High gas prices are pushing more American consumers to consider electric vehicles (EVs), but affordability, limited choice, policy changes, and range concerns continue to challenge widespread adoption.
The U.S.-Iran war has sent prices at the pump surging around the world, and car buyers globally are increasingly opting for EVs.
But in the U.S., EVs still are not an easy sell.
The Trump administration recently ended a 7,500-dollar credit for buyers of new EVs assembled in North America and, in a bid to foster increased domestic production of more gas-powered vehicles, also terminated the Biden administration's Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules.
"Clearly, the Trump Administration has essentially been waging all-out war on EVs and any kind of clean environmental tech. They don't want people to buy EVs, but if you look at the rest of the world, EVs are still moving forward," said Sam Abuelsamid, vice president of Market Research at Telemetry Agency, in an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN).
"I think prices overall will just be getting higher and higher. I just got back from China and EVs there are fantastic. I wish we had more choices actually, because what are the big ones? Tesla and some high-end ones like Lucid or something? Who's going to pay that?" said a U.S. car owner, as she filled her vehicle at a California gas station.
"The flip side to that is if you go all electric, you're sort of pigeonholed to what electric costs may be in your area. So, we want something that's more efficient than gas only," said Jed, another Californian.
Abuelsamid noted, "Consumers are going to adopt more efficient technologies just because they can't afford to drive, trucks, V8 trucks that get 15, 17 miles per gallon, when fuel is four or five, six dollars a gallon."
While the road to the electrification of U.S. automobiles is uncertain, analysts agree that rising fuel prices could accelerate the shift, even as consumers weigh the remaining obstacles.
Surging US gas prices drive interest in electric vehicles, with adoption hampered by legislation
