Harris Campaign Says Dem Nominee 'Does Not Support' Electric Vehicle Mandate in Attempt to Flip the Script

August 28, 2024

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by Sarah Rumpf-Whitten , Emma Colton (Fox Business) ... In a "fact check" email, Harris campaign rapid response director Ammar Moussa wrote that Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, would "undoubtedly lie" about things, like that "Harris wants to force every American to own an electric vehicle."

"FACT: Vice President Harris does not support an electric vehicle mandate," Moussa wrote.

"Donald Trump railed against the Inflation Reduction Act while the Biden-Harris administration oversaw the creation of tens of thousands of new, clean energy jobs in Michigan and provided ground-breaking subsidies and tax credits for electric vehicles."

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As Democrats continue championing the frenzied electric vehicle push, former President Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has vowed to end the Biden administration’s "mandate" to increase the sales of electric vehicles.

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Trump again discussed electric vehicles in his interview with Tesla founder Elon Musk earlier this month. Musk’s Tesla is the nation’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer.

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Trump explained that Musk’s cars are "incredible," but that fossil fuels are deeply intertwined with even building EVs and that the U.S. needs to "drill, baby, drill." READ MORE

Exclusive: Harris target of swing-state EV attack (Axios)
Harris Campaign Says It’s A ‘Lie’ That Kamala Backs EV Mandates, But Her Record Tells A Different Story (Daily Caller)
Harris campaign now says VP ‘does not support’ electric vehicle mandate in latest flip-flop (New York Post)
Harris' push for electric vehicles suffers another blow after automaker backtracks: 'Unwanted and unworkable' (Fox News)
How would Kamala Harris approach auto industry issues? Her past offers some clues (Detroit News)
Harris Tiptoes Away From Electric Vehicle Stance as Trump Seizes an Opening in Michigan (Wall Street Journal)
In Michigan, Harris hits back against Trump over his electric car attack lines (National Public Radio (NPR))
Yes, Kamala Harris Wants You Out of Your Gas-Powered Car (National Review)
The GOP’s electric car attacks crash into Dems’ closing message -- In Michigan, New York, Montana and elsewhere, Republicans have seized on Biden administration electric vehicle policies. (Politico Pro Greenwire)
Musk’s Tesla backs California electric car rules opposed by Trump (E&E News PM)

Excerpt from Axios: A major refining industry group has launched a $3 million swing state ad buy claiming that Kamala Harris would seek to end sales of gasoline-powered cars.

Why it matters: The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers' broadcast TV ads — shared exclusively with Axios — are the latest sign that EVs are part of the 2024 elections.

Driving the news: The spots open saying "there may be someone new in the driver's seat, but the destination is the same: a ban on most new gas cars."

They don't explicitly urge votes against Harris but focus on her 2019 campaign positions.
And they urge people to contact several Democrats in competitive Senate races and tell them to "stop the Biden-Harris car ban."

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The other side: "Oil and gas executives are helping Donald Trump sell these lies because he promised them tax breaks in exchange for campaign contributions," Harris campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said in an email.

"It's that simple. Vice President Harris earned the support of the United Auto Workers, in part, because she and President Biden passed a plan that would ensure that EV jobs are American, union jobs. While Vice President Harris is fighting for workers and our climate, Donald Trump is selling out our future for his own selfish political interest."

State of play: The ads are running in Michigan, Wisconsin, Montana, Pennsylvania, and Nevada.

It's the latest part of a $20 million-plus AFPM campaign against federal policies to hasten the transition to EVs. READ MORE

Excerpt from Daily Caller: Regulatory agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) promulgated stringent regulations that will effectively force auto manufacturers to significantly increase the share of EVs and zero-emissions cars in their new fleets by 2032. Moreover, the administration is spending billions of dollars to boost EV production, adoption and charging infrastructure.

