With help from Renuka Rayasam and Myah Ward
RUNNING ON EMPTY — Electric vehicles are the automotive vanguard of a greener world, and they’ve never generated more buzz.
Tesla is now the world’s most valuable car company, worth more than its top four competitors combined. Its CEO, Elon Musk, now the world’s richest man, just hosted Saturday Night Live.
General Motors has pledged to go all-electric by 2035, Volkswagen by 2027 and Jaguar by 2025. President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan calls for $174 billion in electric vehicle investments. When the Colonial pipeline hack created a gas shortage this week, his energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, slyly noted that it wouldn’t affect EV owners.
But here’s a less trendy factoid: In 2020, while Americans bought nearly 300,000 electric vehicles, they also bought nearly 800,000 Ford F-150 pickup trucks. The F-150 may be a gas-guzzling disaster for the climate, but it’s been the nation’s best-selling vehicle for 44 straight years.
This is why Ford’s decision to roll out an electric version of the F-150 is such a big deal, and why, on Tuesday, Biden will visit the Michigan factory that will manufacture it. Americans aren’t going to stop buying big trucks to help Biden meet his aggressive greenhouse-gas goals. So if those goals are going to be met, big trucks will have to stop emitting greenhouse gases.
The question is whether the kind of consumers who crave two-ton Ford Tough behemoths forged from military-grade steel will buy the climate-friendly plug-in version, because they’re not usually the kind of consumers who worry about their carbon footprints.
Like solar panels, plant-based meat and climate action in general, electric vehicles have become identified with the progressive/Democratic/metropolitan team in America’s political cultural wars, the team of NPR and hip-hop and sushi. Unless electric vehicles can start to appeal to the conservative/Republican/rural team of Fox News and country music and Chik-Fil-A, they’ll never reach the critical mass needed to slash transportation emissions and stop global warming.
It was interesting that Ford’s teaser video for the all-electric F-150 Lightning featured a Black woman talking about innovation and ingenuity rather than Denis Leary rasping about toughness and power.Republicans used to dismiss EVs as impractical Obama-mobiles for eco-hippies, and President Donald Trump mocked GM for its all-electric ambitions: “Darling, where do I get a charge?”
But Chris Nelder, a carbon-free transportation expert at the Rocky Mountain Institute, believes the Lightning can help expand the appeal of plug-ins to consumers who probably won’t be charging at Starbucks. “The mere existence of the electric F-150 will send a powerful signal to the entire truck-driving segment of the market,” Nelder said.
The problem for the climate is the truck-driving segment is extremely large, while the EV segment is still less than 2 percent of U.S. sales. Americans currently buy three times as many pickups, SUVs and crossovers as passenger cars, which is why U.S. transportation emissions have remained relatively flat even though passenger cars have gotten much more fuel-efficient. We love our rugged-sounding Yukons and Dakotas and Navigators and Expeditions, even if many of us just navigate them on expeditions to the mall, and there haven't been many all-electric alternatives.
That is starting to change, though, with Audi and Volkswagen debuting electric SUVs to compete with the Tesla X and Hyundai selling an electric crossover to compete with the Tesla Y, while Rivian and Nio prepare to enter the global market as well. The F-150 may be the industry’s most important test, because it’s America’s most popular vehicle.
So the Lightning better be good. Tesla made a splash not by appealing to the environmental consciences of the global community, but by making awesome cars. Electric vehicles are still a bit more expensive up-front than their fossil-fueled counterparts, but their minimal maintenance and fuel costs make them less expensive over their lifetimes. Their battery ranges are also getting longer every year, and Biden wants to invest $15 billion in charging stations that will help reduce the Darling-where-do-I-get-a-charge problem.
Most truck buyers probably aren’t looking for a climate-friendly truck or even a truck of the future. They just want a good truck. But even if the Lightning turns out to be an awesome truck, it won’t sell in parts of red America if it’s seen as a Bidenmobile. If electric trucks are going to get traction beyond early adopters, they can’t be viewed as cosmopolitan cultural totems, like organic kale, Lululemon yoga pants or Whole Foods reusable bags.
The president’s visit to Detroit will be a nice milestone for an electric-vehicle industry that didn’t exist when he became vice president 12 years ago. But it might be best for the climate if America’s truck buyers never hear a word about it.
Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas for us at [email protected] and [email protected], or on Twitter at @mikegrunwald and @renurayasam.
