Trump vows to end EV ‘mandate’ on Day 1, invites China to build EVs in the U.S.

Former President Donald Trump used his nomination speech to take aim at President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle policies, vowing to action against them on his first day in office.

“I will end the electric vehicle mandate on day one,” Trump said in his address at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. The move would result in “saving the U.S. auto industry from complete obliteration, which is happening right now, and saving U.S. customers thousands and thousands of dollars per car,” he said.

While the Biden administration doesn’t actually have a mandate on electric vehicles, critics of new air-pollution limits issued by the Environmental Protection Agency in March have said they would illegally force automakers to sell EVs.

Yet in the same speech, Trump said China should build EVs here. U.S. automakers fear that cheap Chinese vehicles would be what one industry group called an “extinction-level event,” so  Trump’s invitation to the Chinese is seemingly a paradox.

“Right now as we speak, large factories just are being built across the border in Mexico” by China to make cars to sell in the U.S., Trump said in his address Thursday night. “Those plants are going to be built in the United States and our people are going to man those plants,” he said, adding that he would otherwise slap tariffs as high as 200% on each car to prevent them from entering the country.

The comments are similar to remarks he made in March at a Ohio rally welcoming Chinese auto companies to build plants in the U.S., without naming any firms. China’s largest EV maker BYD Co. is looking to set up one of the largest auto factories in Mexico. 

Both Trump and Biden seek to keep made-in-China cars from entering the U.S. to protect domestic manufacturers. But the Republican candidate appears to take a more transactional approach when it comes to Chinese companies building cars here. Biden, in contrast, has broadly scrutinized vehicles with links to China, including potentially those made outside the country. The Biden administration has tried to exclude firms at least 25% owned by a Chinese government entity from benefiting from tax credits. It has also launched an investigation into cars with software made in China that could compromise the data and safety of US citizens.

Trump’s remarks on EVs came just moments before he criticized what he said was trillions of dollars of wasteful spending “having to do with the green new scam.” He said he would instead direct the money to projects like roads, bridges and dams, though it wasn’t immediately clear how he would make good on the pledge. The Biden administration Infrastructure Law is already doing that.

Trump has made no secret his disdain for electric vehicles, claiming they don’t work and will benefit China and Mexico while hurting American autoworkers. Biden, in contrast, has made the shift to battery-powered cars one of his top climate and industrial policies and has set a goal of having 50% of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030.

Both men want to look tough on Beijing as they head toward a potential election rematch in November. Trump referred to Covid-19 as the “China virus” during the rally, to roaring applause from the audience, as he recalled his trade negotiations with the Chinese government during his stint in the White House.