Automakers Urge Trump to Keep Biden’s Market-Distorting, EV-Pushing Policies
The car-makers may have some short-term pain, there will be long term gain. EV’s have been an anchor dragging down the profitability of the automotive companies.
During his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump declared his intention to completely reverse Biden’s electric vehicle (EV) policies. Trump criticized the current administration’s rush towards battery-powered cars, describing the mandate as “crazy.”
Major U.S. automakers, including Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, have asked Trump to reverse gear on this promise. As a reminder, Biden’s Green New Deal commitments included senseless emissions regulations and the $7,500 EV tax credit, which has totally distorted the automotive market.
The conversation would require diplomatic finesse. Mr. Trump has railed against the E.V. rules, which strictly limit the amount of tailpipe pollution while also ramping up fuel economy standards. They are designed to get carmakers to produce more E.V.s and have been a cornerstone of President Biden’s fight against climate change.
Mr. Trump sees them differently. He has falsely said the rules amount to a Democratic mandate that would prevent Americans from buying the gasoline-powered cars of their choice — a concern of his campaign donors from the oil industry.
And Mr. Trump still holds grievances against some of the automakers, whom he views as having betrayed him because during his first term they supported Obama-era auto emissions rules.
In fact, most automakers don’t love the more stringent rules Mr. Biden put in place. But they have already invested billions in a transition to electric vehicles, and fear that if Mr. Trump made an abrupt change as he has promised, they could be undercut by automakers who sell cheaper, gas-powered cars. They argue it would harm an industry that is a backbone of American manufacturing and employs 1.1 million people.
Perhaps I would have more sympathy for the automakers if they had vigorously countered the climate crisis pseudoscience and spent some advertising dollars educating the public on the realities of carbon dioxide and climate science. However, they thought there would be a sweet compromise position and decided to enjoy the financial incentives to roll over spinelessly.
Live by the mandate, die by the mandate.
These companies can now have their tax lawyers find ways to write off their losses.
Their pleas are not receiving any sympathy from many other Americans either.
No. If EVs can’t make it without mandates and subsidies that should be telling us that the demand for EVs just isn’t there. The car companies should have reacted sooner. The signs were all over the place.
— Samuel Culper 722 (@politiwars) November 23, 2024
Trump administration to automakers that want to keep Biden EV mandates in place:
“Piss off.” https://t.co/MgGyMBFVhl
— Joseph Toomey (@JosephEToomey) November 24, 2024
This NYT story about automakers urging Trump to keep Biden EV rules in place encapsulates two things:
1. Not letting the market work.
2. Congress abdicating its responsibility to the executive branch, which will change rules on the fly depending on who is in office.…— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) November 23, 2024
While carmakers may experience some short-term pain, there will be long-term gain. EVs have been an anchor dragging down the profitability of automotive companies.
“Losing $70,000 on an EV is not a winning business model and U.S. automakers know that,” said Tim Stewart, president of the U.S. Oil & Gas Association. Stewart said axing the EV tax credit gives members of the auto industry the opportunity to shift back to traditional production lines.
“If I was a CEO, I would quietly be relieved to have a reason to shift production lines back to traditional models and invest in new hybrid technologies,” Stewart told Fox News Digital. “The EV tax credit was the only way to entice consumers to ‘maybe’ purchase something they really didn’t want, but told by the Biden folks they had to buy.”
“With the tax credit gone and the onerous Biden regulatory mandates lifted, the new administration is providing the exit ramp the U.S. producers were really hoping for, and U.S. consumers really want.”
As I noted earlier this year, a study shows that almost 50% of Americans who own an EV have buyer’s remorse and want to switch back to vehicles with traditional internal combustion engines. Trump’s reversal will begin correcting the market distortions that are an inherent part of Bidenomics’ failures.
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The auto industry is not stupid. They see that Harris received 74 million votes and figure (correctly) that no Republican other than Trump can match that number in 2028. But Trump cannot be president then. If a president can make the industry switch gears and go all electric and high mpg fleet, and then another president pulls out the rug and sinks all that investment, the smart bet is to keep the EV mandates in place because the probability of a Democrat in 2028 is high.
Long range forecasting is what they are doing.
Drop dead a-holes.
I remember when Ford committed to investing 100 million in the US. When Trump lost they invested the 100 million in Mexico,
Another thing. “Major U.S. automakers, including Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis…”
GM now imports many, if not most, of their CARS. I am not talking trucks. I am talking Chinese Cadillacs and Buicks, Korean Chevrolets.
Ford moved production of one of their Lincolns to China; I see more of this coming down the road.
Stellantis is not an American company; they are French/Italian. The American product line is being ignored into oblivion and the quality has gone from meh-to-bad all the way to Fiat levels of failure.
A pox on all of their houses. For the record, I drive a Subaru Ascent, built in Indiana. Sure, it has a Japanese engine and transmission, but Peter and Mary built it, not Pedro and Maria, or Pierre and Marie, or [insert Asian names here], and provides secondary jobs in American communities. I have no sympathy for any of the alleged “US” auto makers. Two of them have American mailing addresses; aside from that they are trying to become auto importers, not auto makers.
Typical. Automakers could have just said no but, they made the choice to invest those billions into a market they knew customers wouldn’t want to join. Now, they want us to bail them out. Again.
It’s time businesses learn that their decisions have consequences.
