Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg criticizes "old" combustion technology while touting electric vehicles' reliability and affordability.
Once you go electric, there’s no going back, says Biden’s transportation secretary.
"You're not going to meet a lot of people who ever go back after they've gone electric, and I think that really tells you something," Pete Buttigieg said.
During his appearance on "Varney & Co." Monday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg touted the Biden administration’s electric vehicle (EV) push and the positive impact it will have on Americans.
"I don't know a lot of people who think that Americans in 2050 are still going to be driving that old technology, that combustion technology that we inherited from the 20th century," he expressed.
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The transportation chief went on to explain that EV’s low maintenance costs and reliability is the reason for its demand among Americans.
In November, Consumer Reports released its annual auto reliability brand rankings and found that consumers reported 79% more problems with EVs than gas-powered cars, trucks and SUVs from the 2000 to 2023 model years studied, and 146% more problems with plug-in hybrids.
Earlier this year, the Biden administration revealed its tailpipe emissions rule in an effort to push Americans to ditch their gas-powered cars for EVs. The White House said the regulations would "protect public health" by achieving carbon emission reductions of nearly 10 billion tons by 2055 and would save consumers an average of $12,000 over the lifetime of vehicles.
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"The share of EVs has been dramatically increasing every single year, and that's continuing now. Our goal is by the end of this decade to be about half-and-half. We think that can and will happen," Buttigieg explained.
Despite the administration being met with backlash over its EV efforts, Buttigieg is confident that Americans will make the switch on their own.
"You almost never meet somebody who has an EV who says, you know, ‘I want to go back to the old technology," he explained.
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FOX Business’ Breck Dumas and FOX News’ Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report
