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Electric vehicle industry waits and wonders on eve of next Trump term
Beyond scaling back regulation - another promise Trump has made, other EV initiatives could be put on ice.
FOX 2 - President-elect Donald Trump has made some strong statements about the auto industry and more specifically electric vehicles.
But will his new, less friendly EV policies come to fruition? We speak with the people working to prepare the next generation of autoworkers about that.
"The EV market is already struggling. The market adaptation isn't as fast as we expected," said Dr. Osamah Rawashdeh, Oakland University.
One recent example, was the Ford F-150 Lightning plant for example. Ford Motor Company announced the plant where it is built will be idling from mid-November through early January.
Ford has lost billions in its EV division over the course of the last year, while hundreds of workers at that plant now face an extended temporary layoff.
"What's going to happen in the next administration is still an open question," said Rawashdeh
Rawashdeh is the chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Oakland University.
His classes help prepare the future of autoworkers and engineers. He's watching what happens with Trump taking office soon for a second term.
"On one side there may be subsidies going away, tax credits may be going away," he said. "Maybe some of the regulations that were put on emissions may be going away. That may all cause a slow-down on the focus on electric vehicles.
"On the other hand we hear a lot about bringing manufacturing back home. And tariffs may seem controversial, but maybe they will help the local industry in terms of competition against international manufacturers of electric vehicles"
Tarrifs are a double-edged sword because they may present domestic automakers with a competitive edge.
"Chinese cars are flooding into Third World countries that are not producing EV vehicles in comparison with Teslas or other EV manufacturers in the US," said Fares Tareq, Oakland University.
FOX 2: "You feel optimistic?"
"Yes I feel very optimistic," he said.
Related: F-150 Lightning Ford plant to go idle, leaving workers with uncertainty
Beyond scaling back regulation - another promise Trump has made, other EV initiatives could be put on ice.
Recent OU grad Logan Hein who now works in research and development specializing in AI and automation, had this to say:
"I think it's kind of scary," he said. "We're in a point right now where there's a lot of unknowns, and a lot of people who are kind of resisting adoption for their own reasons, whether they are good or not.
"But I think it's kind of a call to action for specifically Michigan and the auto scene to prove a point, that we can survive under these conditions."