Forcing the EV revolution will spark a consumer revolt

Sep 17, 2023

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If Virginia Democrats are correct, there's a transportation revolution coming soon.

In just over 10 years, every new car sold in Virginia will be some form of electric vehicle. Small cars, large cars, sports cars — everything will have a giant battery and electric motors, with gasoline engines largely put out to pasture. Gasoline-powered cars have been the heart of the American identity for nearly a century. Ending that would indeed be a revolution. Yet, the source of this revolution isn't consumer demand — it's a fiat imposed by Democrats in the General Assembly who tethered Virginia to California's clean air rules for cars. So when California jumped off the EV cliff to ban sales of new gas engines by 2035, Virginia followed.

Virginians don't have long to get ready. In less than three years, 35% of all new cars sold in Virginia must be electric. At the end of 2022, that number was 5%, according to statistics from the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Del. Michael Webert

Why aren't EV's flying off of dealer lots? Consumers just don't want to spend huge amounts of money on a technology that's not ready for prime time. EVs are far more expensive, take hours to charge, need expensive midlife battery replacements and don't have the range of their gasoline counterparts.

Ask any car dealer or manufacturer when there are no TV cameras or activists around, and they’ll tell you what they’ve told me: The 2026 goal is utterly impossible to meet. The revolution Democrats are attempting to force is stalling before it gets started.

Forcing consumers to buy electric cars is bad. Forcing them to do so when our power grid is likely to become unreliable due to other green energy concerns is unconscionable.

PJM Interconnection, the grid operator that handles Virginia's power system, forecasts that our power demands will skyrocket in the coming decade, and that there may not be enough new generation coming online to keep the lights on. Dominion Energy recently issued a report that concurs. Chasing the carbon-free dream will require sky-high power bills and a grid that may not be able to withstand similar cold snaps like the one we saw in December.

That being said, everyday experience is where the rubber meets the road with cars. And the user experience for EVs isn't what Virginians have come to expect from their gas-powered vehicles. Consider this scenario:

A driver charges an electric car Feb. 11 in a parking lot of a shopping mall in Tallinn, Estonia.

It's the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and your family is loaded up in the car, heading back from a long weekend with relatives. The sun is going down and the wind is picking up as the seasonable late-November evening begins. You’ve been on the interstate for a few hours, and it's time to make a pit stop, as temperatures drop into the low 30s.

But when you pull off the highway, you find a nightmare. Every single vehicle charging space at every station is full — and you don't have enough juice left in the battery to make it to another one. So you and your family sit, in the cold, waiting for hours — not only for a place to charge, but also for your car itself to charge up.

What could have been a 20-minute stop for food and fuel in a gasoline-powered car has become hours of waiting — and has doubled the length of your trip. Full gas pumps are at most an inconvenience for a few minutes. Full chargers? Bring a book.

Virginia Democrats are determined to force everyone to live their lifestyle of choice: urbanized, high-density, transit-oriented lives. EVs work great in Arlington. They’re not so good in Bristol. Not everyone lives in an urban environment, and not everyone wants to.

Virginians enjoy the reliability and mobility that gasoline-powered vehicles give them, and for good reason. Yes, there's a revolution coming in transportation. But it may well be a consumer revolt against politicians who tell them they have to buy an electric car.

Trolley at Forest Hill Park, circa 1910. Standing at left of the trolley in the dark suit is Richmond businessman T. J. Cousins. In 1889, the property that would become Forest Hill Park was sold to the Southside Land and Improvement Company, and became a terminus for the Forest Hill trolley, part of one of the first successful trolley systems in the United States. To attract passengers to the countryside, the residence on the property was converted into a trolley terminus and an elaborate amusement park was built on the grounds, complete with carousel, roller coaster, fun house, dance hall, penny arcade, and golf course. The park also included a bath house, swimming area, and boat lake. The park remained a popular Richmond attraction until it closed in 1932 due to the economic constraints of the Great Depression.

Laying trolley tracks at First and Broad Streets, circa 1897.

Trolley on Seventh Street between Franklin and Grace Streets, circa 1895.

In January 1945, Alma May Billings, a 22-year-old streetcar operator for the Virginia Transit Co., modeled one of the new uniforms that had been procured to end a long controversy about what the women should wear. The uniforms were gray with dubonnet trim. Drawn up by stylists for the Virginia Electric and Power Co., the uniforms initially carried a Vepco insignia, but it was soon replaced with a VTC emblem.

