Donald Trump rants about EVs, sprouts misinformation

The world of automobiles may be picking up electrification, and the US government too is pushing hard for more electrification of the auto industry. But former US President Donald Trump has taken a different stance. In his latest speech in Pennsylvania, he said that electric vehicles are twice as expensive compared to their internal combustion engine-powered counterparts. Also, Trump claimed that electric vehicles offer only ‘38 miles per gallon’, which is like a 61 km range on three-litre fuel.

Interestingly, electric vehicles don't use fuel like petrol or diesel as their internal combustion engine-powered counterparts do. Instead, electric vehicles use electricity that is stored in battery packs for propulsion. Hence, Trump's claim is technologically misleading.

Electric vehicles are expensive for sure, but not as much as twice their ICE counterparts, as Trump claimed. Also, while electric vehicles come with higher upfront costs compared to their ICE counterparts, they save a lot of money throughout the life cycle. This is because the maintenance costs of electric vehicles are substantially lower than the petrol or diesel-powered vehicles, as EVs come with a lot fewer moving parts, and the number of key components in electric vehicles is a lot lesser.

Donald Trump was once a supporter of electric vehicles. he even supported Tesla and Elon Musk. Trump had Tesla CEO on one of his special advisory boards. However, Musk left the board after Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord.

Trump also told a story about a friend of his who used his EV to travel from Kentucky to Washington DC. He said that his friend complained about the road trip taking way too long due to the car's range and the time it took to charge.