On his first day as U.S. President Donald Trump honoured a pre-election promise
by abandoning the Biden Administrations electric vehicle targets, despite the fact
that U.S. electric car maker Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk had donated $320 million to
help Trump gain office. The mandate signed as an executive order by Joe Biden
in 2021 was to aim for half of all new vehicle sales in the U.S. to be zero-emission
battery electric by 2030. Whilst this target was not legally binding it had already
been reduced from 63 percent after Biden had given in to U.S. car makers and
lobby groups. Trump has also pledged to tax Chinese made cars out of the US,
beyond the 102 percent tariff already applied. At last July’s Republican National
Convention Trump said “ I will end the electric vehicle mandate on day one,
thereby saving the auto industry from complete obliteration.” I’m David Berthon