Former president Donald Trump isn't one to mince words. The brash Republican nominee for president has made it clear he's not a fan of electric vehicles or clean energy and promised to “drill, baby, drill” for more oil. But what would a second Trump administr…
What would a second Trump administration mean for the EV industry? The most obvious target of a potential President Trump 2.0 would be the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which provides $369 billion in tax breaks and subsidies for clean energy, including EV projects. In May, Trump said he would "Impose an immediate moratorium on all new spending grants and giveaways under the Joe Biden mammoth socialist bills like the so-called Inflation Reduction Act," according to CNBC. According to Columbia Threadneedle Investments, which manages $652 billion in assets, the biggest provisions at risk of being cut by a Trump presidency are those benefitting EVs, wind power, and clean hydrogen. Tesla CEO Elon Musk - who has endorsed Trump and helped launch a pro-Trump Super PAC - on Tuesday said doing away with the IRA tax credits "Probably actually helps Tesla" in the long term because its rivals - who control much less of the market - would be hindered. Along with pulling support for EV tax credits, Trump has floated doing away with an IRA program that provides funding for electric charging infrastructure, which is crucial for adoption. Despite the Republican nominees' staunch opposition to China - Vance has called China the "biggest threat" to the U.S., while Trump's White House took at least 210 public actions against the country - Trump has called for Beijing's automakers to build American factories. "Right now as we speak, large factories just are being built across the border in Mexico," by China to sell cars in the U.S., Trump said at the RNC. "We don't mind it happening but plants will be built in the United States and our people are going to man those plants," he added.