Ok there's a lot of incorrect information going around on this, so I want to be clear that the problem with the Big 3 and EV's isn't that the Big 3 didn't want to make EV's. The problem, as with so many things, is Trump. I'm gonna do a little thread on this because people don't seem to be aware. 1/x
if i were a shareholder of an american automaker id want to know why my ceos were so stupid and shortsighted that they not only didnt see this coming but actively fought it
First, the facts. Every single US auto manufacturer publicly went all-in on EVs. In 2021 (notably, a week after Biden was inaugurated), General Motors announced that it would stop making internal combustion engines entirely by 2035. They invested billions of dollars in their Ultium EV platform. 2/x
www.eenews.net
Stellantis (Chrysler/ Jeep/ Dodge/ Ram) announced that it would go EV-only in Europe by 2030, and when the last-gen Charger and Challenger were killed in 2023, their replacements were supposed to be EV-only. They were forced to kill that initiave last year. 3/x
carbuzz.com
Ford was first to market among the Big 3 with serious, competitive Evs, coming out swinging with the "Mustang" EV and the F-150 EV, leveraging all of their consumer good will on EVs. They've lost tens of billions of dollars in investments in this. It is not due to a lack of trying. 4/x
www.reuters.com
Why have the Big 3 failed so utterly in their planned phase out of internal combustion engines? Well, it's two things, really. One is consumer sentiment - I'll get to that in a minute - and the other is government policy. The death of the $7,500 EV tax credit absolutely murdered the EV market. 5/x But also, Trump policies specifically have discouraged EV adoption in ways that the Big 3 do not want. He's eased emissions regulations and cut down on CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards to discourage companies from transitioning away from internal combustion. 6/x You remember last year when 500 South Korean battery production experts were kidnapped from a Hyundai plant in Georgia and mass-deported? This single act completely destroyed the willingness of foreign EV experts to work in the US to advance American battery and motor manufacturing. 7/x
www.pbs.org
Trump is surrounded by petroleum lobbyists - not automotive lobbyists - and he has decided to declare all-out war on electric vehicles. The Big 3 collectively spent well over $100 billion on EV development that they're now having to write down because of Trump. You think they wanted to do that? 8/x The other problem is consumer demand. This is a more complex issue than it seems at first. The average annual miles driven per passenger car in China is about 6,000. In the EU it's about 6,500. In the US, it's about 13,500. The US is big, and people drive much longer distances than elsewhere. 9/x Among Americans hesitant to buy an EV, 47% cite their number one concern as a lack of range. This is less of an issue in the EU where it's less common for people to drive 300+ miles at a stretch. This range anxiety is compounded by a lack of charging infrastructure compared to other countries. 10/x
insideevs.com
The lack of charging infrastructure is, you guessed it, a policy decision made by Donald Trump. Other countries are WAY ahead of the US in terms of charging availability and charging standardization. It's common in the US to go to a charging station only to find none of the chargers operable. 11/x In short, the Big 3 wanted very badly to sell EVs to Americans. GM poured unfathomable resources into the BT1 platform that undergirds the Hummer, Silverado EV, and Escalade EV. They put the nicest interior in any car under $100k in the Cadillac Lyriq. And what did they get for it? 12/x First quarter 2026 sales of the Silverado EV in the U.S. were 1,406 units. For Hummer (both truck and SUV combined), it was 1,653. For the Escalade EV: 1,432. You cannot sustain billions of dollars of investments in a car platform that's selling fewer than 20,000 total units a year. 13/x And what's the result? While GM hasn't made an official announcement, GM suppliers have stated that the second generation of the BT1 platform has been cancelled and there will be no follow-up vehicles once this generation runs its course. That's not GM's fault! 14/x It sucks that EV adoption (fucking Tesla excluded) has been so poor in the United States. It's awful and it's detrimental to the environment and to the competitiveness of the US automotive industry going forward. The Big 3 is not to blame. Donald Trump is. 15/15