Top Ten Reasons Why The Right Hates EVs

By Kevin Howley, September 9, 2022

In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Winston Churchill famously quipped, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Conservatives have taken that advice to heart.

It makes no difference if the crisis is genuine — climate catastrophe anyone?— or manufactured — think the radical Left’s “woke” education agenda — the American Right is sure to raise a ruckus. As long as it serves their narrow interests and they can score political points, it’s game on.

Case in point: the right wing bruhaha over electric vehicles (EVs). The lunacy amped up when President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. In addition to measures intended to lower prescription drug prices and reduce carbon emissions,  the legislation provides incentives for automobile manufactures and the car-buying public to invest in EVs.

Faster than you can say “tax and spend liberals” the Right-wing noise machine was throwing shade at the emerging EV industry and the elites behind the wheel.

So, before you run out to your dealer and trade in your fossil fuel burning ride for a shiny new electric car, here are ten reasons why the Right wants you to do a U-turn.

10. China!

Headlined “China First: Automakers Push to Allow EV Tax Credits for China-Sourced Batteries” Breitbart takes the automobile industry and Senate Democrats to task for hobbling key provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that support American manufacturing.

Funny. I didn’t think there was much support for the IRA in conservative circles. But if you can bolster your “America First” credentials by crying crocodile tears over a piece of legislation you loathe and get in a little China bashing in the bargain, that’s a win-win.

9. Climate-Obsessed Liberals

PJ Media suggests that liberals fetishize EVs. Of course, conservatives know a thing or two about fixation, compulsion, and mania.

Titled “More Ridiculous Electric Vehicle Advice” columnist Chris Queen opines “Electric Vehicles have become idols to the climate-obsessed left. It seems like the Left views buying an electric vehicle as the answer to everything. Having trouble with the ladies? Buy an electric vehicle. … You name the issue, and it seems like electric vehicles are the solution in the eyes of the Left.”

Swap the phrase “electric vehicles” with “tax cuts” and you gain keen insight into red state collective consciousness.

8. Coal Miners

A photograph circulating in Right-wing media shows a group of miners pushing a disabled vehicle up a road. West Virginia Republican State Senator and Safety Coordinator at Mettiki Coal, Randy Smith, posted the image to Facebook. “So here at 5 coal miners pushing a battery car to the coal mine to charge,” Smith wrote.

The GOP isn’t known for subtly, but they clearly appreciate irony — provided it serves to reinforce the party line on extractive industries, climate change legislation, and political tribalism. “This just shows you coal miners are good people and will go out of their way to help anyone friend or foe,” Smith added. 

7. Hunter Biden

Just kidding. The Right hasn’t found a way to tie the President’s beleaguered son to the EV industry.

Yet.

6. Corporate Profiteering

It isn’t every day that Republicans blast corporations for squeezing profits out of consumers at every turn. But the Party of Trump’s disdain for EVs is the exception that proves the rule.

According to Gateway Pundit, the EV tax credit “even if you qualify — won’t save you sh*t.” Adding, “At the same time, Ford also announced a price increase of up to $8,500 for their electric vehicles.”

Somebody pinch me. I could swear conservatives are lamenting corporate welfare.

5. Batteries Included

Price gouging consumers who were foolish enough to purchase hybrid vehicles back in the day just adds insult to injury. That’s the hot take in Right-wing media when it comes to replacing the batteries that power electric vehicles.

The Blue State Conservative calls it “instant regret” for drivers who “might as well just buy a new car” instead of replacing a battery for a Chevy Volt. Breitbart offers a cautionary tale of a Florida family that learned “replacing the battery for their electric vehicle costs more than what they paid for the car.”

This from pundits who demonize consumer protection laws and live by the motto “there’s a sucker born every minute.”

4. Auto Workers

Corporate profiteering raises its ugly head again, this time in a piece from PJ Media lamenting the layoff of 8,000 “salaried employees in order to boost profits to help fund future electric vehicles.” A welcome and long overdue note of concern from vehemently anti-union publishers.

Still, the dismissive attitude toward Ford’s plans for EV manufacturing belies a fragile masculinity: “As if driving an electric F-150 isn’t enough to give a man Low T, the factories themselves will be painfully green.”

3. Privacy

Republishing a report issued by Real Clear Investigations, WND raises concerns over data collection and government surveillance in the EV era.

Absent revenue from federal and state taxes on gas and diesel, experts predict funding shortfalls for roads, bridges, and highways. The solution: monitoring motorists and charging them for using public roadways.

As the report notes, this solution “pose[s] a significant threat to personal privacy and liberty.” Of course, Big Tech and law enforcement use location tracking devices all the time, but civil libertarians have a point about pilot programs that track EV drivers.

2. Public Safety

Billionaire eccentric and Bond supervillain wannabe, Elon Musk, can’t please liberals or conservatives these days. A viral video showing a Tesla Full Self-Driving vehicle running down a child-sized mannequin during an epic test-driving failure is raising concerns over EVs in Right-wing media.

Equating so-called autonomous vehicles with electric vehicles may be disingenuous, but it’s click bait gold.

1. Car Castration Scandal

I had to do a double take to make certain I wasn’t reading a satirical piece of conservative writing — they’re such cut ups — but this item from the Washington Free Beacon is priceless.

Headlined “Electric Car Castrates Man on Biden’s Watch” tells you all you need to know about the Right-wing media sphere. Fragile masculinity meets unhinged conspiracy in this sordid tale of a urologist who used his “$70,000 Rivian electric truck to power the castration-esque procedure after his clinic in Austin (where else?) suffered a power outage.”

If that’s not enough to curb your enthusiasm for EVs, I don’t know what will.

Kevin Howley is a writer and educator whose work has appeared in Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, Social Movement Studies, and Interactions: Studies in Communication and Culture. His most recent book is Drones: Media Discourse and the Public Imagination.