As gas prices rose across the country, President Joe Biden tried to explain the benefits of electric vehicles. Possibly, this explanation is more confusing than helpful.
Biden gave a speech Thursday that outlined two of his biggest spending plans, also known as the Build Back Better Plan and the Infrastructure Fee.
According to the White House transcript, Biden describes the need to replace buses and cars with electric alternatives such as rail and electric vehicles.
“When you buy an electric vehicle, you can go across America on a tank of gas, figuratively speaking,” Biden said. “It’s not gas. Keep it in.”
BIDEN: “When you buy an electric car, you can symbolically drive across America with a tank of gas. It’s not gas. You plug in.” pic.twitter.com/5M8i96GtVD
– X Strategies LLC (@XStrategiesLLC) 28 October 2021
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At least Biden admits that his “gas tank” analogy is symbolic, so he clearly understands that electric vehicles don’t actually run on gas. This is where his knowledge of electric vehicles seems to end.
Biden’s suggestion that you can drive across the country in an electric car with the equivalent of a tank of gas is wrong on several levels.
First, electric vehicles have a shorter range than gas cars. The UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies reports that the average electric car can travel 250-350 miles on a single charge. The 350-mile range is comparable to many gas cars, but UC Davis said only high-end brands like Tesla have such a range.
Would you buy an electric car?
For most logical people, a full charge of an electric vehicle would equate to a tank of gas. The length of the country is more than 350 miles, it would be impossible to travel across the country on one charge.
When an electric car runs out of fuel, recharging it isn’t as simple as draining the gas tank.
With a standard 120V outlet like in a typical home, a fully electric vehicle can take 20 or more hours to charge, UC Davis reported. Even with a 240V outlet, full charging takes four to eight hours.
Some vehicles are equipped for “fast charging,” meaning they can achieve an 80 percent charge in about 20 minutes. That’s still longer than the usual stop for gas.
This is not to say that no one should buy an electric car, as they certainly have advantages. However, stopping for 20 minutes every 250-350 miles on a road trip is definitely a hassle.
When Biden said that electric vehicles could go across the country on a symbolic tank of gas, his comment was misleading at best and completely ignorant at worst. In fact, electric cars have to stop more often and for longer than gas cars.
It’s easy to see why Biden wants to start pushing electric vehicles. Over the past few months, fuel prices have…