‘Factually Incorrect’: Buttigieg Clashes with House Republican Slamming His ‘Dictatorial’ Electric Vehicle ‘Mandate’

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) clashed at a Thursday House hearing where Buttigieg offered a live fact check of Perry’s criticisms of the federal government pushing for electric vehicles.

Perry said the EV effort “is not working,” claiming sales numbers are dropping. He told Buttigieg the administration should step back and “let the market decide” and accused them of making “de facto” EV mandates to help push the vehicles. The pair also clashed at a House hearing last fall over the same topic.

“Given that time is limited, I will confine myself to addressing the factually incorrect portions of what you have said beginning with the assertion that these sales are going down, they are in fact going up,” Buttigieg told Perry.

“Does that include government sales or private sales?” Perry asked multiple times before Buttigieg noted that 1.2 million EVs were sold in 2023. EV sales have gone up, though they still make up less than 10% of the market.

“How many government and how many private?” Perry asked.

“We’ll get you that breakdown but as you know more citizens buy EVs than government purchases,” Buttigieg said.

“No, I don’t know that. I don’t think that’s factually true,” Perry said.

Buttigieg continued with his fact check, pushing back on Perry’s claim that EV costs are getting higher, noting they have in fact gone down, though he admitted these lowered costs do not factor in government subsidies.

The transportation secretary also argued Perry could only claim sales were down because he was comparing the final quarter of 2023 to first quarter of 2024, rather than the first quarter of 2024 to the same time period the year before. Buttigieg said such a distinction is necessary to make because car sales are “seasonal” across the board.

“Tailspin is a bizarre word to use for a growing sector of our economy,” he told Perry.

“What I’m not happy about is the mandate. The American people should be able to buy any vehicle they want,” Perry said.

President Joe Biden has a goal of half the new vehicles being sold are electric or hybrid by 2030. The administration announced new climate regulations on pollution allowed from tailpipes in March to help accelerate this goal.

Buttigieg pushed back on the use of the word “mandate,” saying people are free to buy gas vehicles if they want.

“There is no mandate,” he said. “You can purchase a gas car if you want to pay gas prices at the pump but if you don’t, you can purchase an EV with our help.”

Watch above via C-SPAN.

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