Biden’s EV Strategy Is Failing Due to Politics and Weak Economics

President Joe Biden deserves praise for recognizing the urgency of climate change. He has done less well adapting to setbacks and political realities. His flagging effort to boost electric-vehicle sales is a case in point.

The administration’s goals are sound. The Environmental Protection Agency issued revised standards last month that aim to boost sales of EVs to half the US market by 2030. Its new rules still envisage a rapid fall in sales of gas-powered vehicles but allow carmakers more latitude to replace them with hybrids as well as all-electric vehicles. In part, the change acknowledges faltering growth in US EV sales, despite generous subsidies. But it leaves EVs at the core of the administration’s climate-change strategy. That’s proving to be an error.