During the years I worked at or owned car dealerships, there were six different U.S. Presidents. Three of them I voted for, three I did not. So, what did I do differently based on the election outcome? NOT ONE THING. My late father told me when I was young to “only worry about the things you can change.” I didn’t let the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue change my business model as a car dealer or since as the owner of a media company, a radio station owner, or a talk show host. As with most, I just roll with it.
In my lifetime and during my career, I don’t think one administration changed the auto industry more than the Biden years with the sudden onslaught of electric vehicles. So many resources and dollars were put into fundamentally changing what we drive. Billions of dollars were spent by the government, and billions were invested by the automakers, and billions of dollars will be lost because you don’t change an over 100-year old industry in a few short years.
America voted on November 5, 2024, for a change to run the country. That means a reversal of many of the policies and programs under Joe Biden. Again, things in the auto industry are changing and they are changing quickly. It took a little while for me to embrace electric vehicles, and I have publicly said many times that I didn’t feel like it was the job of government to dictate what we drive, and further, it should not be in the business of giving out purchase incentives. With all the efforts of Washington, the automakers, and many pushing electric vehicles as hard as they could, sales were up in 2024, but still only reached about 8% of the market. I predicted many years ago, EVs would top out at 10% market share and we are not there yet.
All this said - things WILL change in three key areas during Trump's second term. While we are still waiting to see what Trump will do with EV incentives, we know action has already been taken to reverse Biden-era emission standards. Trump has already moved on tariffs as well, causing big concern for automakers like Volkswagen who build some or all of their vehicles outside of the U.S.
To dig deeper into these topics, I want to turn to our friends at Cox Automotive, a place with many brilliant auto minds. Brian Finkelmeyer, Senior Director of Enterprise Insights and Advisory at Cox Automotive, recently shared some excellent insight into what the Presidency of Donald Trump would mean to the world of autos. He shares three ways in which he thinks the new Trump administration will reshape the current landscape when it comes to:
- Emissions regulations
- EV Incentives
- Tariffs
For a closer look at each topic, click here to read the article on Cox Automotive.
Volkswagen's new Gulf Coast hub in Freeport, Texas will import and process up to 140,000 vehicles annually for VW, Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, and Porsche. Photo: VW.
