Well this is interesting. The richest man in the world and the 45th President of the United States, soon to be the 47th, became jolly good friends during the run up to the election. Now it seems they are set to work together on making America Great Again. Again.
First though it is important to dip our toes into the Area 51 of unconfirmed Conspiracy nonsense by suggesting that just possibly the 47th presidency may not happen. You can discount all this and I will probably delete this paragraph on January 20th, but there is just the chance that the Trump/CEO of Tesla and Mars rockets dream team may not happen. Alien invasions, martial law and all sorts of shenanigans could get in the way of Trump, despite all those votes, being in charge again. They managed it in 2020 by fortifying the results and this time it has been observed that dodgy President Biden has been alarming co-operative and that isn’t simply because he hates cackling Kamala. Never mind, let’s proceed on the basis that Trump gets crowned King of America again, what exactly is happening with him and best mate Musk?
First off, Donald Trump is not the biggest fan of the Electricity Car. Among Trump’s campaign promises is a plan to dismantle the Biden Administration’s EV tax credits, which reduced the cost of EVs. Also the so-called “EV mandates” the result of the Inflation Reduction Act designed to boost EV sales.
However, any student of how Elon Musk has prospered will have noted that he has managed this on the back of rather a lot of government subsidy. His Model 3, is one of the few EVs that still qualifies for a $7,500 tax credit. Not only that, the fuel economy requirements have been good for Tesla’s credit-sales business to car companies struggling to meet requirement to reduce emissions. He has emissions to spare, (making more than 2 billion in 2024 alone) strange then that he now believes all that should end as he made clear on Twitter X to “end all government subsidies, including those for EVs, oil, and gas.”
That seems to be the price he is paying for being appointed as head of the proposed DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency). Meanwhile, The Alliance for Automotive Innovation has warned of competition from “heavily subsidised electric vehicles and technologies exported from China.”
Trump is certainly the bloke to do just that. He called Biden-era electrification efforts part of “the Green New Scam.” He said he would “end the electric vehicle mandate on day one,” referring to a recent vehicle emissions standards rule from the Environmental Protection Agency that requires U.S. car makers to significantly lower their vehicles’ emissions over the next decade, rather like our Zero Emission Mandate which is quietly killing European car production.
Mostly though he wants to increase tariffs on foreign goods, especially Chinese cars. However, with no government subsidies to win over new car buyers it would be up to the manufacturers to discount the cost of what are unprofitable products. That would be interesting and possibly wipe out EVs that don’t have Tesla badges.
Although previously against tariffs Musk said as recently as May that they could work, as without protection, the Chinese would destroy the home market. Certainly American automotive businesses have been looking on in some horror as manufacturers like BYD begin to overrun the European car industry with cheaper electric alternatives.
So what is Trump going to do and what will happen? The simple truth is that we won’t have to wait very long to find out. We can be pretty sure that there will be tariffs on vehicle imports irrespective of where they come from. It will hit China and any company which makes vehicles nearby, like Mexico. Ending that $7,500 EV tax credit will put electricity cars out of reach for many consumers and that means petrol and diesel car sales should be boosted. Rescinding the emission standards rule, taking some of the pressure off the major car makers to continue their expensive electrification efforts. Tesla’s have the production scale and history of making ‘profitable’ EVs, means that smaller domestic competitors such as Rivian will struggle to keep up, or just compete.
Another important reason why Musk is totally on board with what Trump wants to do is this. His transition team has recommended the elimination of a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rule about collecting data from crashes of cars equipped with automated driving systems. The agency requires all manufacturers to report certain collisions of vehicles with advanced driver-assistance systems. Tesla’s so-called “Full Self-Driving” feature, along with a more limited system called “Autopilot,” are at the core of Musk’s long-standing promise to make human drivers history with cars that can autonomously drive themselves. Tesla’s FSD and Autopilot are classified as Level 2 Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, which means that crashes must be disclosed if these features were in use within 30 seconds of the crash and the accident.
The two seat Cybercab you can see on the cover has no steering wheel and is a tease to Tesla’s promised self-driving future. Slackening the crash rules, might speed that up.
To make all this happen it will be a case of drill baby, drill, a full on frack and oil prospecting fest. Fossil fuel is the only way to make Musk’s self driving dream come true and boost Tesla sales. Then they can all Drive, Baby, Drive.
Meanwhile as Europe relies on windmills and widespread solar harms, the view across the Atlantic could become rather enticing.
Interestingly, we will find out soon enough.
