Trump vows to end US electric vehicle policy on day one if elected, ‘save the US auto industry from being wiped out’

Former US President Donald Trump has vowed to immediately reverse the current Biden administration’s electric vehicle policies and end federal support for them if he is elected president for another term. Bloomberg report.

“I will end the electric vehicle mandate on Day One, saving the American auto industry from total obliteration and saving American consumers thousands of dollars per vehicle,” he said in a speech at the Republican National Convention last week. He also called the current administration’s campaign “the new green scam.”

Trump has made no secret of his disdain for electric vehicles, claiming they don’t work and will benefit China and Mexico while hurting American auto workers. “They don’t go far enough. They’re very, very expensive. They’re heavy,” he said. Bloomberg in an interview earlier this month.

Joe Biden, by contrast, has made the shift to battery-powered cars one of his top climate and industry policies and has set a goal of having 50% of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030. While the outgoing president’s administration has no EV mandate, it has had a number of policies to promote EV adoption.

One is the current federal EV tax credit, which gives consumers who buy a qualifying EV a year-end tax rebate of $7,500 (RM35,150). Another is the EPA’s new regulations that restrict tailpipe pollution so severely that they will force automakers to sell more electric and hybrid models over the next few years.

While automakers have a choice about how to comply with pollution limits, they are expected to meet them by selling more low-emission hybrids and zero-emission electric vehicles. The report adds that a scenario modeled by the EPA projects that about 56 percent of new car and light truck sales in 2032 will be electric vehicles and another 16 percent will be hybrids.

Trump has also vowed to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which currently provides tax credits to foreign battery manufacturers that build batteries in North American factories. South Korean battery manufacturers have poured billions of dollars into building battery plants in the United States in recent years. While the IRA is unlikely to be repealed entirely, the incentives could be significantly reduced.

That shift away from electrification could also impact automakers like Hyundai Motor and Kia, which have invested in building dedicated EV facilities in the country. A possible second Trump term could force Hyundai and Kia to change their plans and restructure their current portfolios to focus more on hybrids, several Korean news agencies reported.

Tesla, meanwhile, appears unfazed by all the rhetoric. When asked about Trump’s apparent intention to end support for electric vehicles, Elon Musk said “it’s fine” and that his company doesn’t need subsidies to survive. “A surprising number of people think Tesla survives on subsidies. That’s true for our competitors, but not for Tesla,” he wrote in a post on X.

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