Trump can get EVs back on track

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Federal and state governments have been trying to persuade Americans to buy battery-electric vehicles using mandates and taxpayer-financed incentives. These policies aren’t working, and the sale of EVs has stalled.

The incoming administration can course correct by replacing these mandates and subsidies with policies that give customers affordable options while helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Over the past four years, Toyota hasn’t wavered in its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions as much and as quickly as possible. Our approach provides consumers with many choices: hybrids, plug-in hybrids, fuel-cell electric and battery-electric vehicles.

We believe this is the best way to achieve meaningful emissions reductions while meeting customer needs. Data from the Environmental Protection Agency show that, between 2017-22, Toyota outpaced all other manufacturers in reducing average greenhouse gas emissions from its new vehicles. Current EPA regulations are a de facto electric-vehicle mandate because they set emissions standards that are impossible to meet without a majority of vehicles being battery-electric.

Yet even with costly subsidies from taxpayers, EV sales are still less than 10% of the market. To be clear, we support the rollout of battery-electric vehicles. Toyota has invested nearly $14 billion to build a battery plant in North Carolina.

But EPA mandates harm the auto industry’s ability to offer a variety of zero- or low-emissions vehicle options at different price points and with different characteristics. We want everyone, regardless of budget or specific needs, to be able to contribute to reducing emissions. But unrealistic regulations favor one carbon-reducing