According to CBT News, the Trump administration’s policy changes might potentially impede the growing momentum of the US EV sector, which recently surpassed the milestone of selling over a million EVs.
Donald Trump’s “America First” strategy will impose hefty import charges, which might have negative effects as EV costs continue to decline while competing with its ICE equivalents.
President-elect Donald Trump pledged to execute an executive order imposing a wide 25% tariff on all items imported from Canada and Mexico when he took office on January 20. Steel, which is produced in countries like Canada and Mexico and is regularly used to build wind turbines, solar farms, and other renewable energy infrastructure, may be hampered by the upgrade. Tariffs on steel could cost American companies an additional $1.1 billion to $4.2 billion.
According to a report by InsideEVs, the plan, which Trump outlined on Monday on his social media platform Truth Social, might hurt the American EV industry and interfere with global trade.
China dominates the global battery business, producing 85% of the anodes and 75% of the battery cells. The price of lithium-ion batteries, which American businesses imported from China for $4 billion in 2022, may more than treble as a result of the proposed taxes.
The market for EVs would also suffer because the United States is the largest importer of EVs, with $44 billion in imports last year. Trump’s proposed tariffs may increase the cost of EVs by $4.4 billion to $8.8 billion, depending on the tax rate, primarily affecting automobiles from Mexico, which exports EVs made by Ford and GM.
