This week the White House and President Donald Trump attempted to kill, once and for all, California's plan to accelerate the sale of zero-emission cars and trucks in the state. In a ceremony in Washington, DC, on Thursday attended by trucking executives, Trump signed three resolutions passed by Congress aimed at revoking California’s nearly 60-year-old power to set its own motor vehicle emissions rules.
In doing so, the federal government is taking aim at one of the most ambitious vehicle electrification schemes—and climate policies—in the world: California’s goal to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles in the state by 2035. The state, along with 10 others that have pledged to follow its more aggressive emissions rules, accounts for nearly a third of the US’s new car sales each year, giving it enormous power to dictate the country’s automotive market. Today, one in four vehicles sold in California are either battery-electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles.
The move won’t affect the sorts of cars available in showrooms and on lots today, or even next year, experts say. But the attempt to revoke California’s powers, along with a suite of other policies aimed at electric vehicles—including the Environmental Protection Agency’s bid to roll back vehicle fuel economy standards, Congress’ push to nix EV tax credits, and the Transportation Department’s pause on funding for national EV charging infrastructure—could affect car buyers’ interest in going electric. In other words: The electric vibes are bad.
Auto “production decisions are baked in and take years to change,” says Cara Horowitz, the executive director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Law. “But if there’s a feeling among consumers about a loss in [electric vehicle] momentum, that could be felt in the market.”
“This is a big, big headwind,” says Simon Mui, who manages clean vehicle policy advocacy at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
California immediately responded Thursday with a lawsuit. Governor Gavin Newsom also instructed state agencies to find new ways to promote zero-emission vehicles in the state.
The resolutions are based on a novel legal theory put forward by Republican lawmakers that they can use congressional power usually applied to federal agency rules to do away with California’s “waiver” authority, which was established in 1967 as part of the landmark Clean Air Act. These waivers give the state a unique power to set its own stricter vehicle emission standards.
“It's a completely unprecedented approach,” says California attorney general Rob Bonta in an interview. The Trump administration “tries to mainstream these fringe theories, or just these completely legally inappropriate theories, to try to do things that they actually can't do.”
Ten other states, including Colorado, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington, joined the lawsuit.
The changing shape of the US electric vehicle market seems to have already had some effect on buyers’ attitudes toward battery-powered cars. Sales data shows that while Americans are still buying electric, the rate of growth has slowed. Those sentiments, plus changing regulations and tariff policies, have led to "unprecedented" levels of “havoc” for automakers, according to a report released last week by Bank of America analysts. “The next four+ years will be the most uncertain and volatile time in product strategy ever,” they wrote. Analysts noted that model years 2026 through 2029 will see automakers release just 159 new US models, at a lower annual average than the 20 years previous.
Automakers have generally argued that California’s goals are unrealistic given customers’ enthusiasm for electric vehicles and that loosening regulations promotes consumer choice.
Most have backtracked on once-ambitious plans to convert their lineups to electrics. Ford is “pivoting” away from some battery-powered-vehicle plans in favor of hybrids; Volvo quietly backed away from an “all-electric by 2030” scheme; Mercedes-Benz kicked down the road a plan to go all-electric by 2030 in some markets and now maintains it will sell gas-powered cars well into the next decade; GM and Volkswagen have delayed several electric models.
In a written statement, John Bozzella, president and CEO of auto industry trade group Alliance for Automotive Innovation, called California’s policies “harmful to auto affordability, to consumer choice, to industry competitiveness and to economic activity.”
General Motors in a statement said it “appreciated” that Trump signed the resolutions and said it has “long advocated for one national standard.”
Ford spokesperson Robyn Jackson wrote in an email: “In America, the customer chooses, and we need national emissions standards that not only drive progress but also reflect market realities.” She called, however, for the US to “preserve tax policies”—including the EV tax credit—“that recognize the future of the global automotive industry is up for grabs.”
The Trump administration's moves could reverse years of public investment in cleaner vehicle technology, experts warn. The 2021 infrastructure law and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act triggered an estimated $210 billion investment in the US electric vehicle supply chain, due to pour into vehicle assembly plants, battery factories, and mining operations, many of them in red states. The funding was meant to put the US in a position to compete with Chinese automakers, who have developed cheap and effective EVs that have piqued interest among car buyers around the world.
The Trump administration is “literally killing the demand for the products that these facilities are producing, the demand for the investments that are already in the ground,” says Mui from the Natural Resources Defense Council. “I would characterize it as shooting yourself in the foot.”
