Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says the days are numbered for traditional gas-powered vehicles.
During an interview on Fox Business Network, Buttigieg predicted that Americans will no longer be driving gas cars in the next 25 years.
"I don't know a lot of people who think that Americans in 2050 are still going to be driving that old technology, that combustion technology that we inherited from the 20th century," he said.
The Biden administration is pushing the U.S. auto industry to accelerate a transition to EVs and offering tax rebates and other benefits to Americans who ditch their gas-powered cars for EVs. In April, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed rules that could result in as much as two-thirds of the new vehicle market shifting to EVs by 2032.
Buttigieg said progress is being made to reach the administration's ambitious goals.
"The share of EVs has been dramatically increasing every single year, and that's continuing. Now, our goal is by the end of this decade to be about half-and-half. We think that that can and will happen," he said.
And once drivers go electric, they'll probably never go back.
"You're not going to meet a lot of people who ever go back after they've gone electric, and I think that really tells you something," Buttigieg said. "That shows you that the lower maintenance, the fact that it costs less to maintain, the fact that they break down [with] less frequency, and the cost savings that you get by not having to buy gas or diesel are I think why you almost never meet somebody who has an EV who says, 'I want to back to the old technology.'"