Any development in the world’s second largest new car market, the US, naturally affects all car manufacturers. Especially now that the Chinese car manufacturers are invading the old continent and the European ones feel pressured by time and events.
With the hourglass winding down and Tuesday, November 5, being the final date of the complex election process for the two gladiators, <a href="https://www.world-today-news.com/donald-trump-whats-behind-the-us-presidents-baltimore-attack/" title="Donald Trump: What's behind the US President's Baltimore attack”>Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have expressed their positions on the environment, investment and jobs in the US, sectors which touch the path of European car manufacturers there.
The future of electric mobility in the US
As the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris is expected to continue the policy of the Biden administration that promoted measures for lower emissions and the domestic production of electric vehicles and batteries while (also) taking advantage of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Along the same lines, the current government had already announced from 2021 as its goal that electric cars make up 50% of all new car sales by 2030. Today this percentage is below 10% in the US.
In that light European carmakers, who have invested billions in electrification to meet EU emissions rules, are at an advantage over American ones, which base their existence on wildly popular internal combustion engine models everywhere away from urban centers.
The only exception is Tesla, which however is in a category by itself but its practices do not trouble Donald Trump, who surprisingly has won the support of its creator, Elon Musk. The former US president and Republican candidate has accused Harris of being a persecutor of cars with thermal engines, thus wishing to attract the votes of those who live in the State of Michigan who, because of Detroit (the traditional seat of the former Big Three – Chrysler, Ford, General Motors) is considered the metropolis of American motoring.
It is characteristic that he declared on October 3 that if he is elected, no State will be able to prohibit the sale and circulation of vehicles with thermal engines.
America first
The doctrine of former President Trump had and still resonates with a significant part of the American electorate, based on a trade policy of protectionism that today is interspersed with the choice of the whip and the carrot. Not coincidentally, in a speech in Georgia on September 25, the Republican candidate referred to a reduction in the corporate tax rate to 15% from 21% for companies that manufacture their products in the US and employ Americans.
“This is the deal I’m going to offer every big company and manufacturer on Earth – I’m going to give you the lowest taxes, the lowest energy costs, the lowest regulatory burden and free access to the best and biggest market on the planet,” Trump said further pointing out: “I want German automakers to become American automakers. I want them to build their factories here.”
What he wants has of course been happening for a long time as the BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen groups already produce hundreds of thousands of cars in factories in the US, with Chinese interests Volvo also present, exporting a significant proportion of their production around the world.
It remains to be seen who will finally keep their pre-election promises but also how the Chinese factor will be dealt with, which leads numerically in the production of new energy cars (as any form of electrification is characterized) but is in the sights of all others for obvious reasons of dominance.
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