“The Biden administration has made support for EVs a top priority,” Huffington Post says (here), and that’s probably enough reason right there.
In today’s tribal politics, at least on the Republican side, “if they’re for it, we’re ag’in it.” But ignorance probably plays a role, too.
By that I mean most Republicans have never driven, or even ridden in, an electric vehicle; so they don’t know what EVs are like. They probably don’t realize that Tesla that accelerated away from them, and left their Dodge Ram in the dust, was powered by batteries and electric current. Just as they aren’t aware that every train in America is pulled by electric motors.
Yep, they probably think those big diesel engines in the locomotive pull the train. That doesn’t work, my friends; if you gear a diesel engine to a locomotive’s drive wheels, the engine will stall, same as trying to drive a pickup towing a heavy trailer by starting out in high gear.
You need traction to overcome inertia and get a train moving from a standing stop.
That’s why a locomotive’s diesel engine drives a generator that produces electric current for big electric motors (photo, left) driving the locomotive’s wheels.
Somebody had to figure this out before diesels could replace steam locomotives (read the history of diesel locomotives here).
I’d guess another reason Republicans don’t like electric cars is because they go “WHIRRR” instead of “VROOOM.” All the Republicans in my neighborhood drive pickups without mufflers. Probably don’t have catalytic converters, either. Most have “F*CK BIDEN” flags, too.
Huffington Post notes, “Opposition to EVs also seems to run deep in the GOP base.” Not only won’t they drive them, but they don’t want the rest of us to have them, either. So, “it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the GOP fight against EVs is as much about culture and tribal identity as it is about the merits of what the Biden administration is trying to do.”
Which includes reducing our dependency on foreign oil (“drill baby, drill!”) and creating jobs, but above all, saving the planet.
I think that’s the real issue, because it isn’t just electric cars they object to, it’s anything that would reduce greenhouse emissions. Given Republicans’ suicidal response to Covid-19 safety measures, it would be consistent of them to also want to burn up in wildfires and drown in hurricane flooding caused by climate change.
The real problem is they want to take the rest of us with them.