However, the administration’s EV agenda has not been especially successful to date, with consumers still hesitating to make the leap as manufacturers lose considerable sums of money on their EV lines and executives back away from some near-term production targets. Charging infrastructure remains concentrated primarily in more densely-populated coastal regions of the U.S., and a $7.5 billion program to build out charging infrastructure in parts of the country that need it most has so far resulted in only a handful of stations being built. READ MORE

Excerpt from Fox News: The car industry is backing away from rolling out electric vehicles in favor of hybrid options, indicating more defeats to the Biden-Harris administration's efforts to force EV sales on American buyers.

Ford announced last week that the car giant is changing its electric vehicle strategy and backing away from its planned all-electric, three-row SUV, instead favoring the creation of hybrid vehicles for its next rollout of three-row SUVs.

"Our focus here is to remake Ford into a higher-growth, higher-margin, more capital-efficient and durable business, and that means these vehicles need to be profitable," John Lawler, Ford vice chair and chief financial officer, said on a call with media Wednesday morning. "And if they're not profitable, based on where the customer is in the market is, we will pivot and adjust and make those tough decisions."

The announcement is a blow to left-wing electric car initiatives, many of which have been promoted by Harris across her last three and a half years as vice president.

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"It is abundantly clear that the federal government’s push to ram electric vehicles down everyone’s throat was unwanted and unworkable. The mandates forced on Americans under Biden-Harris will dismantle what remains of Michigan’s industrial base, destroy American jobs, and make us more dependent on Communist China," Republican Michigan congressional candidate Tom Barrett told Fox News Digital in reaction to Dearborn-based Ford’s move last week. "In Congress, I will continue my fight to protect the rights of consumers to purchase the vehicle that meet their needs and their family’s budget, not the social engineering agenda of bureaucrats in Washington."

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"The problem with the whole EV movement is that there was a colossal amount of hype behind it, largely from what I like to call the liberal mainstream media, making it sound like everybody's next vehicle was going to be an EV," former Ford, Chrysler and General Motors executive Bob Lutz told Fox Digital in April. "And of course, the government was pushing it, because of their climate change policies. And it just plain wasn't going to happen."

"And yes, it did come too soon and too fast," he added.

Earlier this year, data found that electric vehicles were eating into Ford’s profit margin. Ford Model e, the company’s EV division, had a net loss of $4.7 billion last year – with $1.6 billion of that in the last quarter – and Ford's chief financial officer John Lawler explained during the company’s earnings call in February that both "the quarter and year were impacted by challenging market dynamics and investments in next-generation vehicles."

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Ford, which is the second-largest EV brand in the nation behind Tesla, said last week when announcing its shift in its EV strategy that it will face a $400 million write-down of "certain product-specific manufacturing assets" for canceling the EV SUV. READ MORE

Excerpt from Detroit News: Harris’ views on the auto industry — to date — have largely revolved around the rights of workers to form unions, the working class and a more general "fight for freedom.”

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The statement Tuesday was the first time Harris or her campaign weighed in on EVs since Biden ended his reelection bid on July 21 and she became the Democratic Party's new standard bearer.

"Vice President Harris does not support an electric vehicle mandate. Donald Trump railed against the Inflation Reduction Act while the Biden-Harris administration oversaw the creation of tens of thousands of new, clean energy jobs in Michigan and provided ground-breaking subsidies and tax credits for electric vehicles," the Harris campaign said in a press release.

The campaign also emphasized that there has never been an all-out EV mandate from the federal government, though it acknowledged a Biden-Harris administration goal for EVs to make up half of new vehicle sales by 2030.

Despite Harris' quiet on auto industry issues, there are still indications from Biden-era policies, the 2024 Democratic Party platform and her past tenures as California attorney general and later U.S. senator that offer clues on how she would regulate the industry if elected to the White House.

The party platform, released last week amid the Democrats' national convention in Chicago, affirms the goal of EVs making up 50% of all new car sales by 2030. It also celebrates that such sales have roughly quadrupled under the current administration, rising from 2.8% of sales when Biden took office to 10.7% in July.

More:Voters want Michigan to build EVs, but they don't want to buy them, poll finds

On trade, the platform goes on to boast of "decisive action to counter unfair economic practices by (China) and level the playing field for American workers," including tariffs on EVs, batteries and critical minerals from the United States' chief economic rival.

