interview with The KeynoteUSA.
In the Bluegrass State, the emerging electric vehicle sector has contributed greatly to the state’s record pace of economic growth. Since mid-2020, EV-related companies have announced nearly $12 billion in investments and are expected to generate more than 10,200 full-time jobs. That includes the state’s largest-ever economic development project, which will produce batteries to power future Ford and Lincoln electric vehicles.
The governor dismissed the barrage of attacks on electric vehicles by former Republican President Trump and others as “just another attempt to divide people.”
“A lot of people have tried to fight the future and none of them have won,” Beshear said. “The evolution or revolution of electric vehicles is yet to come. The only question is how long it will take to get here.”
The emergence of electric vehicles has become an issue in the presidential campaign. Democratic President Joe Biden promotes electric vehicles as a key component of his clean energy agenda. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, calls Biden’s push for electric vehicles a “radical plan” that amounts to government overreach. Meanwhile, Republican allies in the oil industry have spent millions on ads saying Biden’s tax credit for electric vehicle buyers will cost Americans their freedom.
Beshear said Thursday that the attacks will not hamper Kentucky’s electric vehicle sector. Since he won re-election last year, the governor has taken a more active role in promoting Democrats across the country. Beshear twice defeated Trump-backed candidates to win the governorship in Republican-leaning Kentucky.
“This is coming,” Beshear said of the electric vehicle industry. “It’s already growing. And Kentucky will be a leader in this evolution of electric vehicles…and it’s exciting. And it’s a huge amount of jobs.”
“At the end of the day, regardless of who wins the presidential election, there will be so many jobs and so much investment that the electric vehicle sector will continue to grow,” he added.
GM CEO Mary Barra said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday that May was the best month for electric vehicle sales in the company’s history. Spokesman David Caldwell declined to give U.S. figures but said GM sold about 9,000 vehicles in North America last month. Previously, the best month was around 7,000, he said.
But the electric vehicle sector still faces obstacles. A new survey indicates that many Americans remain skeptical of electric vehicles. About 4 in 10 American adults say they would be at least somewhat likely to buy an electric vehicle the next time they buy a car, according to the survey by The KeynoteUSA-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the University’s Energy Policy Institute. from Chicago. About 46% say they are not very or not at all likely to buy one.
Beshear said Thursday that the survey revealed encouraging signs for the electric vehicle sector. The number of adults indicating they would be at least somewhat likely to purchase an electric vehicle “is a great start to looking at the transition that we know is going to happen,” she said.
“So I don’t see it as bad news at all,” Beshear added. “Four in 10 consumers is more than enough to support where we are now as a state. But that will grow over time.”
Range anxiety—the idea that electric vehicles can’t go far enough on a single charge and can leave the driver stranded—continues to be a major reason many Americans don’t buy electric vehicles. Ridiculing electric vehicles, Trump says they “don’t perform well enough and are too expensive.”
In Kentucky, Beshear recently announced a third round of awards to private developers to build federally funded electric vehicle charging stations. In total, the state has approved 42 charging stations from 11 developers to provide “reliable and convenient places to charge vehicles located every 50 miles along our interstates and parkways. This is just the beginning,” Beshear said at a recent news conference. That total does not include charging stations others are building in the state.
Beshear predicted that electric vehicles will overcome concerns about charging and pricing, as well as political attacks. And its availability will free drivers from anxiety about gas prices, he said.
“One of the things we see every day when we drive is the price of gas,” he said.
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