We travel across the country to speak with policymakers
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00:00EVs are not the end-all be-all to any kind of climate solution.
00:11Electric vehicles are going through a rough moment.
00:13We need to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels, and we need to do that in the next
00:1810 to 15 years.
00:19Facing backlash.
00:20This is disgusting that we care more about rodeo horses than we care about children in
00:25Congo.
00:26Resistance.
00:27The policy which is trying to mandate EVs is actually playing into China's favor.
00:32And challenges.
00:33I think, in all honesty, the EV future for America is more choice and more reliability.
00:38Raising questions.
00:39We shouldn't be telling people what they must drive.
00:41We need to give Americans the choice to decide what is best for them.
00:45And creating uncertainty about our future.
00:47I'm a big fan of electric, but they don't go far, and they are expensive, and China
00:53does have the material.
00:54We have gasoline, more gasoline than anybody else has.
00:57I call it liquid gold.
00:58We have elections.
01:00Elections have consequences.
01:01The rules are there.
01:02Then they're not.
01:03At MotorTrend, we faced our fair share of criticism for our extensive coverage of EVs.
01:08So it's kind of amusing to us that there's been so much pushback, where people say, oh,
01:12you guys are shilling, or EVs are dumb.
01:14It's like they're not dumb.
01:16But we're committed to exploring the whole picture.
01:19The best way to lower the cost of electric vehicles is by bringing that new type of capacity
01:23online within the U.S.
01:25We've dived into the controversies and realities of the electric revolution.
01:29It's really important for us to double down and go even faster.
01:32To find out where this road is leading.
01:34The future is electric.
01:35The question is how fast we're going to get to that future.
01:38Join us as we travel across the country, diving into eye-opening conversations with policymakers,
01:44industry experts, and grid specialists to answer questions about the future.
01:49Can America lead the EV revolution?
01:51Are we ready to adopt EVs?
01:54And will our infrastructure keep up with the growing demand?
02:11Electric vehicles started taking off with the rise of Tesla.
02:14When the Tesla Model S came out, it quickly got the attention of the automotive industry,
02:18with MotorTrend awarding the Model S with its highest honor.
02:22So just what is MotorTrend's 2013 car of the year?
02:25The electrifying Tesla Model S.
02:28And as automakers launched more EVs, we've noticed them.
02:31I'm proud to announce that MotorTrend's 2017 car of the year is the Chevrolet Bolt EV.
02:36The MotorTrend 2022 truck of the year is the Rivian R1T.
02:42And for the past few years, more Americans have bought EVs.
02:462023 set a new record with about 1.2 million EVs sold,
02:51representing about 7.6% of the new car market.
02:55California, Florida, and Texas are leading the way,
02:59and less populated states like North and South Dakota, Wyoming, and West Virginia are lagging.
03:06But despite the steady surge, the growth rate has slowed down in 2024,
03:10and automakers are starting to get nervous.
03:13EV sales have been going through a bit of a topsy-turvy moment,
03:17but sales have continued to grow.
03:19It's going to continue, I think, to be a little bit messy.
03:21We do an EV forecast every year at BNEF,
03:24and so we see both 2024 and 2025 as sort of being a transition period,
03:28but really beginning to take off again in 2026 onwards.
03:31Early adopters were largely responsible for this growth we've seen from, say, 1% to 3%, 4% to 8%.
03:39Now we've moved into easy adopters.
03:42Well, who are those folks?
03:43Those folks are people who have two or three cars,
03:46and so they can experience electrification,
03:48but they also have an internal combustion engine.
03:51Well, we've run out of early adopters,
03:53and we're almost out of easy adopters.
03:55Now comes the hard part.
03:58Making it harder is the current state of the nation's public charging infrastructure,
04:02a patched-together network of often unreliable chargers
04:05that aren't meeting the needs of EVs on the road today.
04:09So the biggest players are Electrify America, EVgo, and ChargePoint.
04:15All three of those companies have reliability issues,
04:18and with the number of EVs on the road right now,
04:20we're reaching the point where six stations, if they are fully functional,
04:25might not be sufficient for the demand.
