Image: Lordstown, an American electric car company, went bankrupt last year. \File photo

Political factors disrupt supply chains

•Mining, refining and parts manufacturing related to electric vehicles are mostly carried out in China, but the Biden administration’s discriminatory trade policies against China have forced U.S. automakers to readjust their supply chain structure, resulting in rising costs.

Consumer enthusiasm weakens

• American consumers have not yet widely accepted the use of electric vehicles to replace traditional fuel vehicles, and have “range anxiety” about electric vehicles that need to be charged. US media pointed out that in the US market, electric vehicles have no advantages over fuel vehicles or hybrid vehicles in terms of price and convenience, so consumers’ enthusiasm for them has waned.

Incomplete supporting infrastructure

• Having a sufficient number of public charging stations is the key to alleviating consumers’ “range anxiety”. There are currently about 171,000 public charging stations in the United States, which is far from the Biden administration’s goal of building 500,000 by 2030. The Biden administration allocated billions of dollars in 2021 to build a fast charging network, but only 38 fast public charging stations have been put into use in more than two years. In addition, the charging facilities in the United States also have problems such as uneven geographical distribution, uneven quality of public and private charging stations, and non-universal charging interfaces.

Compiled by Ta Kung Pao