What'd I Miss?
— CDC: Vaccinated people can now remove masks in most group settings: The announcement marks the first time the Biden administration has said it is safe for vaccinated people to remove masks in any kind of group gathering — big or small, indoors or outdoors, no matter who is present — a major step toward moving the country back to normal by July 4.
— First known active-duty military member is charged in Jan. 6 insurrection: Maj. Christopher Warnagiris of the U.S. Marine Corps, 40, was arrested in Virginia after being charged with a number of federal crimes, including “assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers” and obstructing law enforcement, according to charging documents. He’s the first known active-duty military member to have been charged with a crime in connection with the insurrection.
— Biden implores drivers ‘Don't panic’ as Colonial Pipeline ramps up deliveries: Biden sought to calm drivers’ nerves amid expectations that fuel supplies will remain tight for up to two weeks in the Southeastern states where pumps had run dry because of panic buying after ransomware infiltrated the computers of the pipeline company that operates the 5,500-mile line that runs from Houston to New Jersey.
— Teachers union leader calls for ‘fully reopening’ schools this fall: American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten called for schools to reopen full time and in person this fall.
Around the Nation
MEGA VACCINATIONS — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced Wednesday that his state would give five people $1 million each for being vaccinated as part of a weekly lottery. He also offered five full-ride scholarships to state schools for teens who get vaccinated.
The lottery will be paid for by federal coronavirus relief funds, the Republican governor said during a televised address. The first weekly drawing will be held on May 26, conducted by the Ohio Lottery.
Is it a crazy idea? Nightly’s Myah Ward called Ken Resnicow, a professor of health behavior at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health and an expert on incentives, today to get his take on DeWine’s approach.
“He should be commended for being creative, thinking big and doing what he can to try to persuade the fence-sitters,” Resnicow said. “The question is whether or not from a pure behavioral economics and gambling theory perspective — is he getting the maximum bang for his buck?”
DeWine’s model rewards people retroactively for getting vaccinated. The winners are to be pulled from the voter registration database. More details about the rules for the drawing will be released next week.
Rewarding people right when they get the shot would be more effective, Resnicow said. “There may be some legal and other technical reasons he couldn’t do this, so I have to be forgiving, but it may be much more powerful, for example, if you show up to your vaccine and they had a slot machine there where you got five free pulls, or you got five free lottery tickets,” he said.
Your move, governor.
AROUND THE WORLD
YOUNG AND THE VAXLESS — The latest after-work conundrum for the young people of Brussels: Go sip a beer at a newly reopened bar terrace, or queue up at a local vaccination center on the off-chance of getting an unused coronavirus jab?
On a damp Tuesday afternoon, about five dozen people stood in line at the Pacheco vaccination center in central Brussels, hoping to snag one of the leftover doses from the daily vaccination appointments currently open only to those 41 or over or those suffering from diseases. For most, it was a futile exercise as officials announced they had just a single leftover shot.
Others were luckier elsewhere. At the Forest center a week earlier, a software problem disrupted regular appointments, leaving officials to offer about 1,200 BioNTech/Pfizer jabs on a first-come-first-serve basis. As that news spread, around 100 young people queued for hours at the center on the following days, though only a handful managed to get a jab.
“We’re seeing a growing interest among young people to get vaccinated, which is generally a good thing,” said Inge Neven, Brussels’ vaccine policy spokesperson. However, she stressed that only in “very exceptional” cases were doses being given to people outside the priority groups. “We’re calling on people to still have a bit of patience. Soon everybody will get their turn,” she said.
Nightly Number
Parting Words
BOGEY — Caitlyn Jenner is the highest-profile transgender candidate running for office today. But her candidacy isn’t having a positive effect on transgender rights, transgender lawmakers told Nightly’s Renuka Rayasam today during a POLITICO Live event.
Rep. Stephanie Byers, a Democrat in the Kansas state legislature, said that state Republicans used Jenner’s support for a bill that would ban transgender girls from participating on women’s students sports teams to bolster their case.
Yet, Byers pointed out, when Jenner plays golf, she tees off with women. “Her comments and her actions don’t line up,” said Byers. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly eventually vetoed the bill.
Still, Byers and other panelists said they welcomed more transgender candidates to the field, including Republicans, as long as they support trans rights.
“We can disagree how money is spent,” Byers said. “But we need to come to an agreement about human rights.”
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