America is about a month into the chaotic second administration of President Donald Trump. Between the reports of teenage government employees, mass layoffs, lawsuits and cuts to critical funding, keeping track of the news has felt impossible. But one thing is clear: despite saying he’s “for electric cars” on the campaign trail, they have very much been in the new administration’s crosshairs already.
We thought it high time to recap the biggest moves Trump’s administration has made on electric vehicles. The president’s team is dismantling all sorts of climate initiatives, and EVs have been a prime target from day one.
Yet not all of these initiatives will succeed; some may be challenged in court by states, industry groups and even companies willing to pick a very public fight. Let’s take a look at what’s at stake here, and where things are headed in the coming months.
Funding For EV Chargers Cut Off
It was a massive deal when the Biden White House announced a long-term goal to blanket the country with 500,000 public EV chargers. That effort later became law when the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law created the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program.
Trump routinely bashed the EV charger rollout on the campaign trail (with some shoddy math, might I add.) And early this month, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) effectively put a pause on new stations funded by the program, InsideEVs first reported. States can move forward with projects they’ve already signed contracts for, but billions of dollars hang in the balance as transportation departments await new guidance from the feds.
Photo by: Electrify America
An Electrify America EV charging station.
In another blow to charging infrastructure, The Verge and Colorado Public Radio reported last week that the General Services Administration plans to shut down existing EV charging stations located at federal buildings. Apparently, the infrastructure isn’t “mission-critical,” according to a memo viewed by those outlets.
Trump’s new head of the Environmental Protection Agency wants to claw back $20 billion in grants the Biden administration committed to nonprofits for clean-energy projects like EV chargers and solar installations.
What Happens Next? Policy experts have said the NEVI pause probably isn’t legal, so we’ll have to see if any states sue to keep the money flowing. The FHWA said it would propose new guidance states can follow to reapply for funding this spring. NEVI is hamstrung until then.
On the $20 billion, this week a group of nonprofits that received some of the money said they’d start doling it out to projects anyway, according to Politico.
Fuel Economy Regulations Targeted For Rollback
Just after he was confirmed as the new Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy ordered his department to review and replace existing Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, which push automakers to sell more efficient vehicles over time or pay fines.
In a late January memo, Duffy said that the previous administration had a goal of “forcing rapid electrification of the Nation’s motor vehicle fleets,” but “under President Trump, the policy priorities of the Executive Branch have changed.” Those new priorities, he said, are to “promote the production, distribution, and use of reliable domestic energy supplies, including oil, natural gas, and biofuels.”
The EPA also pushes for cleaner vehicles by regulating tailpipe pollution. The previous EPA finalized aggressive rules in 2024 that it estimated could push EV sales to 56% of the car market in the early 2030s. (This is probably what Trump is referring to when he talks about the “EV mandate,” but the EPA’s rules are powertrain-agnostic.) Expect EPA administrator Lee Zeldin to order a review of those rules in due time too.
Photo by: Ford
The Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck.
Meanwhile, the new EPA has already taken aim at California’s unique ability to set its own, stricter emissions regulations, which it’s been able to do for decades. The agency asked Congress to review three waivers the Biden EPA granted to California, including one that greenlit Advanced Clean Cars II, the policy that forces automakers to sell more plug-in cars over time and bans gas vehicle sales in the state after 2035. In total, 12 states and Washington, D.C.—about a third of the U.S. car market—have adopted versions of that regulation.
What Happens Next? Changing the CAFE standards (and EPA greenhouse-gas emissions rules) can’t happen overnight and would require a notice-and-comment process. But it’s safe to expect weaker rules. That could lead automakers to backtrack on their electrified car goals.
The Trump administration has also suggested it could take aim at the legal foundation of the EPA’s authority to limit tailpipe emissions: the 2009 “endangerment finding” that classified greenhouse gases like CO2 as harmful. But that would contradict a mountain of science and would be tough to defend in court.
Legal experts say Congress has no authority to rule on the California waivers. So, expect a legal fight here much like the one that happened during Trump’s first term.
Tariffs May Be Coming
Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs could have a massive impact on the entire U.S. auto landscape. He planned 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, then delayed those. He’s also said he’d impose a 25% tariff on imported cars, which InsideEVs Editor-in-Chief Patrick George likened to a Chicken Tax 2.0.
Automakers and industry analysts have sounded the alarm about the devastation these measures would wreak on America’s auto industry. In 2024, some 3.6 million cars sold in the U.S. were built in Mexico or Canada. That’s not including all the car parts that come from those countries, sometimes crossing the U.S. border several times during production. The result would be higher car prices, which would be especially problematic for already-pricy EVs.
Photo by: Motor1.com
The Chevrolet Equinox EV is built in Mexico, along with several other popular electric models.
“Let’s be real honest: Long-term, 25% tariffs across the Mexican and Canadian border would blow a hole in the U.S. industry that we have never seen,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said at a conference recently, per Automotive News.
Several popular EVs are assembled in Mexico, including the Chevrolet Equinox EV, Honda Prologue and Ford Mustang Mach-E. Rivian founder and CEO R.J. Scaringe also told media outlets at a recent roundtable that hefty tariffs could do far more damage than the potential loss of the EV tax credit. He said there’s “not a car company in the world that’s not thinking about moving supply chains around right now.”
What Happens Next? The threat of these tariffs could go away if Trump gets sufficient concessions from trading partners. Or if the auto industry convinces him they’re a bad idea. For now, the Mexico and Canada duties are set to start on March 4, and broader tariffs on vehicles could come as soon as early April.
EV Tax Credits Still Exist, But Maybe Not For Long
The Trump team reportedly wants to axe the $7,500 EV purchase incentive to help pay for tax cuts. On an individual level, this could be the most impactful change EV buyers feel.
For now, though, you can still get a rebate when you purchase or lease a new EV. And, as Heatmap News reports, car dealers haven’t had trouble redeeming those credits from the Treasury Department despite all the funding freezes.
What Happens Next? Only Congress has the power to change the tax code. When it moves to do so, a whole host of EV-related incentives could be on the chopping block.
There’s the aforementioned $7,500 EV rebate, which, in broad strokes, applies to vehicles built in North America without Chinese batteries. There’s a separate commercial clean-vehicle rebate, which subsidizes EV leases, and a $4,000 kickback for used-car purchases. Plus businesses can claim credits when they produce battery cells and modules, or install EV charging stations.
The industry is bracing for these incentives to be deleted or altered dramatically. One Republican Senator has already introduced legislation—the Eliminating Lavish Incentives to Electric (ELITE) Vehicles Act—to wipe out most of those policies.
But it’s far from a given that the Republican-majority Congress will repeal these policies wholesale. Republican-leaning states in particular have witnessed a boom in jobs and investments thanks to new EV and battery factories. Lawmakers may be—and should be—reluctant to slow that down.
Assessing The Impact
Over time, this new direction could stunt EV sales growth and delay critical investments in the cars of the future. This is problematic because transportation is the largest source of climate-warming pollution in the U.S., with internal combustion passenger cars and trucks making up the bulk of that.
To slow the rate of climate change and combat the increasing frequency of extreme weather events like the recent Los Angeles wildfires, America needs to electrify its vehicle fleet as quickly as is feasible. Plus, China already has a huge lock on the entire EV supply chain, and it’s not slowing down.
So far, the impact on the EV industry isn’t clear. December and January were both strong months for EV sales, according to Cox Automotive. In part, that may be because of a mad dash to buy EVs before consumer incentives disappear. If a chill on America’s EV sector has taken hold, we won’t really know until February’s sales numbers come out.
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