I agree that the bias of the author needs to be taken into account.

I have not said anything directly about bias of the author in the sentence you quote.

But a) I've heard this stuff many times before, and b) I see this author as particularly trustworthy

Did the author interview a single executive of a car company to come to the conclusion that it's greed that drives the decision against EV's?

I'm sure you agree with me that in theory, this could be true (the idea that you could be >50% sure that someone is stupid based off of limited understanding).

If you see that the actions of another person don't make sense based on the motivations you can see from the outside, you have two options: 1) Assume that there are motivations that you don't see. 2) Assume that they are irrational.

Given the amount of knowledge you have in this case, you can't assume that 2) is more likely.