Trump Wins 2024 Election As Auto Industry Braces For Change

With another election complete, voters selected Donald Trump for the second time in the past three U.S. Presidential races, which will undoubtedly usher in some changes across multiple industries. This is especially true in the automotive world, which has undergone significant change in recent years anyway, with automakers investing heavily in all-electric vehicles, only to scale back those investments in recent months as consumer demand has trailed expected levels of growth. Now, we can look to some of Trump’s campaign promises and comments to predict how the automotive industry might evolve under his latest term.

For starters, during Trump’s last stint as President, he focused on increasing tariffs on vehicles imported from China, which prompted Ford to cancel plans to import the Focus Active to the U.S. Following current President Joe Biden’s decision to raise tariffs on imported Chinese vehicles and raw materials recently, Trump was also keen to reveal that he wants to take further action on this matter – not only on goods from China, but also, potentially Mexico and other countries as well. As Ford Authority recently reported, Trump stated that he wants to impose a 100 percent tariff on imported vehicles in general, adding, “we’ll put a tariff of 200 percent on if we have to,” moves intended to boost the U.S. auto industry, though these tariffs would also raise the prices of those imported vehicles as well – perhaps preventing some from making it to American shores.

Soon, we may see something similar with the Lincoln Nautilus and other models built in China and exported to the U.S. too, as those models may be banned from America altogether, if a proposed rule from the U.S. Commerce Department barring Chinese-based hardware and software from the country becomes a reality. In the meantime, steep tariff hikes on imported Chinese vehicles and raw materials imposed by the Biden Administration just took effect in late September.

Trump has also spoken out on numerous occasions regarding all-electric vehicles, noting that they could “spell the death of the U.S. auto industry” in general, and added that he would roll back EV mandates if he wins the upcoming election. EVs have undoubtedly divided the political aisle in recent years as the Biden Administration has launched multiple rounds of incentives as it aims to expand adoption in the U.S., all while investing heavily in infrastructure and incentivizing automakers to build new plants.

Regardless, Ford CEO Jim Farley recently noted that EVs have become a “political football,” which he claims is hurting adoption, and Executive Chairman Bill Ford echoed those same sentiments shortly thereafter. Regardless of his comments revolving around EVs in general, Trump also recently announced that he plans to make Tesla CEO Elon Musk the leader of a  federal efficiency commission, however.

Then there’s the matter of Trump’s relationship with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, as both he and UAW President Shawn Fain traded barbs publicly during the union’s targeted strike against Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis last fall. Those personal attacks only escalated when Fain publicly supported Biden for President back in January, too.