“When he takes office, President Trump will support the auto industry, allowing space for both gas-powered cars and electric vehicles,” Leavitt said in a statement.
Automakers globally have been shifting toward electric vehicles in part to comply with stricter government limits on climate-damaging tailpipe pollution.
But the transition team recommendations would allow automakers to produce more gas-powered vehicles by rolling back emissions and fuel-economy standards championed by the Biden administration. The transition team proposes shifting those regulations back to 2019 levels, which would allow an average of about 25% more emissions per vehicle mile than the current 2025 limits and average fuel economy to be about 15% lower.
The proposal also recommends blocking California from setting its own, stricter vehicle-emissions standards, which more than a dozen other states have adopted. Trump barred California from setting tougher requirements during his first term, a policy that Biden reversed.
California has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for another waiver to incorporate a stronger set of requirements beginning in 2026, which would eventually require all vehicles to be electric, plug-in hybrid or hydrogen-powered by 2035. The Biden administration’s EPA has not approved California’s request.
Many of the transition-team proposals appear aimed at encouraging domestic battery production, primarily for defense-related interests. Others appear aimed at protecting automakers, even those producing EVs, in the United States.
- Instituting tariffs on “EV supply chain” imports including batteries, critical minerals and charging components. The proposal viewed by Reuters said the administration should use Section 232 tariffs, which target national security threats, to limit imports of such products. The Biden administration recently increased tariffs on Chinese imports of several mentioned in the Trump-transition document, including lithium-ion batteries, graphite and “permanent magnets” used in EV motors and military applications. Those tariffs were issued on economic rather than security grounds.
- Waiving environmental reviews to speed up “federally funded EV infrastructure projects,” including battery recycling and production, charging stations and critical mineral manufacturing.
- Expanding export restrictions on EV battery technology to adversarial nations.
- Providing support for exports of U.S.-made EV batteries through the Export-Import Bank of the United States.
- Using tariffs as a “negotiating tool” to open foreign markets to U.S. auto exports, including EVs.
- Eliminating requirements that federal agencies purchase EVs. A Biden policy requires all federal acquisitions of cars and smaller trucks to be zero-emission vehicles by the end of 2027.
- Ending DOD programs aimed at purchasing or developing electric military vehicles.
