Kamala Harris' Electric Vehicle Advocacy Stumbles with Mockery over 'Yellow School Buses'

Vice President Kamala Harris has faced criticism for promoting a $5 billion federal program for electric school buses, with critics mocking her comments about "yellow school buses" and questioning the feasibility of the Biden-Harris administration's push for electric vehicles.

Vice President Kamala Harris' advocacy for electric vehicles has hit a bumpy road after her comments on "yellow school buses" drew mockery and questions about the practicality of the Biden-Harris administration's EV initiatives.

Harris visited a Seattle school in 2022 to promote a program that aims to deliver nearly 2,500 electric school buses to school districts across the nation. However, her gushing remarks about yellow school buses were met with ridicule on social media.

Kamala Harris' Electric Vehicle Advocacy Stumbles with Mockery over 'Yellow School Buses'

"Who doesn't love a yellow school bus, right?" Harris said. "It's part of our experience growing up. It's part of a nostalgia, a memory of the excitement and joy of going to school to be with your favorite teacher, to be with your best friends and to learn."

Harris' comments drew criticism from Republican activists, who accused Democrats of being out of touch with the public. "Democrats have been hiding Kamala, but she just had a press conference and talked about yellow school buses and my goodness they really can't let her talk in public about anything," OutKick founder Clay Travis said.

Kamala Harris' Electric Vehicle Advocacy Stumbles with Mockery over 'Yellow School Buses'

Beyond the mockery, Harris' role in promoting electric vehicles has raised concerns about the feasibility of the Biden-Harris administration's plans to force half of new car and truck sales to be electric by 2030.

In December 2021, Harris helped lead the "Electric Vehicle Charging Action Plan" to ensure 50% of car sales were electric vehicles by 2030. However, despite a $7.5 billion federal program to install half a million EV charging stations across the nation, only eight have been built as of May.

Kamala Harris' Electric Vehicle Advocacy Stumbles with Mockery over 'Yellow School Buses'

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was confronted with the lack of charging stations on CBS' "Face the Nation," where he responded that installing chargers required utility work and that the federal government was working with states on the issue.

Car industry leaders have long argued that the push by Democrats for EVs was rolled out too quickly and will likely fail. Former Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors executive Bob Lutz told Fox Digital that the EV movement was "largely from what I like to call the liberal mainstream media" and that "it just plain wasn't going to happen."

Kamala Harris' Electric Vehicle Advocacy Stumbles with Mockery over 'Yellow School Buses'

In fact, data found that electric vehicles were eating into Ford's profit margin. Ford Model e, the company's EV division, had a net loss of $4.7 billion last year – with $1.6 billion of that in the last quarter.

Ford recently announced a shift in its EV strategy, canceling its plans for an all-electric, three-row SUV and favoring the creation of hybrid vehicles for its next rollout of three-row SUVs. The company said it will face a $400 million write-down for canceling the EV SUV.

Kamala Harris' Electric Vehicle Advocacy Stumbles with Mockery over 'Yellow School Buses'

Despite the challenges facing the Biden-Harris administration's EV push, Democrats continue to champion the plan as a way to address climate change. Former President Trump, however, has vowed to end the Biden administration's "mandate" increasing the sales of electric vehicles, arguing that it would obliterate the U.S. auto industry and cost consumers thousands of dollars per car.