Trump To Rip Up Rules Forcing Automakers To Sell More EVs

Good morning! It's Thursday, March 13, 2025, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. This is where you'll find the most important stories that are shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning's edition, find out how Donald Trump is ripping up Joe Biden's clean energy legacy and see just how far Tesla has fallen over the past year. Plus, automakers are warning of higher costs as tariffs spiral and chemical maker Ineos found out just how hard it is to make a car that won't fall apart.

President Donald Trump took office a little over two months ago now, and in that time he's set about undoing almost all the work of his predecessor. As such, the "Home Alone 2" actor cut federal support for electric vehicle chargers, pledged to slash funding for states looking to buy EVs and plans to cancel the tax incentives available for anyone looking to buy an electric car.

Now, the new administration is looking to cut the electric vehicle supply off at the source and will backtrack targets that encourage automakers to make more EVs, reports Automotive News. The Environmental Protection Agency is reportedly starting to reverse the Biden administration's vehicle emissions rules:

The EPA said it would reconsider the agency's 2024 rules that would cut passenger vehicle fleetwide tailpipe emissions nearly 50 percent by 2032 compared with 2027 projected levels. The EPA has forecast that between 35 percent and 56 percent of new vehicles sold between 2030 and 2032 would need to be electric in order to comply and has won support from Ford Motor.

The agency is also eyeing up a 2022 rule that clamps down on smog- and soot-forming emissions from heavy-duty trucks, which it argues made trucking "more expensive," Automotive News adds. Never mind the 2,900 premature deaths and $29 billion annual net benefit that the measure was said to bring when it came into force. I thought this government was all about saving money?

The move to slash emission rules follows Congress' challenge to California's impending ban on the sale of gas-powered cars. The new administration is also considering plans to repeal tax credits that knock thousands of dollars off the price of a new electric car, without which it is feared American EV sales could falter.

Talking of faltering EV sales, let's check in with Tesla, shall we? The American automaker witnessed its first decline in sales for a decade in 2024, and is now witnessing slowing demand as buyers in China, Europe, Australia and some U.S. states turn their backs on the brand after company boss Elon Musk's pivot to the right.

The rapid decline in fortunes for the American automaker, which was once lauded as a green pioneer, is so bad that Business Insider branded it "one for the history books" after new analysis of the company's performance was released.

Sales of the brand have plummeted around the world and Tesla's share price is now down almost 50 percent compared with December 2024. This led JP Morgan to lower its projections for the brand over the coming year as further declines are on the cards:

"We struggle to think of anything analogous in the history of the automotive industry, in which a brand has lost so much value so quickly," they wrote, adding that the closest example was when Japanese and Korean car brands lost sales amid "diplomatic disputes" with China in 2012 and 2017, respectively.

Analysts projected the deliveries for the brand will drop a further eight percent this year compared with 2024. They also predicted that Tesla's share price could fall to $135, which would be its lowest value since January 2023.

All this is happening while company boss Musk heads to court to fight for his $56 billion pay package. Maybe with the losses mounting his plea to shareholders may not fall on such kind ears this time.

We made it all the way to third gear today without mentioning the "T" word: Tariffs. Now, we have to change that and talk about the way increases in steel and aluminum tariffs are going to hit the auto industry and, spoiler alert, it could be pretty bad.

Trump increased taxes on the import of steel and aluminum from almost every country, with a 25 percent tariff levied on the two metals regardless of their country of origin, reports Automotive News. The fees came into force yesterday and will soon "put pressure on the auto industry" as prices for parts and raw materials rise, as the site explains:

The auto industry is one of the world's largest buyers of steel and aluminum and stands to be among the sectors most impacted by the tariffs. They are likely to "throw off everybody's calculations on profitability," especially for aluminum-intensive vehicles such as the Ford F-150 pickup, said Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions.

Some brands have pledged to absorb the higher costs, like BMW, while others may look to shift their suppliers to try and skirt the worst of the tariffs. Whichever way the cookie crumbles, prices for steel and aluminum will probably rise, and a 2023 report on the 2018 tariffs on those metals found that prices of steel and aluminum rose 2.4 percent and 1.6 percent respectively.

Let's round things out with another Morning Shift staple, a recall. This time, it's not Ford or Tesla facing yet another issue, it's British chemical giant Ineos, which found out the hard way that making cars is trickier than hand sanitizer. The automaker recalled more than 7,000 of its SUVs this week after the doors started popping open, reports Bloomberg.

Ineos recalled more than 7,000 Grenadier SUVs here in the U.S. after customers reported that the doors on their cars were flying open while driving. The issue was uncovered on models manufactured before April 19 2024, which were found to have issues with their door button mechanisms:

The parts were assembled without enough grease being applied, the company said, leading external buttons on some vehicles to stick and cause doors to open mid-journey. Ineos will pay for the full cost of the repairs.

If you are worried that your car might be affected by a recall, there are a few easy ways to check if it's the case. First up, the NHTSA has a super handy app that you can use to see if your vehicle is impacted by a recall, or you can head to the regulator's website and plug your VIN into its recall search tool.

Album anniversaries are a weird one, it's always nice to find out something's been in your life for 10 or 15 years but it only ever seems to be bands that never made another good record who actually do anything to celebrate.

Case in point, last week marked 15 years since Gorillaz released "Plastic Beach" and I've basically had it on repeat ever since. It's a great record with spacey orchestral moments, fun turns from the likes of Snoop Dogg, Bobby Womack and De La Soul, and a weird synth track that's got Mark E Smith from The Fall shouting over it. What's not to love?