The US is certainly not "long past that point" in terms of charging infrastructure. So on their home turf, EV-only is a losing proposition.
Which may drive them towards international irrelevance, but if they have to sacrifice one market or the other, that seems like the easier one to choose to lose.
It’s long past the point hybrids were a good solution for the majority of cars. They were a good idea to start phasing in 20 years ago, when the Republicans decided that they were proof you were a tree hugger ivory palace stuck up asshole for even considering them.
So we completely missed the entire thing. They were a never very big part of the market. And now people are saying we should transition to the thing that we should have been transitioning off of.
California didn’t mandate EV only tomorrow. No sane person has mandated EV only in the US that soon.
The chose 10 years from now.
People vastly underestimate how much progress we can make in a relatively short time without massive individual improvements. People always think the future is much further out than it actually is, but when we look back it seems like things happened in a snap. Because we always underestimate ourselves.
Every time infrastructure gets better, it enables more EVs. Every time battery technology gets better, it enables more EVs.
It’s doable. Other countries are showing it can be done. If we get 5 or 7 years from now and find out we need to extend the deadlines some they can do that.
Having the federal government come in and force a state to stick their head back in the sand until the political winds change doesn’t help anyone.
Remember: states rights if we’re out of power, federalism if we’re not.
Which may drive them towards international irrelevance, but if they have to sacrifice one market or the other, that seems like the easier one to choose to lose.