Since taking office last month, U.S. President Donald Trump has made a few policy changes that impact the automotive industry, all while proposing various others that may or may not ultimately happen, too. Many of these changes pertain to electric vehicles, with Trump rolling back some Biden-era policies in that area, and killing off a program that aimed to spend billions expanding the U.S. EV charger network – something that industry lobby groups aren’t terribly fond of. Now, it looks as if the Trump administration is instructing government agencies to shut down EV chargers and sell off all-electric vehicles in those fleets, too.
According to The Verge, the General Services Administration (GSA) – an agency that manages buildings owned by the U.S. government – plans to shut down all of its EV chargers deployed across the country based on the notion that they are “not mission critical.” Currently, the GSA has hundreds of EV chargers with around 8,000 individual plugs present for both agencies that have EVs in their fleet, as well as employees that own all-electric vehicles to use. Some chargers are reportedly already being taken offline, though official guidance on the matter is expected to be revealed next week, according to an internal email.
“As GSA has worked to align with the current administration, we have received direction that all GSA owned charging stations are not mission critical,” the email reads. “Neither Government Owned Vehicles nor Privately Owned Vehicles will be able to charge at these charging stations once they’re out of service.” Additionally, GSA reportedly plans to offload the EVs that are currently in government fleets, though it’s unclear if they’ll be sold or simply put out of service.
In addition to this move, there are some uncertainties facing the automotive industry based on proposed policy changes coming from the Trump administration. The joint-venture Ford BlueOval SK Battery Park site in Kentucky has already received funds from its government loan, but construction at Rivian’s new plant in Georgia is currently on pause as it waits to hear whether or not it will receive funds from the same source. Trump has also reportedly mulled the idea of canceling the USPS contract with Oshkosh Defense that aims to supply the Post Office with all-electric mail carriers in the coming years, too.
Comments
EV’s will not survive after 4 years of this administration.
Their death rattle is getting louder
I disagree. China is big into EV’s. That is a huge market that Ford and GM are not even playing in. EU is also going EV. So that’s 2/3 of the world market. In the US EV’s are growing slowly while ICE is shrinking. Why? Maintenance and repair costs are really low. These EV’s go hundreds of thousands of miles and cost little to repair. Yes the battery could blow on some of them but so can engines and transmissions. Seems like Ford can’t make a motor without having billions lost on recalls.
Europe and China both have aging demographics and a load of economic issues currently and in the pipeline that they can’t avoid, too. China might not be the same country as we know it by 2030, in a bad way for them.
Price a set of tires for the heavy EV’s. They cost much more than for a normal vehicle and don’t last as long. Also, price an EV battery, as they don’t last forever. After about 4 yr, they loose a lot of the capacity, and it keeps going down.
With a gas vehicle, you have regular oil changes. With EV, you have regular tire changes, which costs much more.
But, the technology is improving. I can remember when the Toyota Pruis back in the 1990’s, and after about 4-6 yr, that battery needed replacing and would cost more than the car was worth. Now they last much longer.
Carl can’t be more wrong.
EV batteries typically last 10 – 20 years or 120000 to 240000 miles. Most (if not all) manufactures warranty the batteries for at least 8 years or 100000 miles to have at lease 75% of its initial power.
How do I know? I’ve been in the automotive industry for over 20 years.
The government auctions off a thing before the 4 year mark. This is horrifically wasteful. There is a glut of these so they will get bottom dollar, and have to spend top dollar, potentially due to their own tariffs, buying ICE replacements. Stupid ideological decision.
This administration may not survive 4 years. The auto industry is iffy, too, unless they get going on EVs. We’re a quarter way into the 21st century, so get with it.
Running a fleet on gasoline is waste and abuse, and corruption if oil industry money is flowing somewhere into Trump’s pocket.
How do you propose getting someone to buy something they don’t want?
Don’t want? Try can’t afford.
How about finding out why they don’t want it.
How much of their hesitancy is due to misinformation?
more like a death rattle for Trump
Will Ford or GM fight Trump saying they want to keep EV’s going or will they lay back and say can’t wait to go backwards to the good old days where we made bad gas engines with lots of maintenance? Seems like that’s all they want its why I would rather own and drive a Tesla. Farley and Mary could fight for EV’s but they won’t because they can’t make them at scale and so far each one has been mediocre.
Mary at gm is a WEF puppet, she’ll do what they tell her to do. Farley seems to be doing his best to ride the fence and offer options to his customers.
