Collector Car – The Electric Car; White House? A Follow-Up on EV Mandates and Common Sense

By Greg Zyla —

A few months ago, I wrote a column titled “Electric Car Concerns Started with the ‘Cart Before the Horse.’” It was a departure from my usual nostalgic car stories, but the response was overwhelming. Recently, following the current administration’s three major new mandates aimed at rolling back electric vehicle (EV) policies, particularly those led by California. These actions were our current administration’s part of a broader energy agenda and efforts to reduce federal support for total EV adoption.

I received dozens of emails and phone calls, some serious and some in jest, asking if my column had somehow made its way to the White House.

Why? My column was one of the most likely many that addressed California’s EV laws and why they simply would not work. Yet, during the recent EV mandate press conference, one of my loyal readers told me it sounded like they were reading directly from my column. Trust me, it was a nice compliment, even if my column never reached the White House.

Still, something was going on. Shortly after it ran, many conversations around electric vehicles (EVs) shifted dramatically. California, once the poster child for aggressive EV mandates, announced a major rollback of its all-electric vehicle deadlines. Suddenly, the same concerns I raised about the dismal lack of national infrastructure, affordability, and consumer readiness were being echoed by policymakers, automakers, and even environmental groups.

So, did my column reach the White House? I can’t say for sure. But I do know this: the EV tide has turned.

Reality Check: The EV Dream Meets the Road

In my original piece, I asked Microsoft’s AI to help explain why, despite billions in federal funding, only a handful of EV charging stations had been built (less than 20). The answer was clear: a decentralized rollout, prohibitive costs, and a classic catch-22 – low EV adoption discourages infrastructure investment, and lack of infrastructure discourages EV adoption.

Since then, Ford, GM, and even foreign automakers have pivoted. Their ads now promote “hybrid, electric, or gas,” a far cry from the all-electric future they once promised. It’s a quiet admission that the market isn’t ready, and maybe never will be, for a full EV takeover.

How about RAM trucks? Their current ads are impressive about Stellantis bringing back the Hemi and its return to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series racing in 2026. This “bringing back the Hemi” follows the new, all-electric 2025 muscle car Dodge Charger’s less than impressive debut and poor ratings and sales numbers.

The Hybrid Middle Ground

I’ve long argued that plug-in hybrids are the real solution. They offer electric range for shorter trips and gas backup for long hauls – no range anxiety, no waiting in line at a charger that may or may not work. If automakers had focused their R&D dollars on hybrids instead of chasing EV dream cars, we might be in a vastly different place today.

A Message to the Industry: It’s Not Too Late

To the executives at Ford, GM, and beyond: it’s not too late to course-correct. The American consumer is practical. We want clean air, yes, but we also want reliability, affordability, and freedom of movement. That means building cars that work for real people in the real world (at prices we can afford).

And to the policymakers: listen to the people. Not the lobbyists, not the headlines, but we folks here on the ground who are trying to make sense of a rapidly changing automotive landscape.

For whatever reason, those in charge believed that forcing everyone to buy an electric car would cause the auto industry to stop all R&D (research and development) on better ways to build vehicles. And again, I’m not against electric vehicles, but what we’ve gone through with this haphazard and money-infused electric car “movement” will one day be looked at as perhaps the biggest blunder ever that hurt the car industry. My stance is still the same: hybrid electric with gas engine backup good; all-electric car bad, as we’re still not ready for a nationwide charging station push.

Further, putting billions of dollars in front of politicians, lobbyists, and the car manufacturers themselves clearly didn’t work. When the political “pay windows” are open, there’s a mad rush to get their “fair share.”

So, be it in the form of build grants direct to manufacturers, tax incentives, or consumer discounts, you still end up with the current situation.

Fortunately, the recent mandates ended all this craziness, eliminating what was impossible to accomplish when it came to EV ownership.

I’ll end this way: there is a market for electric cars, and the Telsa my future son-in-law owns and allowed me to spend two weeks driving and being chauffeured around in is indeed one of the best cars I’ve ever driven. He has the battery charger in his garage and plugs it in every night. He lives in Florida, so charging stations are all over the place if he’s on the road.

However, after taking a trip from Florida to Pennsylvania not long ago in the Tesla, both he and my daughter summed the trip up this way: “The next time we decide to drive to Pennsylvania from Florida, we’re taking our gas powered 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander.”

Back to Nostalgia

Next week, I promise we’ll return to the collector cars and memories that make this column what it is. But for now, I want to thank my readers, especially those who called and said, “Greg, you must’ve rattled some cages in D.C.” Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. It really doesn’t matter. Or maybe, just maybe, common sense is finally making a comeback.

(Greg Zyla is a syndicated auto columnist who welcomes reader interaction on collector cars, auto nostalgia, or motorsports at extramile_2000@yahoo.com.)