Electric vehicles could face a radically new regulatory and political playing field as a professed climate change skeptic prepares to occupy the White House.
USA Today reports just two days after the election, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers—automakers’ chief lobbying group—urged the Trump transition team to revise not only the fuel economy standards, but also the Obama administration’s autonomous vehicle standards, on the grounds that they could cost its member companies billions of dollars.
“The short answer is that we don’t know what will happen with the Trump administration and electric vehicles,” says Dave Reichmuth, senior engineer for the Union of Concerned Scientists clean vehicles program. “It might be awhile before we understand the policy priorities for the new administration.”
Reichmuth points out that the EV tax credit is embedded in the larger federal tax code, so removing it would require action from Congress. So it’s not likely to be changed soon, even if a new direction was chosen.
It’s worth noting that many of the cars receiving the credit come from U.S. assembly lines—Tesla in Fremont, Calif., the Volt at Detroit-Hamtramck, the Bolt in Orion Township and the Nissan Leaf in Smyrna, Tennessee. None of this will shake automakers’ resolve to advertise and sell these plug-in vehicles.
While the west coast remains a strong market for plug-in vehicles, other U.S. cities—like Baton Rouge, for instance—are hoping electric vehicles can help reduce carbon emissions. In October, the city-parish, along with the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, launched the green park Baton Rouge initiative to increase the number of electric charging stations throughout the city.