Harris' campaign touted those tariffs and supply chain rules for EV tax credits in its Tuesday statement ahead of remarks by Republican Vice President nominee JD Vance near Big Rapids, where the Ohio senator ripped her economic policies.

"Vice President Harris has made clear her vision for America’s auto industry is one where cars are made in America by American workers," her campaign said.

Greta Peisch, former general counsel for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative under Biden, said she would expect most of the current administration's approach to trade issues and China to continue "and maybe become amplified" if Harris is elected in November.

Peisch emphasized that Harris likely would keep up a targeted approach rather than the type of broader, trade policies favored by Trump that she called "destabilizing."

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Harris' Republican rival, meanwhile, has talked frequently about the auto industry during campaign events in Michigan and elsewhere. The former president's language on electric cars has softened recently amid a burgeoning relationship with Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk. But his stated regulatory preference has remained firm.

If he returns to the White House, "The electric vehicle mandate, which is absolutely so crazy, will be gone, and there will be no costly forced transition to all-electric cars and trucks," Trump said last week at a campaign event in York, Pa.

He added: "If you want a gasoline-propelled car, or a hybrid, or an electric car, they’re wonderful, too. But not all. People need to go longer distances. They want to pay less money. This is fantastic. Electric is fantastic. Everything is great. You have to be able to buy everything."

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During an Aug. 20 speech in Livingston County, Trump continued talking about the auto industry. He cited Chinese automakers constructing new vehicle assembly plants in Mexico as evidence that China will overtake the U.S. auto industry and Michigan's assembly plants will shutter.

The former president, taking a step beyond the Biden administration tariffs announced in May, vowed to impose tariffs of 100% to 200% on any Chinese vehicle assembled in Mexico. READ MORE

Excerpt from National Review: Whatever Harris is saying to Michiganders, the administration is indeed telling you that your choice in cars is going to be artificially constrained.

Kamala Harris is an automotive libertarian, or so she maintains.

“Contrary to what my opponent is suggesting, I will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive,” the vice president said at a campaign stop in Michigan the other day.

She will, however, favor regulations to drastically change the mix of gas-powered and electric cars that are manufactured in the United States, regardless of what consumers want.

The Biden-Harris administration has been working to regulate the American car market more to its liking. In 2023, the EPA proposed rules to make electric vehicles as much as 67 percent of new light vehicles sold by 2032. The agency then backed off a little, to electric vehicles constituting 56 percent of such cars in 2032 (another 13 percent would be hybrids, leaving purely gas-powered cars at less than 30 percent).

Why we allow a government agency, on its own say-so, to mandate the share of electric vehicles down to the percentage point years from now is a story for another day.

The mechanism that the EPA is using to impose its will is emission limits on carmakers; the limits can be calibrated to ensure that companies squeeze out gas cars to reach the goals.

To be clear, none of this is voluntary. Carmakers that don’t comply will face penalties. The preferences of the companies or the consumers aren’t driving the change — government edict is.

Whatever Harris is saying to Michiganders, the Biden-Harris administration is indeed telling you that your choice in cars is going to be artificially constrained. READ MORE

Excerpt from E&E News PM: Elon Musk's electric car company is endorsing a California climate policy that his political ally Donald Trump has promised to dismantle if reelected.

Tesla has joined other electric vehicle and charging station manufacturers in urging California lawmakers to support the state's low-carbon fuel standard, which boosts electric vehicles by setting an emissions limit on all transportation fuels sold in the state.

"This program has achieved significant economic and environmental benefits for Californians, and we strongly support its continued advancement to drive even greater progress," Tesla, Hyundai, GM, Audi, Rivian and others wrote to California lawmakers Thursday. The letter was obtained exclusively by POLITICO on Wednesday.

That Musk's company would endorse a key plank in California's fight against climate change underscores the tension between his political and business interests. Trump has moderated his attacks against electric vehicles since Musk became a campaign surrogate, but he is still pledging to overturn California's suite of nation-leading rules to boost electric vehicles. READ MORE

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