04:28When we talk to customers,
04:30the number one concern among people considering a purchase of EVs is,
04:36where do I charge this, and how far does it go on a charge?
04:40Without sufficient charging infrastructure and a sufficient charging experience,
04:45we're not going to get there.
04:47But there are significant efforts underway to change this.
04:51Tesla, which operates its own charging network,
04:54is opening it up to other automakers.
04:56The Biden administration made big investments to expand public charging.
05:00Through the bipartisan infrastructure bill,
05:02more than $7.5 billion was set aside
05:06to create the National EV Infrastructure Program, or NEVI,
05:10which provides funding to states to deploy a network of fast EV charging stations
05:15that are reliable and convenient.
05:18But while most of the chargers are set to be installed by 2027 and 2028,
05:23fewer than 40 chargers had been installed
05:25by the time we finished production of this documentary.
05:30Charging remains a pretty big problem.
05:32The National EV Infrastructure Program, or NEVI, has been really slow to roll out,
05:36and moves like Tesla's layoff of many of its supercharging network employees
05:40has driven that network, which had been leading the region,
05:43to really slow down in terms of deployments.
05:45So that charging anxiety piece really hasn't been met.
05:47The bulk of the NEVI chargers will be installed in 2027 and 2028,
05:52but I have been impressed to see that some of them will actually come online this year, 2024,
05:57and a few of them have even already been installed.
06:00The automakers used to say,
06:02everything outside of your car is not our responsibility.
06:05In general, they're in the business of selling you a good experience.
06:08And if having a good charging infrastructure is part of their good experience,
06:12they need to take ownership on that.
06:14There's a consortium of automakers called IANA that is just starting out,
06:18and says it's going to build 30,000 charging stations across the U.S.
06:23This, to me, is our best hope to get something that resembles gas stations,
06:29because I think they will understand that you need services like restaurants,
06:36convenience stores, restrooms at these charging stops,
06:40and they'll see to it and get those details right.
06:43I have really high hopes.
06:45Even with more charging stations being installed,
06:48it's important to make sure they're evenly spread out across the country.
06:52The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group focused on smarter transportation,
06:57found big gaps in where chargers are located
06:59and how many there are in different parts of the country.
07:0231% of U.S. counties had zero public charging ports at the end of 2023,
07:07and 21% of all new charging ports installed in 2023 were in California.
07:12To meet the demand, the Alliance estimates that 437 chargers will need to be installed
07:17every day for the next seven years through the end of 2030.
07:22That's three charging points every 10 minutes of every day
07:29from now till December 31st of 2030.
07:33It's an enormous undertaking.
07:36It's bigger than one company.
07:38It's bigger than one industry.
07:40Another big concern?
07:41Pricing.
07:43With the average transaction price of EVs almost $10,000 higher than gas-powered vehicles,
07:48the market needs more electric vehicles that are affordable and suit consumers' needs.
07:53But prices of new EVs have dropped about 15% in two years,
07:58with used EVs seeing even bigger declines, according to Cox Automotive.
08:02Despite the need for more affordable prices,
08:05there's still deep skepticism among lawmakers about how much the government should be spending
08:09to incentivize EV adoption and the charging infrastructure needed to support them,
08:13as Motor Trend's Miguel Cortina discovered on Capitol Hill.
08:17As part of the infrastructure bill, there was billions of dollars spent
08:21to build more public charging stations across the country.
08:24And they were very expensive.
08:25I look at it like this.
08:27When the internal combustion engine came along,
08:30you didn't need a government subsidy to build gas stations.
08:33The market demanded filling stations along the roadways, and people built them.
08:39They're still building them today.
08:40Why does it take a government subsidy to build a charging station?
08:44It's because they're trying to force something in the market
08:47where government has no place forcing it in the market.
08:49Pushing EVs through government subsidies and regulations, I think, is bad policy.
08:55The U.S. government has subsidized the petroleum industry for decades.
