THE MORNING RANT: Liberation Day Executive Orders & the Beginning of the End for the Failed EV Transition

These first few days of the Trump 47 administration have been breathtakingly wonderful. The blizzard of Executive Orders that are dismantling the woke, green, bureaucratic state is something that few conservatives thought we’d ever see. It certainly would never have happened with any legacy, establishment Republican, and it also probably would not have happened if Trump’s 2nds term had started in 2021. But after all the phony scandals, lawfare, inquisitions, and attempts on his life, Trump has a purpose and well-defined enemies that he seeks to disempower.

While there is so much to discuss, I’ll make my first post-inauguration piece about electric vehicles, since that has sort of been my defining cause.

While it’s too early to do a final victory dance, the “EV transition” has been stopped in its tracks, and thanks to Donald Trump’s EOs, there is no justification for auto manufacturers to pursue that folly any more. Tesla has carved out a profitable niche that amounts to a negligible 4% of the total U.S. light vehicle market. That is effectively the actual EV market in this country based on genuine customer demand. If legacy auto manufacturers want to compete for a slice of that small pie, they can do so, but that pie is not likely to get much bigger without tax incentives and government mandates.

Here is what has happened so far…

“Donald Trump Signs Executive Orders Scrapping Biden’s ‘EV Mandate’” [Car Scoops – 01/21/2025]

A key order signed by Trump on Monday is to scrap the Biden administration’s push for 50% of all new vehicles sold in the US to be electric by 2030. While this was only ever a goal and not legally binding, many car manufacturers had thrown their support behind it.

Federal funding for electric vehicle chargers will also be pulled under the new administration. In 2021, Biden allocated $7.5 billion to establish a national network of EV chargers, hoping that as many as 500,000 would be built by 2030.

The Biden administration signing an Executive Order urging that auto manufacturers set a goal of 50% electric by 2030 was as “not legally binding” as a handshake loan with the Mob. Just about every story I’ve read about Trump reversing Biden’s mandate denies that there actually is a mandate, because Biden’s EO was “non-binding,” but that involves a degree of dishonest reporting because concurrent with the Biden EV Executive Order, the EPA also imposed new tailpipe emissions rules that could only be met by getting the fleet to about 50% electric.

Well more good news, it sounds like Trump is also slapping down the EPA.

Additionally, Trump directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider federal emissions rules set under Biden. These rules would have required automakers to ensure that 30% to 56% of their vehicle sales were EVs by 2032.

Having watched President Trump since Liberation Day (Inauguration Day), it is probably safe to say that the EPA administrators who are tasked with “reconsidering” federal emissions rules better understand that their job is to eliminate them, or else they’ll be fired.

Also apparently being axed is the EPA waiver that allowed California to establish its own EV mandate, specifically that California could mandate that 100% of cars sold in in the state by 2035 be “zero emission,” which means all-electric.

Trump also called for the repeal of a waiver granted to California that permits the state – and 11 others that follow its lead – to phase out gasoline-only vehicle sales by 2035.

Killing off the California electric vehicle mandate will make it easier for legacy auto manufacturers to back away from their EV commitments, but part of me would still like to see Californians have to pay the price for their awful voting behavior and be saddled with no driving options but EVs by 2035. For better or worse, Californians will be saved from their 100% EV mandate thanks to Donald Trump and those of us in sane states who helped Trump win.

The $7,500 federal EV tax credit will need to be eliminated legislatively, as that was part of the comically misnamed “Inflation Reduction Act” in 2022, but that is likely to be on President Trump’s congressional agenda. Any GOP “budget hawk” who professes concern about inflation and deficit spending, but doesn’t vote to eliminate this government handout to the affluent is a phony who is announcing that he needs to be primaried out of office in 2026.

The next few months are going to be very exciting as auto manufacturers learn that they are suddenly free to be competitive enterprises manufacturing the product they know best - gasoline powered cars and trucks. Accordingly, news stories that we should expect to read about in coming months include:

• General Motors renouncing its plans for a 100% electric future. If it doesn’t, a shareholder suit against the GM Board and CEO Mary Barra should be a slam dunk.

• Ford announcing the fate of its mothballed, never-been-used, “Blue Oval” EV plant outside of Memphis. Unless the Blue Oval plant is repurposed to manufacture gas-powered Ford vehicles, it is a massive sunk cost that will result in a horrendous write-off.

• Rivian acknowledging that the taxpayer-subsidized plant outside of Atlanta will never be built. On the other hand, Rivian may just go out of business before ever making that announcement, since there is still no pathway to profit for it, and the spigot of government money to Rivian is being turned off.

• Hyundai announcing plans for re-purposing its new Savannah EV plant. To be fair, Hyundai actually sold over 100,00 EVs in the U.S. last year, but with the EV fad having peaked and a preference cascade going against EVs, there is no chance that Hyundai will come close to manufacturing the 300,000 EVs per year that it was built for.

• Southern states and municipalities (especially Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina) acknowledging that it is time to stop throwing money and tax breaks at all the hustlers promoting EV-adjacent start-ups (e.g. battery components), and promising jobs, Jobs, JOBS - at some date in the future - if the local officials will just keep throwing taxpayer money at them.

Let’s end with this unintentionally hilarious tweet showcasing new cars with 0% financing, which are cars that auto manufacturers desperately need to go away. There is something very consistent about these slow-selling cars.

Of the 18 cars listed with 0% financing, 17 of them are electric vehicles (including four plug-in hybrids.) Most are 2024 year models, which are getting more stale with every passing day.

The EV transition is dead and the unraveling of auto manufacturers’ EV commitments is about to commence. This is a glorious moment, and I am proud to have played a small part in the resistance to an all-EV future, because this was ultimately a battle about personal freedom.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

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