Gasoline prices increase, the time of electric cars has come?

Gas price in the US continued to set a new record on March 13, at an average of 4.43 USD/gallon (each USD/gallon is approximately 6,000 VND/liter). A gallon of regular gasoline has increased by 79 cents in the past two weeks, making current gasoline prices averaging $1.54 a gallon higher than they were in the same period last year. Previously, the record high for gasoline price was 4.11 USD/gallon (approximately 24,670 VND/liter) in July 2008.

In some areas of the US, gas prices have increased to 6 USD/gallon, especially gas prices at some gas stations in Los Angeles up to nearly 7 USD/gallon. Besides, diesel oil price also increased by 1.18 USD/gallon in recent weeks, at 5.2 USD/gallon.

Gasoline prices continued to rise to new record levels after US President Joe Biden announced a ban on imports of Russian oil, natural gas and coal related to war in Ukraine.

Gasoline prices in San Francisco, California

Those who are optimistic about the future Electric Car believes that the escalation of gas prices, the immediate consequences of problems like the pandemic, the supply chain and then the Ukraine crisis, will convince EV skeptics to quickly change their minds.

In fact, many places in the US are enacting policies promoting the use of electric vehicles. In New York City, the government is focused on finding ways to make electric vehicles easier to charge.

In 2021, the New York government aims to build 120 new charging stations within four years, not counting charging stations from private companies like Tesla.

Last September, the New York Department of Transportation released a report with more ambitious proposals. The report says New York lags far behind California and major European cities in the number of electric cars on the road. There are about 20,000 currently, but 400,000 EVs will need to be on the road by the end of the decade to meet the emission reduction target.

The Department of Transportation proposes that New York will have to install 1,000 charging points by 2025, increasing to 10,000 by 2030. At the same time, Governor Kathy Hochul of New York State signed legislation requiring all cars and trucks state must be zero-emissions by 2035.

But the above measure makes many policymakers think that 2022 will be the year of electric cars, at least the beginning of ambitious plans for electric vehicles.

“It’s not just New York’s upper class that has switched to electric vehicles, but the working class is also very interested,” said Ydanis Rodríguez, New York City’s transportation official.

Electric vehicles benefit amid rising fuel prices

However, it is also important to recognize the fact that electric cars will not appear on the street massively, largely because of the price. In New York, even with prices reduced and government subsidies included, the price of a new electric car is still $20,000 higher or more than double what it was in 2011.

Americans’ interest in electric cars has also just appeared, but has not yet become a trend. A poll released in June 2021 by the Pew Research Center (based in Washington) indicates that 51% of Americans oppose a proposal to completely phase out the production of electric cars and trucks. gasoline, even if the automakers are doing this themselves.

For example, in early 2021, General Motors said it wanted to stop selling gas and diesel cars within the next 14 years.

Intelligent Recovery (according to AP, New York Times)
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