Is it an electric car or a Bidenmobile? Greening of transportation gets political

When you think about it, there’s not much rational reason for electric vehicles to be a partisan political issue.

- Clarence Page

But, as we all should know by now, election-year politics do not have to be rational. They only have to reflect on what the players think will win.

That helps to explain why electric cars, trucks, and SUVs have become a hot issue across the political spectrum. Everyone wants clean air and water (it appears), but many don’t want environmental improvements to impinge on their choice of how to get around.

The age-old conflict between the free market and government regulation helps to explain much of the partisan divide over the future of the automobile in the U.S. Add a highstakes presidential election to the mix, and the debate starts to get weird. “Bidenmobiles,” a derisive nickname critics now are giving to electric vehicles, has become a new culture-war battleground in the presidential race.

That’s even though surveys tell us EV owners aren’t just tree-hugging, whale-saving, sandals-wearing liberals. A lot of conservatives drive them, too — even some who lean toward Donald Trump.