Pete Buttigieg Tells Americans Struggling With Gas Prices To Just Buy Electric Vehicles

During a Congressional hearing on Tuesday, Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg argued that Americans could escape the burden of record high gas prices by simply buying an electric vehicle.

It should be noted that the average cost of an electric vehicle is over $65,000, according to Kelley Blue Book. In comparison, the average cost of a new vehicle is about $46,000 and the average cost of a new car is about $42,000.

“The more pain we are all experiencing from the high price of gas, the more benefit there is for those who can access electric vehicle,” Buttigieg said, according to Fox Business.

“So you’re saying the more pain we have, the more benefit we’re gonna get?” Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) responded. “I think that’s what I heard you say.”

“Of course — no, no, that’s what you heard me say,” Buttigieg replied. “I know you want me to say it’s so bad but honestly, sir, what we’re saying is we could have no pain at all by making EVs cheaper for everyone.”

At another point in the hearing, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) pointed out to Buttigieg that charging electric vehicles would require several times more energy than running the average household’s air conditioning.

“It would take four times as much electricity to charge the average household’s cars as the average household uses on air conditioning,” Massie said.

“So if we reach the goal by 2030 that Biden has, of a fifty percent adoption [of electric vehicles] instead of one hundred percent adoption, that means the average household would use twice as much electricity charging one of their cars as they would use for all of the air conditioning that they use for the entire year,” he added.