The U.S. is pushing automakers to sell two EVs for every combustion-engine vehicle sold by 2032. It's a regulatory goal that could reshape America's auto industry in the most dramatic way since the birth of the combustion engine in the early 20th century.

Currently, they're charting a roughly 2-3 percentage-point increase in sales each year. That figure could accelerate in the coming years as more than $120 billion in investments for assembly plants, infrastructure, and production come online, according to a report from the Environmental Defense Fund. For now, sales levels raise concerns about whether the goal proposed by the EPA is achievable. And automakers are raising other issues about their attempts to win over American consumers with electric vehicles.

For now, the vehicles are still remarkably expensive compared to their combustion-engine counterparts. Capital One research estimates the price premium on an average electric vehicle puts them out of reach for anyone earning less than around $120,000 per year.

Consumers are also anxious about how long it takes to charge an EV and how few charging stations are available. Federal subsidies aim to help private companies boost the number of charging stations in coming years, but developing faster-charging tech on par with the five-minute fill-up drivers can get at a gas station could take some time.

Then there are the sources of electricity available today, a mix of fossil fuels and renewables that augment each other's weaknesses. When wind is sparse, natural gas fills in the gaps, keeping homes powered through the winter, for instance—likewise with solar energy.

Plug-in hybrids and EVs draw on the same power sources for electricity as our homes and businesses. Those sources still rely substantially on burning fossil fuels, including coal and natural gas. In 2022, about 60% of electricity in the U.S. was generated by fossil fuels, per the Energy Information Administration.

Still, EVs are significantly better for the environment, reducing emissions pollution by an entire half of that produced by gasoline-burning vehicles.

Where EVs lack a traditional engine, they have a massive battery at the vehicle's base, providing the electricity needed so that powerful magnets can rotate the wheels. These forces are to thank for the near-instantaneous acceleration so many EV owners enjoy. But those batteries are made of hard-to-find resources like lithium, nickel, and cobalt.

EV detractors, including those in the fossil fuel industry, have criticized the inhumane labor practices used in parts of the world where these minerals are sourced. Building the batteries themselves involves a significant amount of pollution, something manufacturers are working to lessen.

It's a phenomenon professor of technology and Guardian columnist John Naughton dubbed the "embedded carbon debt" of every EV purchase. It's one that proponents of EVs hope will be lessened over time as a wide range of policies bring battery production, recycling, and mineral processing to the U.S. to be performed domestically.

Much like our current predicament with combustion-engine vehicles, more EVs will require larger highways and additional roads. Expanding our existing roads and parking lots comes with its own environmental and societal downsides.

Highways can divide communities and make access to jobs and essential services difficult or cost-prohibitive. Asphalt exacerbates flooding, an issue projected to worsen with existing projections for climate change.

Despite the expansion of roadways more passenger vehicles necessitate, EVs still represent one of the most significant facets of a multipronged approach to curbing climate change. Especially given that American culture has become entrenched around personal passenger vehicles. Just 5% of the U.S. workforce uses public transportation to commute to work, according to the Census.

And the current presidential administration, backed by Congress, has plowed a historically large amount of taxpayer dollars into building out additional clean energy sources, EV charging infrastructure, and adding millions of new jobs to get it done.

Yet the question remains: Will it all be enough?

Story editing by Ashleigh Graf. Copy editing by Paris Close.