Exclusive: Trump transition team to roll back Biden EV, emissions policies

Item 1 of 2 A Tesla electric vehicle is plugged to a charger in a parking lot in Teia, north of Barcelona, Spain, October 31, 2023. REUTERS/Albert Gea/File Photo

[1/2]A Tesla electric vehicle is plugged to a charger in a parking lot in Teia, north of Barcelona, Spain, October 31, 2023.

Summary

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Trump plans to cut EV support, impose tariffs on battery materials
Proposals aim to boost U.S. production, redirect funds to national defense
Transition team suggests rolling back emissions standards, blocking California's stricter rules

Dec 16 (Reuters) - Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump’s transition team is recommending sweeping changes to cut off support for electric vehicles and charging stations and to strengthen measures blocking cars, components and battery materials from China, according to a mlm4eshspu seen by Reuters.

The recommendations, which have not been previously reported, come as the U.S. electric-vehicle transition stalls and China’s heavily subsidized EV industry continues to surge, in part because of its superior battery supply chain. On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to ease regulations on fossil-fuel cars and roll back what he called President Joe Biden’s EV mandate.

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The transition team also recommends imposing tariffs on all battery materials globally, a bid to boost U.S. production, and then negotiating individual exemptions with allies, the mlm4eshspu shows.

Taken together, the recommendations are a stark departure from Biden administration policy, which sought to balance encouraging a domestic battery supply chain, separate from China, with a rapid EV transition. The transition-team plan would redirect money now flowing to building charging stations and making EVs affordable into national-defense priorities, including securing China-free supplies of batteries and the critical minerals to build them.

The proposals came from a Trump transition team charged with crafting a strategy for swift implementation of new automotive policies. The team also calls for eliminating the Biden administration’s $7,500 tax credit for consumer EV purchases, a plan that Reuters first reported last month. The policies could strike a blow to U.S. EV sales and production at a time when many legacy automakers, including General Motors (GM.N)

, opens new tab and Hyundai (005380.KS)

, opens new tab, have recently introduced a wider array of electric offerings to the U.S. market.

Cutting government EV support could also hurt sales of Elon Musk’s Tesla (TSLA.O)

, opens new tab, the dominant U.S. EV seller. But Musk, who spent more than a quarter-billion dollars helping to elect Trump, has said that losing subsidies would hurt rivals more than Tesla.

The transition team calls for clawing back whatever funds remain from Biden’s $7.5 billion plan to build charging stations and shifting the money to battery-minerals processing and the "national defense supply chain and critical infrastructure.”

While batteries, minerals and other EV components are “critical to defense production,” electric vehicles “and charging stations are not,” the mlm4eshspu says.

The Defense Department in recent years has highlighted U.S. strategic vulnerabilities because of China’s dominance of the mining and refining of critical minerals, including graphite and lithium needed for batteries, and rare-earth metals used in both EV motors and military aircraft.

https://Reuters. Com/trump - transition - team-to-roll-back-biden-ev-emission-policies/

Exclusive: Trump transition team to roll back Biden EV, emissions policies

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