GM and several other automakers, including Volkswagen and Toyota, are calling on soon-to-be-President Donald Trump to continue offering at least part of the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles that was launched with the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.
As Reuters reports, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, of which GM is a member, is simultaneously supporting President-elect Trump in his likely plans to roll back the stringent emissions rules promoted under President Biden and separately by California and other CARB states.
As it stands, the incoming Trump administration seems poised to repeal the Clean Vehicle Credit entirely. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation spoke earlier of the credit as “critical to cementing the U.S. as a global leader in the future of automotive technology and manufacturing,” but did not officially call on Trump to retain the tax incentive until Monday, November 25th.
GM CFOÂ Paul Jacobson recently said The General will pursue its electric vehicle goals, including a fully-electrified lineup by 2035, regardless of who is president or whether federal tax incentives for EVs are offered to consumers. Notably, U.S. auto buyers have saved $2 billion on EV and hybrid purchases since January 1st, 2024 thanks to the EV tax credit.
While GM and the other automakers oppose Trump’s plan to eliminate the credit, they simultaneously support his likely freeze of fuel economy standards. Previously, the NHTSA under Biden demanded a 2031 fuel economy rating of 50.4 mpg for new vehicles. This was actually a reduction from a previous 58 mpg standard, but is still a major leap from currently levels. Multiple reports indicate Trump plans to sharply reduce fuel economy standards once he is inaugurated as 47th president.
“The Donald” appears to have the full-throated support of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation in this regard at least. The Alliance says it wants “reasonable and achievable” standards. It also seemingly noted it wants Trump to look into “federal and state emissions regulations (particularly in California and affiliated states) that are out-of-step with current auto market realities and increase costs for consumers.”
GM and the other automakers brought up two more matters in their letter to the future president. They pointed out the threat “from heavily subsidized electric vehicles and technologies exported from China,” an area where the Biden administration already imposed a proactive 100-percent tariff on Chinese EVs. The U.S. is also seeking to free itself from dependence on China in the EV supply chain with solutions developed by the bipartisan Critical Minerals Policy Working Group.
A third area of concern the car companies want to bring to Trump’s attention is a new federal brake equipment requirement. The NHTSA recently mandated Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) technology as a standard feature in all new vehicles by 2029. Back in June, GM and its fellows requested the NHTSA to reconsider the standard. The Alliance argues the demand is “practically impossible with available technologies” and now wants Trump to review – and presumably squelch – the regulation.
In summary, the leading companies in the U.S. auto market appear to support many of Trump’s vehicle-related policies, including reduction of future fuel economy requirements and imposition of tariffs or other controls on Chinese imports. They even suggested other items to add to the policy docket, including squaring off against California’s CARB regulations and reconsidering the NHTSA mandate for AEB in all new vehicles within the next 5 years.
However, the Alliance and its constituent companies are decisively against full elimination of the EV tax credit. Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom says the Golden State may continue offering a state tax rebate on EVs, potentially drawing on the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to operate the alternative EV incentive program.
Comments
aka if he gets rid of the tax credit, then no one will buy ev and we wasted all this money
Eff that!
what getting rid of them or keeping them?
Given the GM has based most of their future business model on this I get it lol
Eliminate all energy subsidies for “green” and old industries. EVs are good and are a great choice for many, but are not for everyone. Let customers decide. Also, global warming is a scam.
Eliminate all subsidies period!!!
And all of it includes big oil, spending tens of billions to keep militiary in the middle east to allow free flow of oil so ones gas and oil dont shoot thru the roof and and and…then yes its all on equalf footing and surely one will be the one to get…..
So you’re another one who has zero knowledge of what operation in the Oil Industry is subsidized ! Got it !
Let each individual State have their own Tax Credit / Subsidy program.
That way they can fund it from their own local tax revenues / budgets.
Right, because pollution stays within state boundaries. /s
Limited “pollution” from tailpipe emissions or the huge pollutants from the Electrical generating plants necessary to re-charge your battery-powered gizmos ?
