EV Mandate Untenable, Especially for Rural Virginians: Republican Delegate

Map of Virginia's EV Charging Stations as of May 2023 (Courtesy of Virginia Clean Cities)

Since passing a Clean Car law similar to California’s, Virginia’s electrical vehicle (EV) sales have grown from 20,000 registered EVs to a little over 65,000. However, some people, including Virginia’s Republican lawmakers, don’t think the state can meet the upcoming EV sales goals and even more importantly, the law disregards the needs of rural consumers said a Virginia House Delegate.

“There’s a regional component, I’m from the rural area. This is not downtown Northern Virginia, Alexandria, … it’s a completely different model here that we live under. There’s a lot of people that push this legislation forward, [but] didn’t take that into consideration,” Wilt told The Epoch Times.

Delegate Tony Wilt (R) introduced legislation to halt the 100 percent EV sale mandate for 2035 to reverse the law Democrats passed in 2021 and said forcing Virginians to buy an EV in a short span of time is not a good policy. Because of federal law establishing a two-year transition period, the California standards won’t be effective in Virginia until early 2024.

“It’s untenable. To accomplish 35% starting with the 2026 models, just in that short period of time, when right now we’re only at 2%. I mean, statistically, that’s just an astronomical increase,” Wilt said.

Democrats in the Virginia Assembly passed the Clean Car law in 2021, which was adopted from the California standard, making Virginia the 15th state of 17 to adopt such standards. Virginia’s Clean Car law requires that car dealers’ sales include 35 percent EVs by 2026 and 100 percent EVs by 2035.

Alleyn Harned, executive director of Virginia Clean Cities, said Virginia’s EV mandate is better for Virginians in the long term and very doable.

The Chevrolet Bolt EV is pictured at the 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, on November 16, 2016. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

“These goals are on a timeline, pretty much identical to the manufacturer of these technologies,” Harned told The Epoch Times in a June 21 interview. “These sales goals are very modest and achievable, that’s why auto dealers were supportive of electric vehicles.”

Don Hall, president of the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association (VADA), said his organization was originally against the Clean Car law, but after some agreed-upon changes, including funds to help consumers pay for the EVS, the association accepted the measure.

“VADA opposed this bill when it was proposed without any complementary efforts to support EV adoption, but we have since pivoted our position to one of support as the General Assembly considers a package of supplemental legislation to drive EV sales,” Hall said in a statement when the bill first passed.

Hall said rebates for EV purchases are crucial to the success of EV sales, and House Bill 1979 would establish a rebate program, giving $2,500 to buyers and even more to low-income customers, and stressed that ongoing funding for the rebate program is imperative.

Cost of EVs

Purchasing EVs is not possible for many consumers, even with federal and state tax credit incentives. According to Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) data, there were 8.4 million vehicles registered in Virginia in 2021, and at the same point, there were roughly 30,000 EVs.

EVs cost more than their gas-powered counterparts. According to data from December 2022, all car prices were up because of supply chain issues but EVs even more so.

The electric 2023 Volkswagen ID.4 starts at $38,790, while a similar-sized, gas-powered Volkswagen Tiguan starts at $27,785.

The best-selling vehicle in America, the Ford F-150 pickup truck electric version of the base version, costs an additional $26,000 over the gasoline-powered model. And the 2024 Hyundai Kona SE electric is $35,000 as compared with the gas-powered version, which is $24,000.

However, after a driver has made the initial investment of buying an EV, the maintenance costs are cheaper than gas-powered cars, said Harned. He also suggests that consumers shop around and avail of the federal tax credit to get the best price for an EV.

Harned admits EVs are not for everyone but would fit the lifestyle of the average commuter who can charge their EV at home or during a free period when they are parked. He said he charges his EV twice a month, with each charge giving him between 200 to 300 miles.

Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing at Consumer Reports, said EVs don’t make sense for all consumers. “An EV may make financial sense for many buyers, but some might be better off with a fuel-efficient hybrid,” said Fisher.

For rural areas, gas-powered cars can be easier to manage because they can be refueled in under ten minutes at a gas station, but adequately recharging an electric vehicle can take at least 45 minutes (if there is a charging station nearby and no line).

Most EV owners don’t want to let their EV battery go below 20%, and the charging rate slows down when it is charged over 80%.

Get EVs to Virginia

Harned said if Virginia does not compete with neighboring states for the sales of EVs, consumers would go to surrounding areas to buy EVs.

