Auto dealers in California are forced to restrict sales of diesel-powered trucks to meet the state’s EV rules. In order to sell a diesel truck, a dealer must sell an electric truck first. But truckers are not buying electric big rigs because they cannot afford them even with $40,000 in federal tax credits and much larger state subsidies, some as high as $120,000. Electric trucks cost at least twice as much as diesel-powered rigs and have a limited driving range—150 miles on average, compared to between 1,000 and 1,500 for diesel trucks, and there are few truck charging stations. Truckers would lose money on an electric truck purchase and lose time while the rig is being charged, taking much, much longer to move the merchandise, losing even more revenue.
The National Automobile Dealers Association filed public comments noting this issue with the Environmental Protection Agency regarding California’s Advanced Clean Fleets rule. The California regulation mandates that “zero-emission” trucks must be a growing share of semi-truck fleet sales. California imposes a similar mandate for passenger vehicles. Under California’s rules, “dealers are restricted from selling a diesel truck unless they sell a ZEV truck.” As a result, “New class 8 truck sales (ZEV and diesel) were down 50 percent year-over-year in June 2024.” Truckers are driving older engines longer because they cannot buy newer diesel models, resulting in more carbon dioxide emissions as newer diesel trucks are more efficient.
Trucks are piling up on dealer lots–both electric models because they are too expensive to buy and diesel rigs that dealers are not allowed to sell without selling an electric truck first. According to the dealers, they incur monthly interest penalties on unsold truck inventory that can amount to more than $99,000. This means that some dealers and possibly some of their customers will start going out of business in the near future. This will not help many small businesses, who will not be around to take advantage of Kamala Harris’ proposed $50,000 tax credit.
Manufacturers will still be forced to produce more electric vehicles to comply with federal and California state regulations, and if the electric vehicles do not sell, sales of petroleum-powered cars will also have to be restricted. This is a back-door ban on gas-powered vehicles, even if the Biden-Harris administration will not admit it.
The Biden-Harris EV Push Will Cost Thousands of Blue-Collar Jobs
The Biden-Harris administration’s EV push is making auto manufacturers to rethink their production processes, both electric and petroleum-based, and cut thousands of jobs as they do so. GM announced it will temporarily cut almost 1,700 factory workers as it retrofits its Fairfax, Kansas, factory to manufacture the electric Chevrolet Bolt instead of the gasoline-powered Chevrolet Malibu. Stellantis is laying off 2,450 employees as it discontinues the classic version of its Ram-1500 truck in favor of an electric pickup. Ford had started downsizing last year. These layoffs will be just the beginning as electric vehicles require less labor to manufacture and depend more on Chinese parts than their internal combustion engine counterparts. Auto jobs will be going to China from the United States despite the Biden-Harris 100 percent tariff on electric vehicles made in China.
According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, deindustrialization and globalization has led to a massive decline in traditional blue-collar jobs, with blue-collar work falling from 31.2 percent of total nonfarm employment in 1970 to roughly 13 percent in 2016. China accounts for 41 percent of the world’s cobalt mining and 28 percent of the world’s lithium — two of the minerals essential to manufacturing lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles. As a result, China is projected to produce twice as many batteries as every other country combined by 2030, despite the billions in subsidies the Biden-Harris administration has put towards expanding U.S. EV battery production.
Electric vehicles have substantially fewer moving parts and require roughly 30 percent less labor to manufacture, reducing demand for American assembly line workers. A 2018 research study from the United Auto Workers found the EV transition could eliminate as many as 35,000 union auto manufacturing jobs, while a 2023 report from the America First Policy Institute found the Biden-Harris administration’s tailpipe emissions rule, which effectively stipulates 67 percent of all light-duty vehicles sold after model year 2032 be electric vehicles or hybrids, would eliminate 117,000.
Despite the lower labor requirement, the average cost of a new electric car is still roughly 10 percent higher than a gasoline-powered car due to the expensive battery packs, which can cost around $15,000 and are often manufactured by Chinese companies such as CATL, which Republican lawmakers have pushed to blacklist due to concerns surrounding ties to the Chinese Communist Party and forced labor.
A June poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute shows that American consumers have been hesitant to adopt electric cars, finding that 46 percent of respondents were unlikely or very unlikely to purchase an electric car, and just 21 percent were “very” or “extremely” likely to make the purchase. EV demand has slackened in 2024, with EV sales growing 31 percent in the first half of 2024, down from 50 percent in the first half of 2023 and 71 percent in the first half of 2022. The $7,500 federal tax credit for certain electric vehicles being offered by Biden-Harris is not keeping the sales up, nor is the $7.5 billion earmarked to install thousands of charging stations across the country provided in 2021–only 38 operational individual charging spots (seven stations in four states) had been established as of April 2024.
As part of its goal of having electric vehicles make up at least 50 percent of all new car sales by 2030, the Biden-Harris administration has provided subsidies for automakers, making $12 billion in taxpayer funds available for manufacturers to retrofit their plants in what was claimed to create over 2,900 new high-quality jobs. GM claimed a retrofitting process — “the installation of new tooling” — was the reason for the Fairfax, Kansas, temporary layoffs.
Conclusion
California and the Biden-Harris administration have a forced “back-door” ban on petroleum-based cars that will eventually hit Americans either in their mobility or their pocketbooks. The Biden-Harris administration is actually benefiting China in its “back-door” ban on petroleum-based vehicles, as China is way ahead of the United States in EV battery production, EV manufacture, and the minerals needed to produce them. That means American jobs will also go by the wayside. Already, layoffs have been announced by the major American manufacturers. And, truck dealers in California are hurting, as truck sales are down since they cannot sell a diesel truck unless they sell an electric truck first. Truckers are not buying electric trucks due to their expense and lack of charging stations. The Biden-Harris energy transition is a mess and it will only get worse as people lose their jobs and companies go out of business.
