Trump Admin May Screw Over Ford Rivals GM And Stellantis

During President Joe Biden's term, billions of dollars were allocated for clean energy projects, including more than one automotive EV and battery plant. When Donald Trump won the election early this year, he shifted gears in that regard, scaling back those plans and investments. That has left some projects in a bit of limbo, including Rivian's future Georgia plant (which is now under construction anyway), as well as Ford's Michigan Battery Park site, though the latter will receive federal funds, regardless. However, that may not be the case for some of The Blue Oval's rivals.

According to Reuters, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is now considering revoking $1.1 billion that was previously promised to Ford rivals General Motors and Stellantis via retooling grants by the Biden administration, which are part of a broader $12 billion dollar list of awards.

Previously, GM was slated to receive $500 million toward its planned retooling of the Lansing Grand River Assembly plant to build EVs, while Stellantis was expected to get $335 million for its Belvidere Assembly plant and $250 million for the Indiana Transmission plant, to build EVs and EV components, respectively.

Roughly one week ago, the Trump admin's DOE announced that it would be slashing $7.56 billion in financing for hundreds of clean energy projects that it says won't provide sufficient returns to taxpayers. Additionally, White House budget director Russell Vought previously announced that the administration will terminate around $8 billion in climate-related funding for 16 U.S. states.

As for Ford's under-construction Michigan plant, it will move forward with its own federal funding thanks to changes made in the language of the previously-passed budget bill that aimed to eliminate production tax credits for plants that used components or licensed technology from China. However, the finalized bill added criteria regarding which party is in “effective control,” which in this case is indeed Ford, as it owns the site, equipment, and workers, and it won’t use Chinese raw materials.