Trump's war on EVs derailed America's auto-factory revival
4 hours ago
- GM and LG's Ultium Cells plant in Lordstown laid off 480 employees indefinitely and idled 850 more due to slow electric-vehicle sales after Trump eliminated a $7,500 tax credit.
- A massive EV investment boom from 2019-2024 promised a U.S. auto manufacturing renaissance, but cancellations of EV and battery projects have snowballed under Trump's policies, killing or jeopardizing tens of thousands of jobs.
- About 87% of announced EV-related investments were in states Trump won in 2024, and roughly four-fifths of canceled investments hit red states, with around 27,000 jobs lost from cancelled projects.
- Trump's anti-EV policies—including tax credit repeal, relaxed emissions rules, tariffs on battery materials, and immigration enforcement—are undercutting his goal of creating auto-manufacturing jobs and putting the U.S. further behind China and Europe in EVs.
- Some automakers are converting underused EV factories to produce energy-storage batteries, but demand is limited and conversion takes months or years, leaving many workers idle.
- Workers in communities like Lordstown and Glendale, Kentucky face prolonged layoffs; some blame Biden's EV push, while others see Trump's policies as harmful to their livelihoods.