Americans don't want electric vehicles — despite the Biden administration pushing tax credits to stimulate demand, according to Alex Acosta, former secretary of labor in the Trump administration, on Newsmax.
In an interview Monday on "National Report," Acosta said the administration's program to stimulate electric vehicle purchases only resulted in "temporary" — and tepid — demand.
"Ultimately, consumers are saying, We do not want electric vehicles," Acosta said. "Ford invested a lot of money and is now having to go back and say we made a mistake. Consumers want hybrids. Consumers want traditional cars, and it's having to retool its factories. As a result, government programs don't work."
Acosta also dismantled Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's assertion that electric vehicles were saving people money.
"Yet Ford has lost billions on this," he said, referring to a Forbes report in which the automaker has admitted to $1.8 billion in losses this year already with projections to shed $4.5 billion in 2023.
"Rather than Washington and the government saying what people should buy, isn't it better for the people to decide what they want and for the market to then respond by producing what they want?" he said. "You can't drive this kind of change top down without paying attention to what consumers are asking for … Ford has found that individuals want the option of having hybrids that can go gas or go electric, including in rural areas where they don't want to be stuck with charging stations."
Acosta also weighed in on the shutdown of trucking company Yellow.
"I think there [were] hanging on in the hopes that with the UPS crisis that was recently resolved, they might get some additional business," he said. "But now that the UPS crisis has been resolved … they are looking and saying, We can't afford to keep operating, and sometimes that's what happens in a market-driven economy."
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Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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