Donald Trump says he's dropped the EV Mandate. The Guardian says there was no mandate, but that's only because the mandate was hidden in a kind of monster red-tape Octopus. Manufacturers were forced to balance their whole fleet's emissions each year. That meant if their customers didn't want to buy enough low emission EV's the manufacturer would have to discount the EV's and charge artificially more for the cars everyone really wanted in order to create the Soviet-style sales goal.

This would mean that people buying a petrol or diesel car would be subsidizing a driver who bought an EV. Presumably the rich would get whatever car they wanted while the rural poor would have to pay more to get a long distance car. If a company sold too many high emission cars (because that's what the customers wanted) it would have to buy credits on a trading market (which subsidizes the EVs).

Australia has recently copied this bureaucratic bomb with the NVES (New Vehicle Emissions Standards). Across Europe this octopus has helped to subsidize Chinese made EV's at the expense of European car manufacturers. It's a great moment in red-sabotage, where a government forces the people to help destroy local industry and jobs. Call it an anti-tariff?

Trump administration to slash clean car rules aimed at cutting climate emissions
The Guardian

Environmentalists decry move that relaxes requirements on automakers to control pollution from gas-powered cars

The Trump administration on Monday announced it was slashing clean car rules that had been aimed at reducing planet-heating emissions and boosting electric vehicles.

Monday's move follows the Trump administration's rollback of the government's ability to impose requirements to track, report and limit climate-heating pollution from cars and trucks.

Donald Trump said on Truth Social on Saturday that the less stringent mileage requirements would "take the waste out of building cars in America" and save families "thousands on a new, beautiful and safe car", while boosting auto production in the US.

Trump has repeatedly pledged to end what he falsely calls an EV "mandate", referring incorrectly to Joe Biden's target that half of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030. No federal policy has mandated auto companies to sell EVs.

Sean Duffy, the US transportation secretary, hailed the new initiative – called Freedom Means Affordable Cars – which the agency said would reduce the average cost of new vehicles by $1,300, and save consumers $138bn over the next five years.

Duffy said: "Thanks to President Trump's leadership, we have finally ended the illegal mandate that forced automakers to produce more expensive electric vehicles that American families didn't want."