It looks like Trump will block the US government and military from buying EVs

The incoming Trump administration has even more plans to delay the adoption of the electric vehicle than first thought. According to Reuterswho has seen the transition team documents, Trump’s team wants to abolish EV subsidies, cut federal funding for EV charging infrastructure, block imports of EV batteries for national security reasons, and prevent the federal government and the US military from buying more EVs.

During the campaign, candidate Trump made repeated references to ending a supposed EV mandate. In fact, the policies put in place by President Joe Biden only require that 50 percent of all new vehicles be electrified by 2032 under the rules of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. aimed at reducing emissions by 56 percent from 2026 levels.

Instead, the new regime will be much more friendly to gas guzzling, as it intends to return the EPA fuel efficiency standards to those in force in 2019. This will increase the permissible level of emissions from cars by about 25 percent relative to the current rule. sept. The new efficiency of US vehicles stagnated between 2008 and 2019and it was only once the Biden administration began in 2021 that the EPA began to institute stricter rules on the permissible limits of carbon dioxide and other pollutants from the exhaust pipes of vehicles.

About a third of the population looks to the California Air Resources Board, rather than the EPA, to get their emissions regulations.

The so-called ZEV states (for zero-emission vehicles) have something closer to an EV mandate, and from model year 2026 in these states (California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington) and the District of Columbia, a third of all new cars sold by every car manufacturer will have to be battery electric – assuming the EPA grants California a waiver to allow this to happen.

As with the first Trump administrationWe can expect a sustained attack on California’s ability to set its own vehicle emissions rules and any attempts by other states to use those regs.

More Fees

Trade tariffs will obviously be a major weapon of the next Trump administration, especially when they are set to block EV manufacturing. Even the current administration has been quite wary of China phasing out cheap EVs institute singeing fees on EVs and Chinese-made batteries, with bipartisan support from the Congress.

Biden’s fees were justified for economic reasons as a way to defend US industry against an unfair level of state support from China towards its own automakers. Trump’s team plans to use national security as justification for its own barriers to EV imports, using section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act.

But according to documents seen by Reuters, tariffs on battery materials will be applied worldwide, something that should significantly increase the cost of a new EV. The transition team plans to allow individual countries to try to negotiate exemptions from tariffs, Reuters wrote.

No Tax Credit, No Public Charger

While the Trump team’s plan is intended to boost US auto manufacturing versus imports, a key tool to force more local EV production isn’t long for this world. As we thoughtthe $7,500 tax credit for clean vehicles will be eradicated once Trump takes office.

But according to Reuters, Trump’s transition team also plans to recover as much $7.5 billion allocated for charging infrastructure put in place by Congress as part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Most of this money has not been spentbecause of the long times involved. Rather than being paid directly by the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, the funds were instead allocated via the states, in the same way as highway funding. As such, there could be significant amounts of this program that you will never see completed.

One idea from Trump’s team could speed up the deployment of EV chargers — the incoming administration intends to announce the environmental reviews that are required for projects like charging stations.

Other rules and regulations intended to protect the public are also slated to be scrapped, including one that requires all automakers to report to the government when one of their vehicles crashes while operating under partial automation, as and Tesla Autopilot. This permanent order caused a lot of pain for Tesla after more than 1,500 crashes, with many injuries and deaths, and Tesla’s opposition to the requirement is widely known.

Finally, the US government fleet can be expected to be more polluting. Currently, the federal government is required to buy more EVs as they replace older vehicles, with a requirement for all light vehicles to be zero-emissions by 2027. This will no longer be the case under Trump, who will also end any program of the Department of Defense that are intended to purchase or develop electric military vehicles.

This story originally appeared Ars Technica.