Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) called the Biden administration’s push to accelerate electric vehicle production “counterproductive,” citing resistance from the public.
Kemp was joined by five other governors on Thursday at the Politico Governors Summit to discuss the role state governments play in a grid-locked Washington. He claimed that the Biden administration’s legislation surrounding EVs has spurred public backlash against the industry by exposing how far the United States has to go with the infrastructure needed to support EVs.
“When the government starts mandating things and pushing people, it turns a lot of people off, and that’s what’s happened a lot in the EV marketplace versus letting the product drive the market,” Kemp said.
Hyundai and Rivian had invested billions of dollars into electric vehicle production in Georgia. Kemp, however, said that funding through the Inflation Reduction Act picked “winners and losers,” driving up inflation while doing little to aid the EV industry. Automakers said at the time that manufacturing and sourcing requirements would make it difficult to meet their goals, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The legislation includes tax credits, requiring manufacturers to source their minerals and other components from North America. Automakers said the difficulty in meeting those requirements could affect how many vehicles qualify for the incentive.
Kemp echoed other Republican governors’ sentiments, opposing the Biden administration’s urgency in moving toward electric cars.
In a January letter to Biden, Republican governors cited concerns with “federal government mandates that penalize retailers and do not reflect the will of the consumer.” The governors claimed that “the cost, the infrastructure required, and the battery content requirements” drive consumers away from moving toward EVs.
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Kemp said that a slowdown of Biden’s target sales would be a step in the right direction.
“Anything they can do to undo some of that would be helpful. I mean, the time frames they are putting out there are simply unrealistic,” Kemp said.