“There are 13 other states that have approved those policies, and so it’s hard to get those vehicles here. And that is why states are doing those rules is so that they’re in the line to get those vehicles from the manufacturers,” said Harned.

VADA’s president agreed.

“Part of the logic of buying into CARB in Virginia last year when all this was done was it was the only way we were going to get an appropriate number of EVs in Virginia,” said Hall.

 

Home Level 2 charger (Courtesy of FLO & AddEnergie)

Cost of Efficient Home Charger

Charger costs for residential use vary from $700 to $900 for a Level 1 charger and $1,400 to $4,100 for a Level 2 charger, with higher costs for apartments, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation’s review (pdf) of charging infrastructure costs.

The EV infrastructure company NeoCharge had a similar estimate for a home charger, with the total cost of installing an EV charger ranging anywhere from $800 to $4,000.

If consumers have the money to install EV chargers at home, they could recharge their EVs at home overnight. But not everyone has a garage at home, so these people often have to rely on public charging stations to charge their EVs.

While it is true that companies are installing more charging stations along highway corridors,  rural Virginians who don’t have easy access to these charging hubs and may not be able to install their own chargers are left out by the 2021 mandate, said Wilt.

Harned believes most consumers could easily install an EV fast charging port in their homes for a reasonable amount of money.

“It’s very possible at a low cost to rapidly scale up community equipment, and there are tax credits and grants, positive supportive programs,” that are there to help people install EV charging ports in their homes for around 600 dollars, said Harned.

“It’s just going save consumers a phenomenal amount of money. It’s going to improve people’s access to this desirable technology,” he added.

Access to Public Charger

Currently, the state has only 1,200 public charging hubs with about 3,500 individual charging ports, and both the federal government and private companies are funding the installation of hundreds more charging stations by 2030.

The Biden administration’s proposed regulations on automobile emissions from the Environmental Protection Agency would require 60% of new car sales to be electric vehicles by 2030 and 67% by 2032, which is a lofty goal because currently, there are fewer than 6% on the road in 2022.

The choice of what type of care to buy should be left to the consumer, said Wilt, and not be decided top-down. He believes if EVs serve consumers better, the demand will automatically increase. Wilt believes the current mandates will force drivers, particularly in Virginia’s rural areas, to go to surrounding cities to get gas-powered cars.

Besides the EV charging infrastructure, Wilt said he is concerned about the stress the rapidly increased EV usage would put on the state’s electric grid.

“We see some of that infrastructure being constructed, but it’s not at the pace that it would take to meet those charging requirements, and then another thing is the electric grid, [we]already see the demands that are in place,” said Wilt.

Stress on the Electric Grid

The rapid increase of new EVs will result in a significant strain on the power grid.

The average EV requires 30 kilowatt-hours to travel 100 miles, that is the same amount of electricity the average family uses each day to run things like computers, appliances, lights, and air conditioning. The U.S. Department of Energy predicts that electric consumption could increase by as much as 38 percent by 2050.

According to Australia’s largest electric company, the amount of electricity an EV holds can power major appliances for days.

A Tesla Model 3 has a battery capacity of 50 kilowatt-hours (kWh), which means it takes 50kWh to charge the car from 0% to 100%. Most EV models take 35-60kWh to achieve a full charge. If we put that in terms of everyday electric use, you can run a 100-watt lightbulb for 21 days or run some refrigerators for 14 days with the charge of the EV battery.

To handle the demand on the grid, Virginia’s Electric company, Dominion Energy, is proposing to expand its time-of-use (TOU) program, where customers use the utility on shifts.

Kate Staples, Dominion Energy’s electrification director, said the company plans to keep pace with EV sales. “As the needs of our customers grow, we will be planning the grid to serve them,” Staples said.

A photo illustration shows a background of electric power infrastructure with an Apple iPhone showing an Emergency Alert notification from CalOES urging the public to conserve energy to protect health and safety as the electricity grid is strained during a heat wave in Los Angeles, Calif., on Sept. 6, 2022. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

Too Many Factors

President and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation summed up why it’s hard to know definitively if Virginia and the U.S. are able to meet their EV and climate goals for 2030 and beyond.

“Whether or not these requirements are realistic or achievable is directly linked to external factors like inflation, charging and fuel infrastructure, supply chains, labor, critical mineral availability and pricing, and the ongoing semiconductor shortage,” John Bozzella, president and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, said in a statement. “These are complex, intertwined and global issues well beyond the control of either CARB or the auto industry.”