Former President Donald Trump’s unabashed opposition to electric cars isn’t new. The now-official Republican nominee and his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, have waged a war on EVs. “The cars don’t go far enough. They’re very, very expensive. They’re also heavy,” Trump told Bloomberg recently. He’s also said that the auto industry would face a “bloodbath” from Chinese competition if he were not reelected. But at this week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Trump expressed a surprise openness to Chinese automakers building factories in the U.S.

“Right now as we speak, large factories just are being built across the border in Mexico,” Trump said at the Republican National Convention on Thursday. He added, “Those plants are going to be built in the United States and our people are going to man those plants.”

EVs are heavily politicized in the U.S.

Electric cars are a hot-button issue in the upcoming presidential elections. The Biden administration has spent hundreds of billions of dollars accelerating EV adoption. Former President Trump wants to “end the EV mandate,” when there’s none to start with.

Those remarks come as a surprise to countless groups, from American auto industry officials who fear competition from China’s advanced EVs all the way to fellow Republican lawmakers who have been intensely tough on the country and its ruling Chinese Communist Party government.  

He implied that he would push to amend the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) free trade deal and slap taxes as high as 200% on Mexican-made cars to prevent them from entering the U.S. 

That, of course, would represent a sea change for the entire auto industry, given how many U.S.-market cars—electric and otherwise—are built in Mexico by General Motors, Ford, Mazda, Nissan, BMW and countless others. 

The Biden Administration has already imposed a hefty 100% tariff on Chinese car imports, effectively prohibiting them from selling in the U.S. at potentially predatory prices. But several models sold in the U.S. are manufactured right across the border, in Mexico. That includes the new Chevy Blazer EV and Equinox EV, made at General Motors’ Ramoz Arizpe plant. BYD and Tesla both have plans to build plants in Mexico. There’s a real possibility that the Kia EV3, too, could be made there. Trump has a problem with that.

BYD Shark – plug-in hybrid pickup (1)

The former President says a lot of things. Many of them are blatant lies. It’s one of the reasons newspapers employ full-time fact-checkers. So take his comments with a grain of salt. But Chinese carmakers would presumably be smiling at Trump’s comments. The potential implications of that, especially in the context of how Japanese carmakers began conquering the U.S. car market in the 1980s by building local plants, are far too glaring to be ignored.

The first U.S.-made Hondas, Toyotas and Nissans rolled out decades ago and with them, they introduced hyper-efficient production processes that minimized errors on the assembly lines and maximized output. Years later, Japanese cars still reign supreme in the U.S. Toyota has been a top-selling U.S. brand in several categories, and nearly all Honda vehicles sold in America are built here as well. 

Hypothetically, Chinese automakers too, would bring substantial expertise in building electric cars on American soil. Afterall, Chinese automakers and battery makers have been able to democratize and commercialize EVs better than any other country. They maintain an iron grip over battery processing and refining plants and some of the world’s largest battery makers are Chinese. Like CATL, for example.

And yet, in the same speech, Trump vowed to end the “electric vehicle mandate” on day one, if he were reelected. While the fact remains that there exists no “mandate,” he referred to the EPA’s multi-pollutant emissions criteria finalized early this year. The EPA regulations require automakers to sell more plug-in cars to meet emissions targets aimed at preventing billions of tonnes of harmful gasses from entering the atmosphere. At the same time, automakers are rolling back their deadlines on electrifying their fleets. So when you walk into a showroom years from now, you’ll likely have the option to choose from a gas car, conventional hybrid, plug-in hybrid or a fully-electric model.

All said, it’s safe to say that American automakers employ a powerful group of lobbyists. If at all Trump greenlights Chinese automakers, the homegrown brands won’t sit quiet. They’ll likely do everything in their capacity to prevent that from happening. Will they succeed at that? Your guess is as good as mine.