A new report by America First Policy Institute concludes that 123,000 autoworkers could lose their jobs due to the Biden-Harris administration’s regulations requiring 70% of new cars sold to be electric by 2032.
Banning all sales of gasoline-powered cars, as California and 15 other states have proposed, would result in almost 200,000 lost automaker jobs—primarily in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, the report concludes. Among the winners: China.
Other estimates show greater job losses. Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley said at a conference in Detroit in 2022 that “it takes 40% less labor to make an electric car.” With over a million workers now employed in auto and parts manufacturing, that’s a loss of 400,000 jobs, twice the estimate of America First Policy Institute, which was founded by former Trump administration officials.
Layoffs are happening in real time. This summer, after receiving over $500 million in government grants to make batteries and electric vehicles, Stellantis announced job losses for 2,500 workers in Michigan who make popular Ram trucks.
Americans are losing jobs because of a product they don’t even want to buy. This year, over 5,000 car dealers wrote to President Joe Biden, saying: “Electric vehicle sales are not remotely on trend to meet those [Environmental Protection Agency] requirements. Indeed, the day supply of electric vehicles on dealer lots today is nearly twice the supply of conventional vehicles. … We now ask that you hit the brakes.”
The 400,000 lost jobs forecast by Ford’s Farley are only in auto manufacturing. The number doesn’t account for job losses among mechanics at dealerships and local garages who now repair gasoline-powered vehicles.
A million American workers are employed in car repair and maintenance; electric vehicles need less maintenance. (The AFPI report specifically excludes them from its job loss calculations.)
But repair jobs are vital for American workers. No oil changes or tuneups are needed for electric vehicles, but when drivers need to replace their $15,000 EV batteries, they buy new ones. If one-quarter of the million mechanics lost their jobs due to the Biden-Harris EV mandate, that’s a loss of another 250,000 jobs.
Similarly, a 2020 report from Germany’s National Platform Future of Mobility concluded that 400,000 German autoworkers would lose their jobs due to electrification. China exported 5 million vehicles around the world in 2023. The Chinese auto giant BYD will sell its Seagull EV in Germany in 2025 for $12,500, undercutting German automakers.
As China expands in EVs, Jeep has left China. Sales of GM and Ford vehicles in China are half of what they were in 2017.
And here’s the dirty little secret: The hundreds of thousands of jobs lost to Americans and Europeans are going to Chinese workers.
China produces 66% of global EVs and 85% of batteries. These sales are driven by subsidies from the Chinese Communist Party, including tax credits, forced labor, unregulated coal-fired power plants, and low-interest loans.
While China has an unfair advantage in EVs, U.S. companies dominate in larger vehicles such as pickup trucks and SUVs. But American companies are being required—through final rules promulgated by the Biden-Harris administration’s Environmental Protection Agency and Transportation Department—to produce electric vehicles rather than the cars their customers want to buy.
Besides transferring jobs to China, Chinese electric vehicles have the potential to send data back to China as a way to spy on Americans. EVs would be far more effective than spy balloons at collecting important data, and at far lower cost, because Americans would purchase these vehicles. For similar security reasons, the Federal Communications Commission banned Huawei and ZTE technology in 2022.
Chinese EVs also would allow the ruling Chinese Communist Party to assemble an unprecedented trove of Americans’ personal data. When consumers buy cars, they provide information on addresses, driver’s licenses, credit cards, and insurance. When drivers get loans, auto companies can access credit history, including mortgages, other loans, and additional credit cards. America should not give this to the CCP.
Further, just as General Motors’ OnStar program advertises that it can stop or disable stolen vehicles, America should not give the Chinese Communist Party power to stop or disable EVs driven in America. If OnStar can do this, Chinese car companies undoubtedly have the technology—as well as potentially disabling braking and navigation systems.
With the recent Supreme Court decision in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, requiring agencies to follow congressional statutes, the Biden-Harris regulations on electric vehicles will face strong legal challenges. Americans deserve their choice of vehicles, and the Biden-Harris administration should not use regulations to ship American jobs offshore.
Diana Furchtgott-Roth is director of the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment and the Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow in Energy and Environmental Policy at The Heritage Foundation.
Reprinted with Permission From The Daily Signal – By Diana Furchtgott-Roth
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.