Trump is taking aim at electric vehicles. He may not have the power to change things all that much

President Donald Trump took aim at federal and state support for electric vehicles on his first day in office. But it’s not clear he has the power he’s claimed on the topic.

President Donald Trump took aim at federal and state support for electric vehicles on his first day in office. But it’s not clear he has the power he’s claimed on the topic. In his executive order, Trump said he was eliminating the “electric vehicle mandate.” But there has never been a federal mandate that prohibited Americans from buying gasoline-powered cars, as he claimed in his inaugural address. And it’s not clear whether the specifics in the executive order can be accomplished through a stroke of his pen alone. It could take congressional action to roll back some of the measures he wants eliminated, and other actions are certain to spur a prolonged court battle. And even if all of it were legal and possible, automakers are likely to plow forward with EV efforts anyway. The order seeks to end the federal support in recent years for electric vehicles. This includes a $7,500 tax credit for buyers of EVs that was passed by Congress and signed into law in 2022, along with federal support for vehicle-charging stations and low interest loans for traditional automakers building new plants to build EVs and the batteries they need. But this federal support for EVs was part of a 2022 law that may require congressional action to change, although the details of the tax credit were set by the Internal Revenue Service, not Congress.