In March 1938, the Richmond-Ashland Electric Line ceased operating trolleys after 31 years. The route had its start in 1812 as a stagecoach toll road. Trolleys were seen as the way of the future in 1907, but because of financial difficulties, the route finally changed over to bus service.

In July 1948, Vincent K. Bass said goodbye to "Old 912," an electric trolley car that had been in service in Richmond for nearly 40 years. Bass, a streetcar conductor for 42 years, was reluctantly learning to drive a bus – the following year, the city introduced a bus system to replace the streetcars. A contractor purchased this streetcar; the owner said he might use some of it for storage or as bunking quarters for some employees.

This February 1946 image shows Richmond streetcars double-berthing at First and Broad streets downtown. Loading and unloading streetcars simultaneously at the same stop helped speed transit service, according to Virginia Transit Company officials.

In November 1934, a reproduction of a mule-drawn trolley was the first vehicle to cross the newly restored Marshall Street Viaduct in Richmond. Horse- or mule-drawn trolleys were a preferred mode of transportation here starting in about 1860. They began to be replaced by electric trolleys in the late 1880s, and they were all retired by 1901.

In November 1949, Richmond's electric streetcars, which began service in 1888, were retired from service. Here, a crowd waited to board cars as they took ceremonial final trips through the city, with car signs touting the city's new bus service. The Virginia Transit Co. spent $2.2 million on 166 buses for the new system.

November 25, 1949. Mayor King presides as the changeover is made on the South Sidle. The last trolley and the first bus are ready to start on their trips to the downtown section suring the ceremony at Hull and Fourty-third Streets. A Virginia Transit Company representative is at right,

November 25, 1949. Charles Phaup, operator of the 408 pulls the trolley for the last time.

400 block East Broad St. Trolley

Trolley No. 408 burns, Dec. 15, 1949.

No. 408 of the Richmond trolleys was the last to burn

December 15, 1949. No. 408, The city's last trolley, as it was burned on December 15, 1949.

07-20-1967 (cutline): Watching as the last nine-tenths of mile of Richmond streetcar tracks are paved today are (from left) City Manager Edwards; Anthony J. Binga, a member of Community Relations Commission (Biracial Committee); ex-Mayor Claude W. Woodward, co-chairman of the commission; and City Manager-elect Alan F. Kiepper. The tracks, part of an original total of 63.602 miles, will be covered during a two-mile paving project in Richmond's Fulton section. Today's start on the $33,430 paving job was at Louisiana and Main Streets.

In September 1982, Sondra Jones, Miss Virginia-USA, helped Phil Reynolds unveiled the name of the trackless trolley – Belle of Richmond – that was set to begin a five-month trial run in downtown Richmond. Reynolds came up with the winning entry in a naming contest. The Belle was replaced by a regular bus the following year.

09-23-1982 (cutline): Look, Ma, no cable. The hills gave the car a bit of the San Francisco look, but the Belle of Richmond doesn't run on tracts or electrified lines. The gas-powered trolley, traveling downtown streets and offering seats for 10 cents apiece, does, however, offer a bit of nostalgia. The first city in the country to have electrified trolleys, Richmond got rid of its cars by 1949 and ripped up virtually all of the track to make way for the automobile and bus. Sponsors of the trolley see it as a reminder of the past as well as an effective transport in the inner city.

03-05-1982 (cutline): A newly designed, gasoline-powered, trackless trolley was available for free rides yesterday near Grace Street downtown. The Central Richmond Association, a merchants' organization, and other groups are studying the trolley as a possible shuttle vehicle for the future.

07-23-1990 (cutline): Mayor Walter T. Kenney breaks a champagne bottle to hearld the beginning of free and expanded trolley service for downtown Richmond.

The restored building at 814-816 West Broad Street. The Latin inscription on the top gives the year: 1907. This used to be the Richmond-Ashland trolley station. April 8, 2014.

The restored building at 814-816 West Broad Street. The Latin inscription on the top gives the year: 1907. This used to be the Richmond-Ashland trolley station. April 8, 2014.

The Trolley Line Trail is a half-mile linear walkway that is part of the historic Ashland-Richmond trolley line. Though the Ashland-Petersburg route hasn't been mapped, the northern portions could follow the path of the old Ashland-Richmond trolley line.

Del. Michael Webert, R-Fauquier, serves as the House majority whip. You can reach him at [email protected].

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