Now the previous US President Joseph Biden began his work in this position under the banner of active electrification of both departmental and private vehicle fleets in the United States. By 2030, it was expected that half of the cars sold in the country would be electric vehicles. Donald Trump canceled many provisions of this program, including subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles by citizens and the construction of charging stations.
Image source: Ford Motor
At the same time, the new US President called for weakening environmental regulations, since they require significant costs from corporations and harm business. Trump wants to get rid of conditions that push buyers to purchase electric vehicles exclusively. This choice, in his opinion, should be free and allow a person to independently manage the funds allocated for the purchase of transport. As noted in the text of the decree, the incentive measures proposed by its predecessor distorted the market and made vehicles with classic power plants less accessible for purchase.
Under Trump, the program for financing the construction of charging stations for electric vehicles in the United States, for which $5 billion was initially allocated, will be curtailed. The remaining budget funds will be used for other purposes. Requirements at the level of individual states, which implied a refusal to sell new cars with internal combustion engines from a certain date, will be canceled. As a rule, the talk was about 2035, but the program to phase out cars with internal combustion engines also included intermediate goals. For example, according to its requirements, by 2032, most manufacturers should have converted from 30 to 56% of their vehicles sold on the US market to electric traction or other types of power plants with zero emissions. To implement this plan, the Trump administration is also going to bring the requirements of all other departments, including the “environmental” EPA, into compliance with the provisions of the new decree. In particular, this may involve relaxing emissions requirements for vehicles operated in the United States.
Last year, 1.3 million electric vehicles were sold in the United States, up 7.3% from 2023. Cars of this type accounted for 8.1% of new vehicle sales in the United States last year. According to the EPA, vehicle emissions account for 28% of all greenhouse gases emitted in the United States. The removal of previous requirements or their easing will allow automakers to produce more cars with internal combustion engines, but consumers still show interest in electric vehicles, so there should not be a clear decrease in demand for them.