Chevrolet Bolt EV, Tesla Model 3 and electric vehicles in general face a radically new regulatory and political playing field as a professed climate change skeptic prepares to occupy the White House.
The budding Trump administration so far has been short on policy specifics. But just two days after the election, automakers' chief lobbying group, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, urged the Trump transition team to revise not only the fuel economy standards, but also the Obama administration's autonomous vehicle standards, on the grounds that they could cost its member companies billions of dollars.
"The short answer is that we don't know what will happen with the Trump administration and electric vehicles," said Dave Reichmuth, senior engineer for the Union of Concerned Scientists clean vehicles program. "It might be awhile before we understand the policy priorities for the new administration."
Reichmuth points out that the EV tax credit is embedded in the larger federal tax code, so removing it would require action from Congress. So it's not likely to be changed soon, even if that was the direction that was chosen.
It's worth noting that many of the cars receiving the credit come from U.S. assembly lines - Tesla in Fremont, Calif., the Volt at Detroit-Hamtramck, the Bolt in Orion Township and the Nissan Leaf in Smyrna, Tenn. None of this will shake automakers' resolve to advertise and sell these plug-in vehicles.
The Bolt EV comes off a week when it won two Car of the Year awards, one from Motor Trend, the second from Green Car Journal. Its certified 238-mile range on a full charge should ease consumers' anxiety about being stranded. The Bolt comes to market, beginning in California, at least one year ahead of the Tesla Model 3. Both are in the same price range - about $30,000 or slightly less after the $7,500 federal tax credit.
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