08:59And even today, oil companies get billions of dollars in tax breaks
09:02thanks to numerous energy subsidies that exist in the U.S. tax code.
09:07The federal government has also expanded subsidies for some EVs,
09:10offering up to $7,500 in incentives for certain buyers
09:15when purchasing or leasing eligible EVs.
09:18EVs are great.
09:19They're a product some people want to buy.
09:21We should quit subsidizing them.
09:23We should support research into battery technology.
09:25That's a very fundamental technology that could have great payoffs for humanity.
09:30But to subsidize the research and development of a technology is far different
09:35than trying to push into the marketplace a product that doesn't have
09:38many fundamental problems solved and doesn't really have a free market demand
09:44for the volumes we're trying to get established into the market.
09:48Those volume numbers are what the Environmental Protection Agency
09:51and the California Air Resources Board are after.
09:55The EPA projects that if its strict new tailpipe emissions limits are met,
09:58as much as 56% of all new passenger vehicles sold in the U.S.
10:03would be EVs by as early as 2030.
10:07California, which is the only state allowed to issue its own emissions standards,
10:11announced even stricter plans,
10:13banning all sales of new internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035.
10:18So far, 11 states have adopted California's rules.
10:21But, as experts point out, those plans will be tough, if not impossible, to meet.
10:27In 2025, those California states have to be well over 25% of the market.
10:36The state of New York is less than 10% today.
10:38A miracle would have to happen, right?
10:40In order for them to just get to where they need to be in 2026.
10:44They'd have to be at 100% in 2035.
10:48I'm not sure we can get to 50 to 60% by 2031.
10:52Getting to 100% by 2035?
10:54California, maybe?
10:56The rest of those states?
10:58No idea.
10:59I think it's aspirational utopia.
11:01It's not going to happen.
11:03Even with the government subsidies, they're losing a lot of money
11:06because people won't buy them.
11:08I've had dealers in my district say they were forced to change their dealership
11:12to be able to service EVs and charge EVs,
11:15and they have to put an EV on the lot, and nobody will buy it.
11:19Despite the looming emissions targets,
11:21the uncertainty in the market, driven by slow EV sales
11:25and conflicting signals coming from Washington,
11:27have forced several automakers to rethink their short-term priorities.
11:32Ford recently announced it would delay building a new EV factory in Tennessee
11:36and canceled its plans to produce a three-row all-electric SUV.
11:41General Motors said it will continue to offer internal combustion vehicles
11:44and will introduce plug-in hybrids in 2027
11:47to help with the transition to an all-electric lineup by 2035,
11:52but ultimately will be guided by consumer preferences.
11:55Volvo, a subsidiary of Chinese EV maker Geely,
11:59walked back its plans to have a full EV lineup by 2030
12:02and is now focusing on having plug-in hybrids and hybrids in its lineup
12:06while it continues to develop EVs.
12:09Other automakers, including Hyundai and Stellantis, which owns Jeep and Ram,
12:13have announced plans to build Extended Range Electric Vehicles, or EREVs,
12:18a battery-powered electric vehicle equipped with a gas engine
12:22that works solely as a generator to recharge the battery pack.
12:27In a statement to MotorTrend, Kia said it's closely monitoring the impact
12:31and uncertainty around the charging infrastructure,
12:34post-2024 election results, and shifting consumer interests,
12:38and will use its hybrid and plug-in hybrid models as a bridge towards full electrification.
12:44President Trump has said that his first day in office,
12:47he's going to get rid of the EV mandate.
12:49Yeah, the EV mandate.
12:50And on day one of the Trump administration,
12:53I will terminate Kamala's insane electric vehicle mandate
12:58and we will end the Green News scam once and for all.
13:02Once and for all.
13:05It doesn't mean he's getting rid of EVs.
13:06It doesn't mean that we're talking about not being able to buy your favorite car,
13:10whatever your favorite car is.
13:12We're simply saying we're not going to mandate to working families
13:16what kind of car they need to drive,
13:18regardless of their preference and regardless of the economics.
