Trump Executive Order Rescinds Goal for Zero-Emission Vehicles

­In his first 36 hours in office, President Trump went on an Executive Order signing spree, with several fundamentally reshaping the EV landscape.

Amongst these was revoking Biden’s August 2021 Executive Order titled “Strengthening American Leadership in Clean Cars and Trucks,” which set unofficial mandates – “goals” – for passenger cars and light trucks, along with medium- and heavy-duty trucks and vans.

To start, Executive Order 14037 set a “goal” that 50 percent of all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in 2030 be zero-emission vehicles, including battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric, or fuel cell electric vehicles.

For reference, 19% of all light-duty vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2024 were hybrid, electric, and plug-in hybrid vehicles. And it’s been steadily increasing since 2020 after 6 years of relative stagnancy.

And though BEV transaction prices were about 15.9% higher than the overall average light-duty vehicle transaction price (as of June 2024), they’re slowly going down.

It would also set multi-pollutant emissions standards – for light- and medium-duty vehicles – beginning with model year 2027, along with standards for heavy-duty pickup trucks and vans beginning with model year 2028.

The other big change was freezing any further EV charger infrastructure allotments under the 2021 infrastructure bill, which set aside $5 billion over five years for a nationwide EV charging network.

“All agencies shall immediately pause the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022...or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act...including but not limited to funds for electric vehicle charging stations made available through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program and the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program,” Trump wrote.

In a last-ditch effort, President Biden had previously released $635 million for more charging infrastructure in early January.