(DailyVantage.com) – Experts and observers in the auto industry are warning that President Joe Biden’s new moratorium against certain auto imports from China, along with his administration’s strong push for electric vehicles (EVs), could leave consumers with little choice as to what cars they can buy and drive in the future.
Biden announced last week that the U.S. would be imposing a more than 100% tariff on Chinese EVs. U.S. authorities are also investigating the possibility that Chinese EVs connected to the internet could be sending information and data to Beijing, making the vehicles a national security risk – further trimming down the chances that Americans will ever be driving Chinese EVs anytime soon.
Biden is attempting to compete with former president Donald Trump on who can be tougher against China, with the former accusing the latter of “feeding” China by not acting on China’s purported trade abuses during the Trump administration. The president’s remarks are particularly targeted towards Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where the majority of U.S. car factories are located. The three states are also considered to be critical battlegrounds when Biden faces off with Trump for the presidency later this year.
Team Trump, however, downplayed the Biden’s new initiatives, calling them a “weak” approach, and accused the president’s campaign of trying to distract people from the fact that the White House is aggressively pushing for more EV production and use. Trump has claimed that the more EVs are produced, more auto workers stand to lose their jobs.
Industry experts add that Biden’s overall policy on EVs and vehicle production in the U.S. “is functionally a ban on sales of most new gas cars by 2032,” according to American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) senior vice president Geoff Moody.
Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation in particular, will likely limit the number of available gas-powered vehicles – and drive costs up for consumers, who will have no choice but to settle for an EV, Moody added.
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