On Good Friday, when news outlets were relatively quiet, the agency rolled out a new de facto EV mandate extending one recently applied to passenger cars to also include heavy-duty trucks.
Current EV auto sales problems are occurring both despite $7,500 federal tax credit subsidies offered as EV incentives to reluctant buyers and jacked up costs for gasoline models needed to keep vehicle manufacturers financially afloat. The Wall Street Journal notes that about 20 gigawatts of mostly natural gas-generated electricity are scheduled to retire over the next two years — enough to power 15 million homes.
Journal editors estimate the EPA rule will cost utilities $370 billion to upgrade their networks, along with another $620 billion truckers will have to invest in their own charging infrastructure. An estimated 1.4 million chargers will be needed to achieve EPA’s EV truck mandate, about 15,000 a month, requiring major grid upgrades with new substations and critical components such as transformers which will take years to develop.