13:23But even if the United States manages to get through the hurdle
13:26of building the charging infrastructure it needs
13:28to support a transition to electric vehicles,
13:31there are serious concerns about the impact
13:33this shift could have on the stability of the electric grid,
13:36considering more AI data centers are coming online
13:39and crypto mining is on the rise.
13:42The utilities are perfectly aware,
13:44but they are behind on the need for upgrades.
13:46They're being hit with needs for upgrades after 50 years of slowdown.
13:51Now everything is asking them for more electricity for home,
13:55more electricity for transportation.
13:57But some remain optimistic that the power grid
14:00will be able to support EVs with minimal disruption.
14:04There's nothing about EV adoption, even if it's really aggressive,
14:09that should break the grid.
14:10Utilities are good at one thing,
14:12which is how do you get power to people who need it
14:15and make sure that they get it when they need it
14:17so that these guys can get paid for selling that electricity.
14:21It's their core business.
14:23They have the skills, they have the ability to be able to make sure
14:25that none of these things happen where you have catastrophic collapses
14:28on the distribution system.
14:29And many, many utilities are planning for it.
14:32There may be some that are not,
14:33but this is where the role of the regulator
14:35and the policymaker comes in to make sure
14:37that they plan for enough load growth in all neighborhoods
14:40so that people can have their EVs.
14:43We're likely to see EV adoption, even in a very aggressive scenario,
14:46add about 1% to 2% of annual load growth to the grid.
14:51And in the 50s, the U.S. utilities handled 8.8% per year load growth.
14:58So if we could do it in the 1950s,
15:00I'm pretty sure we can do it in the 2020s.
15:04But even if the grid can handle a massive influx of electric vehicles,
15:08will the power they pull from it be clean enough to make a difference?
15:11Only about 40% of our grid is powered by clean energy.
15:15If you charge your car from a coal power plant today,
15:18it's equal to driving a nice hybrid car.
15:21So it's not cleaner than a hybrid, but it's not worse than a hybrid car.
15:24Given that this power plant will retire,
15:26or will have more and more cleaner production,
15:29your car will get better over time.
15:32Electric cars are the only cars you can buy today,
15:36and when it will be 10 years old, it will be cleaner.
15:38One thing that's important to realize is that
15:40EVs are something like three to four times more efficient
15:43than a combustion vehicle.
15:45And that efficiency gain offsets the increased emissions
15:48you see from coal generation.
15:50However, if EVs are charged solely from coal power
15:54for a very long period of time,
15:55then we're not going to get the dramatic emissions reductions
15:58we want to see.
15:59So therefore, we have to start cleaning up the grid.
16:01The U.S. is the second largest emitter
16:03of greenhouse gas emissions in the world.
16:05And if we make a big difference in cutting emissions,
16:08it's going to have a major climate benefit.
16:10While it's clear that a widespread shift to electric vehicles
16:13would help lessen global emissions,
16:16there's still plenty of skepticism
16:17about the extent of that impact
16:19and how significant the reduction might truly be.
16:22It's fascinating technology.
16:24I've driven EVs.
16:25I think they have their place,
16:27but I think they're also being billed
16:29as the solution to a climate issue, and they're not.
16:3413.49% of global greenhouse gas emissions
16:38come from the United States.
16:3929% of that comes from transportation.
16:44Then you look at all of transportation,
16:45which includes planes, trains, automobiles.
16:48Only 57% of the emissions come from light-duty trucks
16:54and passenger vehicles.
16:55So now you're down at 2.2%
16:58of the global greenhouse gas emissions
17:00come from U.S. light-duty trucks and passenger vehicles.
17:05If we were totally serious about reducing carbon emissions,
17:09there would be a much greater focus on nuclear power.
17:13The two least efficient forms of zero-carbon energy
17:19are wind and solar,
17:20but we're doubling down on wind and solar,
17:22and we're doubling down on EVs
17:24when there's a lot bigger piece of the pie
17:26that could be captured by building nuclear power plants
17:28and either keeping the hydro we have
17:30or expanding the hydro that we have.