There should be a surcharge on EV’s not a tax credit.
Absolutely ! Many owners are evading Fuel Taxes necessary to build and maintain the Public Highways they drive on.
Why subsidize them at all? When will it end? Can’t keep kicking the bribe can down the road. Taxpayers are footing the bill so let them decide to buy EV or not. I’m a former EV owner and the government rebate helped me make my decision, but when I grew tired of EV life I was met with huge depreciation that made owning one very costly. I’m in a PHEV now (something GM won’t build) and didn’t need a bribe.
The EV tax credit does have an end date in the current law. 2032. When they were predicting EVs would be at about 50%-60% market share.
When are oil and gas companies going to stop sucking off the government teet? Or big AG and ethanol producers?
Can you name me how gas companies are “sucking the gov teet?” Currently every barrel that comes off federal land, oil companies pay a surcharge for. Every oil well on federal or private land has massive permitting fees that go to the government, every barrel sold has large porting that are taxes. Almost half of what you pay now at the pump goes to the government, not the oil companies. As the oil prices dips, most of it ends up at the IRS. Only place I know that subsidiezes their oil is Venezuela where they have price controls and oil is a ¢/litter. Please name examples, not coughing up WEF propaganda.
Every well they drill they write off!
It’s called “the cost of doing business” and the one-time drilling deductions are re-paid several thousands of times over during the productive life of the well. Learn something before you shoot your mouth off.
I don’t think Trump will do away with them in their entirety in one shot. He will probably work with the manufacturers and reduce the amount in phases until they are fully phased out. He’s worked with the manufacturers before he will do it again. But one thing is for sure, we cannot keep funding the price of these cars forever. At some point reality needs to hit that these cars are simply unaffordable. The manufacturers need to start doing their part to bring down the prices of these cars or else this all EV dreamworld will be DOA when nobody other than the wealthy and upper middle class are buying them.
The Equinox EV at a starting price of $35k without the incentives is a nice start and shows that there is literally zero excuses as to why these cars cannot be made affordable and still be nicely equipped. And they didn’t need slave labor and an authoritarian government subsidizing them to make it happen.
All y’all are in the wrong tax bracket to be celebrating Trump’s election.
your middle-class neighbors getting a small tax break for their EV purchase, is going to be nothing compared to the massive tax cuts he will give to his billionaire buddies that bought this election for him.
And the tarrifs he is proposing is going to raise prices on pretty much everything across the board. So good luck with that.
Prove it or shut it ! You’d better compare Party campaign-size donations before yapping further while you’re still so “hurt” that you LOST ! $7500.00 Tax Credit is NOT “SMALL” compared to the ZERO Tax Credit that ICE buyers DON’T RECEIVE.
rE..
Please wake up from what seems like a long hibernation my friend!
Besides, this site is about GM vehicles, not politics.
Get a life and buy a GM vehicle!
Of course they want to keep it. But guess what? The rest of us don’t want to pay for it!
Get rid of the electric car tax credits! Make EV drivers pay what it costs to make the cars! Also tax the EV car owners a hazardous material tax for tearing up the earth to get rare metals and chemicals!!!Leave our government tax dollars out of the green new SCAM!!!! Stop bureaucratic waste and treated like a real company!! Less government and stronger military!!!!
Don’t do it!
Why should I pay for you to buy an electric car?
The crazy thing that people never seem to get, is that more useless government funding for the things that don’t pay for themselves only drives the prices on everything for everybody up. I drive a PHEV, plug it in most of the time, drive on gas whenever I need to and nobody paid me to buy it. If EV’s are gonna make sense they have to pay for themselves, no other option.
Any tax credit should be for US built vehicles- period. If you care so much about the tax credit, the least you can do is move Blazer/Equinox EV production to the US- same with the Ford Mach E. Perhaps a better solution is to offer a lower tax credit for all US-built vehicles regardless of propulsion system.