Automakers anxious over electric vehicle demand amid Trump's return to presidency
No, automakers don't want to be 'required' to sell EVs
A recent headline in the New York Times claims Detroit's car companies want the Trump administration to make them sell electric vehicles. It's a misleading headline, auto analysts say, and blurs the lines about what companies want from a second Trump presidency.
(FOX 2) - This week, a jarring headline appeared in a national newspaper claiming the Detroit big three automakers are asking the incoming president to make them sell electric vehicles.
In a story published in the New York Times on Thursday, Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis are asking president-elect Donald Trump to "please require us to sell electric vehicles."
Auto analysts like John McElroy were not impressed.
"The headline is totally misleading. The automakers are not begging the Trump administration to force them to sell EVs. That's not the case at all," he told FOX 2.
The story about domestic automakers pleading with Trump goes beyond just selling cars. In what became one of the biggest political hot potatoes of the 2024 presidential election, the regime change in the executive branch means all the money that the Biden administration has poured into subsidies could be reversed.
Following calls to roll back federal electric vehicle regulations on the campaign trail, there is now anxiety over what Trump will do - and how automakers should respond.
"What the automakers want is for the Trump administration to keep the subsidies on for EVs so they can sell these things," said McElroy.
Even with regulations encouraging consumers to buy EVs, the demand has not been there.
But there is a good degree of labor and jobs wrapped up in the industry - and changes to regulations mean some could lose their jobs.
"If he does something like this and you start seeing really a lot of layoffs with this, then it’s really going to hurt him politically, and I think it will overall hurt the Republicans politically," said Dr. Jeff Rightmer, of Wayne State University.
The reason behind the industry's pivot and current administration's push to sell more is to fight climate change, thanks to the emissions that gas-powered cars produce.
"The EPA set these very stringent standards to fight global warming, but to get there you need to sell electric cars. Electric cars are not affordable and so the government's providing subsidies to help this all happens," said McElroy.
But without enough buyers, examples like Ford losing $3.7 billion this year in its electric division due to idling its F-150 Lightning plant are cropping up in the news.
And lacking enough governmental support, domestic automakers could fall further behind.
"They’ve invested so much in it and yet the market just isn’t responding," said Rightmer.