17:33Though we contacted multiple Democratic lawmakers
17:35and members of the Biden administration
17:37for their perspectives,
17:38all declined or ignored our requests for an interview.
17:44At the heart of the electric vehicle revolution
17:46lies a controversial player, China.
17:49As the world's largest producer of EVs,
17:52the batteries that power them,
17:53and a dominant force in the global supply chain,
17:56China's role is both pivotal and polarizing.
17:59China is a geopolitical rival of the United States.
18:03They do not have our best interests at heart.
18:05They do not play fair with access to their markets.
18:07And so I would want to see anything Chinese
18:10coming to America to be scrutinized
18:12for its geopolitical and political ramifications.
18:15They don't have a free market system,
18:17but they use their government-controlled system
18:19to unfairly compete in our free market system.
18:22And we've just seen jobs and wealth exported to China.
18:26On a level playing field
18:28where you've got the same environmental requirements,
18:31the same occupational health and safety requirements,
18:33and where you've got the same labor standards,
18:35we can beat China every time.
18:38But what we're allowing them to do
18:39is have substandard environmental conditions,
18:42substandard occupational safety and health conditions,
18:46and substandard labor conditions,
18:48and build cheap products and send them into our country.
18:53China has used its one-party political system
18:55to become a dominant player on the EV global stage.
18:59Chinese President Xi Jinping
19:00urged his country to produce EVs,
19:03subsidizing Chinese automakers
19:04and driving battery companies
19:06to extract minerals like lithium, cobalt, and nickel
19:09and process them to develop batteries.
19:12Today, China dominates the processing of these minerals,
19:15causing the rest of the world to step up.
19:18When the rest of the world was waiting to decide
19:21if EVs are the solution,
19:23the Chinese government decided to move fast and move hard
19:26and created the capacity.
19:28Now we all need to catch up.
19:29Do we need China's help?
19:30Yes, we absolutely need China's help.
19:33As the rest of the world needs China
19:35to build EVs and their batteries,
19:37there's a hidden dark side.
19:39Critics say China uses unethical practices
19:42to mine certain minerals used to power electric vehicles.
19:45Cobalt predominantly comes
19:48from the Democratic Republic of Congo,
19:51where they actually employ child slave labor
19:53to dig this cobalt out.
19:55They put it on a ship, take it to China,
19:57and China processes it.
19:59This is disgusting that we care more about
20:02visage horses, rodeo horses, pigs, and chickens
20:06here in the United States
20:07than we care about children in Congo.
20:10This isn't even poverty.
20:11These are children as young as six-year-old
20:13going into mines without any safety precautions whatsoever
20:17and being crushed by mine collapses.
20:19And you're doing something about it.
20:20We are.
20:21The EV Fair Trade Act.
20:22Yep. Correct?
20:23House Bill HR 8495, the EV Fair Trade Act.
20:28How's that going?
20:29It's going good.
20:30I've got a couple of co-authors with me.
20:31We're running up co-sponsors now.
20:33Okay.
20:34Which we're gonna target the right committees.
20:35Education and Workforce is one of the committees
20:37that deals with slave labor.
20:39And then, of course, Ways and Means
20:40deals with the tax subsidies and credits.
20:43The EV Fair Trade Act would mandate EV manufacturers
20:47to certify to the U.S. Bureau of International Labor Affairs
20:50that their components are free from slave or child labor.
20:55This issue has drawn intense attention in Washington
20:58and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
21:01was questioned multiple times about it
21:03during a recent congressional hearing.
21:05What's driving these children, these African children,
21:08to work in slave conditions
21:10is our want and consumption of cobalt.
21:14That's factual.
21:15Which is why we're trying to cut the use of cobalt, right?
21:18Because really, in my view, we have four options.
21:20Stop using batteries.
21:22Have batteries that don't use cobalt.
21:24Source cobalt from somewhere
21:25that doesn't have the conditions of the DRC
21:27or have better conditions than the DRC.
