Elaine Buckberg Analyzes the Potential Expansion of the EV Market in the Newest Episode of “Environmental Insights”

Trump administration policies will slow the growth in the U.S. electric vehicle (EV) market, but Elaine Buckberg, senior fellow at Harvard’s Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability, argues that the future of the domestic auto industry will depend on long-term realities. That was the focus of conversation in the newest episode of “Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program.” The podcast is produced by the Harvard Environmental Economics Program. Listen to the interview here.

Hosted by Robert N. Stavins, A.J. Meyer Professor of Energy and Economic Development at Harvard Kennedy School and director of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program and the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, Environmental Insights is intended to promote public discourse on important issues at the intersection of economics and environmental policy. 

Buckberg, whose remarkable career includes stints at the International Monetary Fund, Morgan Stanley, NERA, the U.S. Treasury Department, and as Chief Economist of General Motors, leads research and stakeholder engagement at the Salata Institute to drive better public EV outcomes. Her experience includes macro, micro, and financial economics, both domestic and international. 

Buckberg remarked that despite progress in the growth of the U.S. EV market over the past decade, there remain a couple of significant obstacles. 

“Number one is [the] availability of public charging. Everyone, even if they can install home charging, want to believe that if they buy an EV, they can do a road trip, and it won't be a challenging or frustrating experience. So, having highway charging that works, that's widespread, that's reliable, is huge for adoption. And that comes through in JD Power surveys of vehicle buyers too, for the top five reasons why people just bought [or] don't buy an EV in recent quarters are about charging. The other one is about price differentials… People have a limited willingness to pay more for an EV,” she said. 

The Trump administration is taking steps through the ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ Buckberg remarked, to roll back subsidies for domestic EV purchases and impose a $250 per/year fee on EVs to compensate for lost gas taxes, but she said most automakers understand that changing market dynamics compel them to embrace green technologies.

“[They] overwhelmingly believe that EVs are the future and are ambitious about getting into the market and want to be early winners in the EV market but also need to achieve profitability along the way in order to satisfy investors and be able to make those very substantial investments in their EV program,” she explained. “There [are] some differences among automakers. Automakers that are heavily in Europe or in China have to shift over their portfolios faster… I think GM and Ford are very ambitious. The Europeans are very ambitious. Hyundai and Kia [are] doing very well with EV models in the U.S. market.”

Looking over the longer term, Buckberg stated that as EV battery ranges and charging capacities expand, that will further drive the advancement of the EV market – both in the U.S. and abroad. 

“I'm a really big believer in the technological progress that the amount of research that's happening on batteries – public and private – around the globe will really continue to drive down battery costs and get us to that point where buying an EV is actually cheaper than buying an internal combustion vehicle even on the upfront costs and that will be very compelling to people,” she stated. “I also think that some of the other challenges around charging and speed of charging are improving with continued rollout of chargers as well as improvements in the batteries that enable them to take in faster charges. You may have seen that there were a couple of breakthroughs from BYD and CATL, two Chinese companies, where they're saying you could charge a vehicle in five minutes on new chargers that they are developing that could provide more than a thousand kilowatts per hour and vehicles that could take them in at that speed.”

Buckberg also sounded an alarm for U.S. automakers who drag their feet on their EV programs. 

“This is the future of auto, and if we want the U.S. to continue to compete in auto, if you want us to have jobs in auto and be a producer, we can't fall further behind the rest of the world. Even without the emissions requirement, from a pure jobs and industry requirement, you want domestic production. This is the future of the auto industry, and if we don't make them domestically, if we don't promote sales, we will fall further behind in efficiency in learning, and we may not have a domestic auto industry in the future,” she warned.

Buckbergs’ interview is the fourth episode during 2025 in the Environmental Insights series, with additional episodes scheduled to drop each month.   

“Environmental Insights is intended to inform and educate listeners about important issues relating to an economic perspective on developments in environmental policy, including the design and implementation of market-based approaches to environmental protection,” said Stavins. “We speak with accomplished Harvard colleagues, other academics, and practitioners who are working on solving some of the most challenging public problems we face.”

Environmental Insights is hosted on SoundCloud and is also available on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, and Spotify. 

LINK TO PODCAST: https://on.soundcloud.com/hrnEyY3VKjSnkNI3q7