This trend has always been wild to me. The USA feels like a solid home of automaking since the inception of the ICE. They don't necessarily make the best cars but they have the infrastructure, knowledge & experience, and culture to innovate and drive the industry forward.

The next big generational change in car design matures to commercial viability - the electric motor for cars - and the USA turns it into a bogeyman? Why? This is the next big economic win to take advantage of and the US has the factory and industrial workforce and infrastructure to nail it. Companies vying to be the Ford of the electric era. Instead it gets warped into some political litmus test for communities and people start 'rolling coal' to prove a point.

Does it feel good for impoverished industrial communities in the States to see China and BYD leading the way on something they could be doing?

There's still time to get back on track but it's running out. China will be pushing viable affordable models in the next few years for first time buyers, the secondhand market is maturing, lease electric cars are competitive in Europe, charge points are not hard to find, gas is only getting more expensive, and most governments have ICE phase out deadlines in place.

It is hardly surprising given these facts:

1. US is the largest oil producer country in the world

2. US knows it has lost the EV race

3. ICE employees have an outsized impact on elections due to where they live

Throw in: Unwilling or unable to build out the charger network. No power for EV’s as it’s going to crypto and ai. And to aluminum smelting. And to heating the northern states. And to cooling the southern ones. And losing the energy from wind, solar and geothermal. Maybe nuclear as I don’t know where the guy stands on that.

I guess now we know what all those tariffs are really about, it's just a way to force other countries to buy American petrol.