21:29And I think it's a combination of the last three
21:31that's more realistic than stopping using batteries.
21:35That combination is part
21:37of what's driving battery production in the U.S.
21:40As the country pushes to source minerals
21:42and refine them on American soil,
21:44it presents a big opportunity for U.S. businesses
21:47to compete with China.
21:49We visited American Battery Technology Company.
21:52It's a processing and recycling firm in Nevada
21:54that's building a lithium refining plant
21:56next to a mine that it has the rights to.
21:59Its goal?
22:00To bolster the domestic supply chain
22:02and reduce reliance on China.
22:04So right now, globally, almost all lithium
22:06is made from either a hard rock,
22:08which is mostly in West Australia
22:10and then refined in China,
22:12or a lithium-rich brine,
22:14which is mostly in South America
22:16and also refined in China.
22:18But if you look at different types of resources,
22:20there's a type of material, mostly in Central Nevada,
22:24that's a clay material.
22:25People have looked at it for decades
22:27but have never really been able to put together a process
22:31that can recover the lithium in a fashion
22:33that's competitive on an economic basis.
22:35We started from the very beginning,
22:36from a blank piece of paper
22:38and from first principles physics,
22:40worked our way up about really understanding
22:43how lithium is held in this type of claystone material,
22:47new ways to actually liberate the lithium
22:50from this type of clay structure.
22:52And we now have battery-grade lithium hydroxide
22:55coming out of this facility.
22:56So we've designed a plant to build
22:59and make about 30,000 tons per year.
23:01That's enough to manufacture
23:03about a half million electric vehicles per year
23:05within the U.S.
23:06Nevada is just one state where lithium is being extracted.
23:10ExxonMobil dug its first lithium well in Arkansas
23:13at the end of 2023,
23:15and other companies have set up in California's Salton Sea.
23:20Unfortunately, we're starting from close to zero,
23:23really for all of those metals.
23:24For nickel, cobalt, manganese, lithium,
23:26there's close to zero manufacturing
23:28of any of them within the U.S.
23:30So we're really growing into a void
23:32to really start changing that paradigm
23:34and to be manufacturing these metals domestically.
23:37But with recycling and primary refining combined,
23:41we have an avenue of how to do that domestically
23:43within the U.S. and within North America.
23:46Recycling is one of the biggest avenues
23:48the U.S. can win globally.
23:50EV batteries are 100% recyclable,
23:53and their metals don't lose their quality.
23:56A handful of companies like ABTC
23:58are already setting up recycling plants in the U.S.
24:00to reuse the minerals in new batteries,
24:03keeping them on U.S. soil,
24:05and in the future, reducing the mining of those minerals
24:07once we reach that capacity.
24:10Is it gonna be impactful now?
24:13No, because there's just so little material
24:16to recycle right now.
24:18But in the future, that's an opportunity for us
24:20to retain the minerals processed and refined globally
24:27here in the United States
24:29and keep them in our circular green economy.
24:34There's no question EVs are here to stay.
24:37But significant challenges lie ahead
24:40if they're to become the dominant means
24:41of transportation in the future.
24:43A robust and reliable charging network
24:45is needed to power them,
24:46and automakers need to be able to build them
24:49in an affordable and profitable way.
24:51And decreasing a reliance on China
24:53by investing more in the mining
24:55and refining of minerals in the U.S.,
24:57America could take a leading role
24:59in building electric vehicles,
25:00just like it did for gas-powered cars
25:02when Henry Ford invented the assembly line.
25:05But policymakers in Washington must also come together
25:08in order to help light the way to a more certain future.
25:11Over the arc of time,
25:13there are gonna be more electric vehicles, not less.
25:16I'd like to compete in this space.
25:18We're behind in a game that's being played
25:20by China very aggressively.
25:23And when it comes to America's national security interest,
25:28I think we need to compete in the transportation space.
25:32I don't know what the answers are to all these questions,
25:35but I do know that the march toward electric vehicles
25:40is inevitable.
26:05ELECTRONIC MUSIC