Or they may do something novel such as offering the customers what THEY want whether it is ICE, EV, or Hybrid.
A strange way to save federal money (DOGE).
Sell already installed equipment at a reduced price of what was paid for them, and the already purchased EVs are “simply put out of service.”
Some EV applications are actually pretty good at saving money. For instance a postal vehicle that has to start and stop often would not have issues with worn our starters or worn out engines that have to go though may low oil pressure restarts. The predictable routes would make battery sizing easy.
My local post office is CONSTANTLY repairing and towing their mail deliver vehicles. I wonder how much all of that costs the federal government—the constant repairs and the tow truck bills. I agree, electric vehicles wouldn’t require constant maintenance and repairs because there’s very little to maintaining an electric vehicle.
The public market in the US, in this decade, has clearly shown that it is not ready for EV’s for everyone. The past Administration seemed to think that they could push it down the throat and dictate the immediate future.
The options are available already for the few who want an EV. Let the market dictate.
I am not against EVs, in fact own a Hybrid. But, follow the money. The government forced the manufacturers to spend billions building EVs, and although most people are not against EVs, they are just too expensive for the average family and only useful as a second vehicle. Great for trips to the grocery store or work but not so much for long trips or rural America. The average person can’t afford two cars. High EV prices have depressed sales to the point they are not anywhere near where it needs to be IOT make an EV a viable item for the manufacturers or the customer, even with government kick-backs. Those high EV development costs have been passed along to mainline gas/diesel vehicles with those costs rising to the point they are not affordable either. This is exactly why used car prices are higher than ever. To top it off and in order to keep prices as low as possible, manufacturers have put huge pressure on suppliers with the result quality is suffering.
I’d like to see some stats about how many of those government charging stations are being used by government employees for their personal EVs while at work vs. how many are used for their intended government vehicles vs. those unused. And how much is this costing the government in electric costs. We might be surprised.
The fact remains that for most people, currently an EV just isn’t a viable option. Hybrids and plug-in hybrids seem like the way to go while continuing research, letting the market decide. The government doesn’t have a good track record when trying to compete with private industry.
Electric vehicles were around in the 1800’s and have not dethroned the internal combustion engine yet. Give it another century or two.
Evs are at 20 percent of new vehicle registrations in California new cheaper EVs from Honda and Toyota will attract ICE vehicle customers due to the lower cost of operation and prices coming down like most people I have multiple vehicles 2 plug in hybrid’s and a diesel truck which will be replaced by an electric truck in two years
This is just stupid. I see this as as much a waste of tax dollars as Biden selling off the wall.
If the infrastructure is in place and you have the vehicles then just use them till it’s time to replace. What’s the point of ripping out infrastructure and taking a huge loss on getting rid of EVs???
I support Trump but this makes no logical sense and he should stop wasting tax dollars on his pet grudges.
I’m afraid I have to agree.
I agree as well, just don’t buy anymore EV infrastructure at the moment. But leave what we paid for and installed alone. EV’s aren’t replace ICE vehicles, but they aren’t going away either.
This is to make room for the Tesla fleet of trucks and charging stations. Musk wants to sell his rolling trash cans that are not selling because of their problems and musks unpopularity with his fascination with fascism. The con is on!
What does Donnie’s boyfriend, Elonia have to say about this?
Charging stations are redundant when the electricity it produces comes from coal and LNG. Unless the US goes nuclear there is no benefit with EV’s, and forget windmills and solar panels.
What! That’ll STOP ’em! Not really, Trump is trying to hinder a gigantic tsunami wave, and he’s this poor little beach dweller about to get pounded. Hey, but if nothing else, it’ll be fun to watch. Take about wasting your time on stupid things instead of addressing the world’s REAL problems!
Every other major power is ramping up EVs and green energy, and we’re going backwards like a bunch of dunces. What a joke.
Green energy is not clean energy. Dig up all the rare earth metals with heavy diesel equipment till it gets out of reach economically. Green goes dark.
Why are the employees charging their personal cars. Do we pay for gas for the employees that drive ICE vehicles?
Is Elon Musk ok with the ev charger and car shutdown, or is he only relegated to dismantling the government?
This is absolutely stupid. The next democrat president who comes in WILL reverse all of this, in turn costing America a TON of money to put it all back in place. So much for getting rid of wasteful government spending! Just leave the sh!t in place and leave it alone!! DOGE tries to find the wasteful spending that will reduce the national deficit, that will climb right back up to where it was before DOGE when they reverse what Trump is doing.