Shel Singh has gone all on electric vehicles in recent years. The 36 -year -old business owner currently leads an electric Porsche. Before that, it was a Tesla.
But with President Trump working aggressively to reverse the policies promulgated by former President Biden intended to strengthen the electric vehicle market and eliminate gas vehicles, he begins to question the wisdom of his choice.
Faced with what he expects to be down the demand for EV and fewer resources to build a network of charging stations under Trump, Singh, who lives near Sylmar in the north of the County of Los Angeles, said he was not optimistic about his chances of re-sending his Porsche in the future.
He is not alone. Owners of electric vehicles, sellers and manufacturers are flooded with uncertainty after Trump signed a executive decree Monday, which targeted several friendly initiatives. With a pen, the president froze the funding allocated to the load infrastructure and abandoned Biden’s ambitious objective that electric vehicles constitute half of the new cars sold in the United States by 2030.
Trump also reported in the order he would eliminate a popular tax credit of $ 7,500 available for eligible buyers of electric vehicles and revoke the Authority of California to define his own regulations on gas cars. These two measures come with legal obstacles, said Bryant Walker Smith, professor of associated law at the University of South Carolina.
“The executive decree is clearly proof of a change of tone of the last administration,” said Smith. “But there are legal constraints which, in theory, should limit some of the short -term implications.”
Although Trump said he wanted to delete what he calls Biden’s “EV” mandate, there is no federal rule requiring the purchase of EV. Last December, the American environmental protection agency sign On a rule of California Clean Air which would prohibit the sale of new petrol vehicles in the state by 2035. If it survives the challenges of Trump, the Clean cars Advanced II The rule would require that 35% of new vehicles sold in the state be electric by 2026, an objective which, according to the dealers, is unrealistic.
More than a dozen states have followed the example of California in the adoption of clean air standards which are more strict than federal law. Trump seeks to eliminate these standards and EV incentive programs that accompany them.
If Trump succeeds in killing the tax credit, sales of electric vehicles will take a hit, the experts have agreed. Credit greatly contributes to making a new or used EV more affordable and desirable, said Karl Brauer, executive analyst at Iseecars.com.
“We are going to see an undeniable drop in sales of electric vehicles when the $ 7,500 credit disappears,” he said. “It is not as easy to determine how drastic this fall will be.”
When he bought his Tesla 3, Singh, who has an online electronics company, said the seller told him that he would receive credit, but later discovered that his income was too high for It is eligible. His frustration led him to exchange his Tesla for the Porsche.
Preparation of a drop in interest focused on the new administration, some manufacturers have already started to move away from the sales strategies dominated by electric vehicles, including Porsche, which Discussed last October that it would move away from its electrical strategy only.
The main manufacturers who produce electric and petrol vehicles are better likely to adapt if sales of electric vehicles drop considerably, said Brauer, including Volkswagen, Ford and General Motors. Companies like Rivian and Lucid, which only make electric vehicles and sell directly to consumers, are in a more precarious position.
A few days before Trump took office, Rivian finalized $ 6.6 billion loan agreement With the American Department of Energy to finance a manufacturing plant in Georgia. Rivian’s shares fell by more than 9% in last month.
Dan Ives, an analyst from Wedbush Securities Industry, said that his company predicts EV demand is between 15% and 20% over the next three to four years if the tax credit is revoked. As a result, he said, the electric vehicle market will shrink.
“There will be a consolidation,” said Ives. “There are fewer incentives for car manufacturers to go on this path when the government goes on the contrary.”
Although the elimination of the tax credit would harm most EV sellers, Tesla is a probable exception, said Ives. Due to the size and domination of the company market, Tesla could in fact benefit from a decrease in the competition of manufacturers who counted on credit to increase sales.
Throughout California, dealers vary in their dependence on sales of electric vehicles. Robb Hernandez, president of Camino Real Chevrolet in Monterey Park, said that around 50 to 60 from the 150 to 200 new cars they sell per month are electric.
“EV sales have been strong for us in the last four to six months with new launches,” said Hernandez, including the Blazer EV and Silverado EV. “Due to incentives and rental programs and everything else, we were able to do them fairly well.”
With Trump targeting these incentives, Hernandez said he didn’t know how things will take place.
“We are in a detention scheme,” he said. “We don’t really know what type of short or long -term effects that it will have on the market.”
Brian Maas, president of California New Car Dealers Assn., Said on average 13% of sales in the 1,400 dealers that its organization represents is electrical, but this number can vary considerably depending on the location and the manufacturer .
Jessie Dosanjh, who has 18 dealers in the bay region, said electric vehicles represent around 15% of total sales. It is far from 35% of the state wants to see By 2026, he said.
The resident of the County of Orange, Tina Thurm, received the tax credit of $ 7,500 when she bought her Tesla Model S in 2020, but said that she would probably have bought the car anyway. “It was not a decisive role in my decision to buy,” she said about credit. “It’s the road test that pushed me.”
Thurm, which has two gas vehicles with its Tesla, said Trump protected Americans to choose the type of car they drive.
“Nothing should be mandated,” said Thurm, who has a jewelry company and is now semi-retired at 70. “I certainly don’t want the government to tell me what I should buy.”
Other residents of Socal are discouraged by Trump’s actions and what they mean for the EV market.
“Do not get another EV after the end of my Tesla lease,” said a Californian on social networks this week. “This country goes back and is not ready for complete adoption of electric vehicles. It’s a shame because I really like my Tesla.
