Automakers Petition Trump, Hoping to Avoid Drastic EV Policy Changes
- A coalition of automakers sent a letter to President-elect Donald Trump, requesting that he leave the Biden administration’s electric-vehicle regulations in place.
- The letter was sent by John Bozzella, president of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, on behalf of its member automakers.
- The Alliance for Automotive Innovation is made up of 42 automakers including Ford and General Motors.
An organization of 42 automakers has urged President-elect Donald Trump not to kill off existing EV tax incentives and emissions regulations, as part of a letter in which the group shared its stance on a range of automotive policies such as automated driving and roadway safety, according to a new story from the New York Times titled “Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles.” (Trump is pictured above in a photo from 2020 with the ill-fated Lordstown electric pickup truck.)
The letter, dated November 12, was sent by the Alliance for Automotive Innovation whose members collectively sell the vast majority of new vehicles in the United States each year.
Ford F-150 Lightning EV production at the Rouge EV Center near Detroit.
Stellantis Says It’s Ready for Change
Car and Driver reached out to Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, which are all members of the organization, asking for comment. Representatives for Ford and General Motors pointed us to the letter sent by Bozzella and the Alliance and declined to comment further. A representative for Stellantis responded to C/D with the following statement:
“The New York Times story characterizing Stellantis as preparing to lobby the incoming Trump Administration to preserve EV mandates is not accurate. Stellantis was not among the ‘lobbyists and officials from several car companies’ the story cites as its sources. In fact, Stellantis’s CEO has repeatedly said that the company is uniquely well positioned to adapt to any policy changes President-elect Trump might make because its multi-energy platforms can easily flex to accommodate a wide range of powertrain options from internal combustion to full battery-electric.”
Perhaps surprisingly, the regulations the automakers want to keep in place are the same regulations that aim to curb tailpipe emissions and will ultimately force the industry to switch to producing electric vehicles.
Jointly-developed Electric cars.
The letter, signed by John Bozzella, president of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, says that the auto industry can only be successful if it is allowed “stability and predictability in auto-related emissions standards.” The issue for automakers is that many have already invested billions of dollars into electric-vehicle research and development and may fear being undercut by subsidized internal-combustion alternatives.
The fact that most automakers operate by planning years into the future underpins this concern about governmental policy changes. Designers and engineers are already working on models that likely won’t be seen by the public until 2028 or later, and they’re all being designed with the current set of regulations in mind. “The worst thing of all for the automakers, even worse than a difficult regulation, is a back-and-forth swing every four years,” Stephanie Brinley, an analyst for the Auto Intelligence service at S&P Global Mobility, told the Times.
Along with concern over emissions regulations, the letter from the Alliance shows that many automakers are also worried about losing the $7500 tax credit supplied under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Elon Musk’s Tesla is not part of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, and according to a separate New York Times report, Musk wants to remove the tax credit. The same report quotes Musk as saying removing the credit “would be devastating for our competitors” but less damaging to Tesla itself.
Jack Fitzgerald’s love for cars stems from his as yet unshakable addiction to Formula 1.
After a brief stint as a detailer for a local dealership group in college, he knew he needed a more permanent way to drive all the new cars he couldn’t afford and decided to pursue a career in auto writing. By hounding his college professors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he was able to travel Wisconsin seeking out stories in the auto world before landing his dream job at Car and Driver. His new goal is to delay the inevitable demise of his 2010 Volkswagen Golf.
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