The White House on Monday released a "Bidenomics" report that touted the "rapidly growing" electric vehicle market. Just hours later, Ford announced plans to cut the production of its electric truck in half, citing insufficient demand.
The report, which came from White House chief economist Heather Boushey, claimed the "U.S. consumer market for EVs is rapidly growing" and touted President Joe Biden's efforts to meet that "growing demand by setting ambitious goals for accelerating the EV transition." Ford threw cold water on those claims hours later, when a leaked memo from the automaker revealed that it plans to produce just 1,600 F-150 Lightnings per week in 2024, a significant reduction from the 3,200 it initially planned to produce. The memo said "changing market demands" motivated the cuts.
"We'll continue to match production with consumer demand," a Ford spokeswoman said.
Ford's announcement comes as a major blow to Biden, who has centered his "modern American industrial strategy" on American electric vehicle production. While Biden says that production push will build a "clean energy economy" with high-paying jobs, automakers disagree. Electric vehicles require fewer parts and thus fewer workers to build. The supply chain for those parts, meanwhile, is dominated by China. As a result, the auto industry has pushed back on Biden's plan to phase out gas-powered vehicles, arguing that the plan will prompt both job loss and price hikes.
"We've dealt with the loss of jobs before through technology, but when you talk about the speed of this, it's hard to fathom that we won't lose jobs," United Auto Workers leader Mark DePaoli said in April, when the Biden administration unveiled new auto pollution regulations that effectively force automakers to sell electric cars. The union endorsed Biden in 2020 and routinely spends millions of dollars supporting Democrats.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
In addition to its claim that the electric vehicle market is "rapidly growing," the Monday morning White House report argued that "overall consumer satisfaction with electric vehicles is very high," given that "80 percent of EV owners are likely to buy an EV again." Most drivers, however, don't want to purchase an electric vehicle in the first place—just 19 percent of Americans say it's "very" or "extremely" likely they'll purchase an electric vehicle when they need a new car, citing the high costs associated with electric vehicles, an Associated Press poll found.
While Ford's electric F-150 has failed to catch on with American consumers, the automaker sells scores of gas-powered trucks. Ford's F-Series has been the top-selling vehicle in America for more than four decades, and roughly 98 percent of the trucks Ford sold in 2022 were gas-powered. Still, the Biden administration in July unveiled fuel efficiency regulations that impose stronger environmental standards for trucks and SUVs. One environmental group said the regulations would "help tackle the 'truckification'" of America.
The Biden administration is no stranger to the difficulties associated with electric vehicle driving.
During a summer road trip meant to promote the wonders of green driving, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm's staff used a gas-powered car to block the public from accessing an electric vehicle charger located at a station outside of Augusta, Georgia. Without the move, the station would not have been able to accommodate Granholm and her caravan of electric vehicles, given that one charger was broken and others were in use—issues electric vehicle drivers commonly face.
The attempt to hoard a spot for Granholm even prompted one electric vehicle driver waiting at the station to call the police.
"Hi, I'm calling because I'm in the Grovetown Walmart at the charging station, and there's literally a non-electric car that is taking up the space. They said they're holding the space for somebody else, and it's holding up a whole bunch of people who need to charge their cars," said the caller, according to a 911 call first reported by the Washington Free Beacon.