Trump says electric car drivers have a “disease”

US President Donald Trump called electric car owners’ fear of running out of charge on long trips — the so-called range anxiety — as a “disease” and called battery vehicle drivers “crazy.” The statement was made on Wednesday (5), in a speech on the government’s economic agenda in Las Vegas.

“They have a disease,” Trump said, describing drivers who he said start looking for a charging point when the battery is still three-quarters charged. The president also cited highway signs that indicate electric stations 143 km away. “These people are crazy,” he said.

In the same part of the speech, Trump called for the end of what he called the ‘electric mandate’ and made a reference to Elon Musk, owner of Tesla and former government ally. “I don’t want to talk about it because Elon wasn’t exactly happy with me, but I had to,” he said. “We love Elon.”

There was never an obligation to buy an electric car

The thesis that Americans would be forced to change the combustion car for an electric one by 2030 does not correspond to the facts. There has never been a federal law or rule that imposed this purchase on the consumer.

What there was was a goal, set by the Joe Biden administration, that 50% of new vehicles sold in the country would be zero-emission by 2030 — a goal aimed at automakers, not buyers. Added to it were federal emissions standards and the special permit that allowed California to adopt stricter limits. It was precisely these instruments, and not a retail requirement, that were the target of the decree signed by Trump in January 2025.

What the numbers say

Trump said that electric vehicles account for 7% of sales in the United States. Estimates from Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book point to 5.8% in the second quarter. Despite the small imprecision, the order of magnitude holds: demand has cooled sharply since the peak of 2025, a movement associated, at least in part, with the end of the $7,500 federal tax credit — a measure taken by Trump himself.

The statement that there was no way to recharge an electric car in the country is contradicted by the US Department of Energy database, which registers more than 250 thousand public charging points. The network, however, remains uneven: coverage is rarer in rural areas and outside large metropolitan regions, and those who live in an apartment without their own outlet have a very different user experience from those who recharge at home every night.