Domestic automakers, meanwhile, are beginning to acknowledge the risk of being left behind. Ford, for example, put together a project team in Long Beach, California, to develop a low-cost electric pickup truck. A vehicle priced at $30,000 or less “probably would sell pretty well in the U.S. in part because we just have very, very few cars around that price point on the market today,” Hausfather said.
The used EV market is growing, too, giving cost-conscious drivers more options, while high gas prices have renewed interest in going electric. More funding is needed for charging infrastructure, but the technology itself is improving fast. Charging times are falling, while vehicle range is climbing, now reaching 350 to 400 miles in many cases. “I don’t think we will have to match the five minutes of filling a gas car—getting down to 10 to 15 minutes charging will work for most Americans, and we can get there,” McDonald said.
Seventeen states still offer incentives to purchase EVs. And while the federal government has slashed support, there are signs that its barrier to Chinese imports won’t last forever. “If they want to come in and build the plant and hire you and hire your friends and your neighbors, that’s great,” Trump said of Chinese EVs in a speech to the Detroit Economic Club in January. “I love that. Let China come in, let Japan come in. They are, and they’ll be building plants, but they’re using our labor.”