I say no more bailouts. People stopped wanting Hudsons and Nash’s, so the companies merged and built cars folks would buy and hung on another 20 years. Studebaker remained in business; they just stopped making cars. Countless makers are gone. Moon, Willys-Knight, Franklin, and the list goes on. Even the vaunted and praised-to-the-skies Toyota is slipping badly with bad truck engines and transmissions. Nissan, once really great, is now the butt of jokes. I mention both of them because despite being Japanese they have manufacturing presence here.
I see no reason for me, Mr. Taxpayer, being obliged to prop up badly-run businesses. They’ve been bailed out before, more than once, and thanked us by exporting jobs.
Established big players in any industry loves them some expensive regulations and mandates.
The big guys can absorb the expenses and losses (at least for a while) of those regulations and mandates, but they know that their smaller competitors cannot and will fold, reducing competition.
Added bonus if the mandate or regulation is something the big guys wanted to do in the first place. The woke leadership at Ford, GM and Stellantis were already committed to saving the world through transitioning to iCars. Having it mandated just meant that they weren’t taking all the risks themselves and small competitors couldn’t undercut them by continuing to make ICE vehicles for less money.
They’ve now invested all that capital into EV production, capital that will essentially have been flushed down the toilet because public demand for the vehicles isn’t there and the only hope they have of surviving is with mandates…so of course they want the mandates to continue…and they’re too big to fail after all, aren’t they?
The government of demonrats always had an agenda. That agenda is always bad for the masses, i.e. wind farms and solar. They have to raise taxes to support their lunacy with handouts, or these products won’t fly.
It’s time to get out the two inch violins to play mournful songs about reality. A government that forces industries with their horrible ideas needs a big kick in the derriere! Trump simply wants what’s best for the country.
Yeah, yeah, “Trump’s Hitler.” “Trump’s a dictator.” “Trump’s a fascist.” Look to the left for who REALLY FILLS THAT BILL..
The Achilles of EV is battery capacity. There are new battery technologies in the works which will fix that problem.
Rapid release of stored energy will continue to be a problem. Much of that problem is due to use of wrong firefighting measures. Dumping large amounts of water on reactive metals is stupid. I recently saw something about a large fire smothering blanket, which looks promising.
Battery capacity is only one Achilles heel. There’s performance in cold weather, high price, electric grid capacity, and how to charge your car during a lengthy power failure. And that’s all I can think of quickly.
EVs are toys for the wealthy. And even the wealthy need to have an ICE vehicle as a backup.
regardless of tariffs, rebates, tax credits, etc. the reality is that the infrastructure to support EVs does not exist—and who, pray tell, is going to pay for its construction ?
Eliminate all EV credits. Offer credits for the smallest, cleanest gas-powered cars. Impose a luxury tax on larger, gas powered vehicles. This would create a much fairer, cleaner and sane country. The working poor could afford decent cars, people could still buy larger vehicles, but not on a whim, and the rich poseurs will pay full freight on their electric status symbols.
“Impose a luxury tax on larger, gas powered vehicles.”
No. A Luxury tax on large luxury gas powered vehicles maybe. Small business owners, farmers and people who live in rural areas should not be charged a “luxury tax” for vehicles that are not a luxury.
I have a 13 year old F-250. It is the base model truck (and still has way more “bells and whistles than I’d have liked), I bought it used because I can’t afford new and it’s not a fashion statement – it’s a tool.
Charging me a luxury tax because I can’t haul 3k pounds of livestock feed or tow a 12k pound trailer of fence posts with a Geo metro would cripple me.
The Bride and I have discussed all this. We’re not in the market because our 2007 Tucson and 2012 Santa Fe have been reliable and adequate for our needs. IF we wanted a newer car it MIGHT be a plugin hybrid. Most of our driving is within a half hour of home so we could charge it overnight from the 120 volt receptacle by the front door and probably go a month on a tank. Most likely, though, we’ll stay with the mature technology of an ICE due to the effect of temperature on the battery. It gets cold and hot in the Old South.
Pure electric? No way!
.
Biden green new deal is such a fraud.
I would like to be able to afford to buy a used ICE car. I can’t now, thanks to the green fascist mafia. And they call Trump a dictator while they dictate to us constantly.
Exactly! A nice used ICE car will be good for many years providing good mileage and extremely low emissions. Try that with battery power. You’ll also keep the thing on the road and not in a landfill, a far better environmental proposition than what awaits an 8 year old Chevy Volt.
Not just no, but HELL NO!
What are the automakers doing by lobbying for keeping EV mandates (that shouldn’t even exist in a free society) and lobbying for continued losses to their bottom line and reduced opportunities for auto workers? It doesn’t make any sense, but I can understand that the “leadership” is used to Its fascistic “partnership” with the unconstitutional regulatory bureaucrats that President Trump is threatening.
The democrats ‘mandated’ new toilets, now most people flush twice. More expense and more water wasted. They ‘mandated’ dishwashers, mine takes 5 hours to run and does a lousy job. They’ve got the knife out for washers and dryers.
Nobody mandated fluorescent lights years ago. Once the public saw a brighter, cheaper way to light up your house and office, the product took off. Nobody mandated computer monitors either, once a better, cheaper screen was available to replace the CRT, we all bought one and now they are cheaper than dirt.
Let it be the same with cars. The EPA rules have given us high mileage and emissions that might be cleaner than the air that went in. You can drive 1000 miles in a day if you want. It’s too bad that all the weasel auto execs saw was the handouts, let ’em pay the price now. I’d just ask Trump to find a way to make whatever he does ‘permanent’ so we don’t have this back-and-forth every few years. Let’s see.
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