Vehicle backlash

Electric vehicle backlash has Michigan Dems on defensive

After years of pushing consumers toward electric vehicles, Michigan Democrats are now saying they don’t care what you drive — but still want to spend billions to make sure EVs are made in their state.

By Gavin Bade

“Attention auto workers: Kamala Harris wants to end all gas powered cars,” a new Trump campaign ad warns Michigan voters. “Crazy, but true!”

Only it’s not true, or at least, not completely. The attack line is a distortion of two policies vice president and President Joe Biden have pursued: stricter tailpipe pollution standards for newly built cars along with hefty subsidies to produce the new generation of electric vehicles in the U.S.

It’s part of a broader critique Trump and Republicans have leveled at Democrats this election cycle, claiming they support an “EV mandate” that will devastate the U.S. auto industry and open the floodgates to Chinese-made cars. While U.S. tariffs on Chinese vehicles — which Trump first levied and Biden increased — have effectively kept them out of the market, the anti-EV rhetoric is gaining traction in this crucial swing state at the center of American car culture.

The Trump campaign’s decision to invest nearly $1 million to air his auto ad across Michigan is just one indicator that Republicans are trying to capitalize on a backlash against electric vehicles in a bid to win the Great Lakes state. Statewide polling this summer showed that Michigan voters disapprove of Biden-Harris administration efforts to push consumers toward electric vehicles by 55 percent to 40 percent — even without any mention of a “mandate.” And there are signs that it’s become a topic of conversation among voters in Macomb County, a swing region in this Rust Belt state that includes many of Detroit’s northern suburbs.

Democrats and the auto companies “are trying to force [EVs] down the public’s throat,” Kim Langenbach, a retired Ford engineer, said on the sidelines of a community music concert in St. Clair Shores. “But the public doesn’t want them.”

Those sorts of charges are putting Democrats on the defensive in the final weeks of the campaign, as they try to balance their party’s climate priorities with a message that resonates with the state’s blue collar voters. Many of those people Democrats are trying to woo are workers in an industry that still predominantly produces gas-powered vehicles, and they hold a deep affinity for the cars and trucks they drive.

Michigan Democrats are trying to thread the needle by disputing the specifics of Republicans’ attack, while arguing that if a new wave of electric vehicles is coming, they want them to be made in states like Michigan.

“I don’t care if people drive an electric vehicle or a hybrid vehicle or a combustion engine — drive what you want,” Rep. Elissa Slotkin, the Democrats’ nominee for the Senate, said after a campaign event in St. Clair Shores.

“But if the question is who’s going to build the next generation of cars, I want it to be the United States of America, not China,” added Slotkin, who is running ads emphasizing that she doesn’t drive an electric vehicle and won’t make voters buy one either.

The EV controversies come as Democrats are also on the defensive over Chinese connections to a high-profile battery plant in the state, as well as over a similar energy issue in Pennsylvania – thanks to Harris’s previous statements in favor of banning fracking for natural gas, a key industry in the swing state.

Republicans “just make stuff up and if they say it often enough, they think people will believe it,” said Rep. Dan Kildee, a Democrat from Flint who is stepping down at the end of this year. “And unfortunately people who are susceptible to that often do fall for it.”

Democrats like Kildee bristle at the charges of an EV “mandate,” saying that the Biden administration’s efforts to make cars cleaner would not amount to a phase-out of gas-powered cars — though they would require dramatic improvements to vehicle efficiency over the next few decades. Charges of a mandate are “baloney,” outgoing Sen. Debbie Stabenow said after an event in Lansing, Michigan, the state capital, which touted Democrats’ clean energy industrial policies, a line reiterated by local officials.

“We’re not telling everyone you have to convert,” said Lansing Mayor Andy Schor, who nevertheless voiced strong support for electric vehicle subsidies that are set to bring a new battery factory near his city.

Despite their protestations, Biden’s tailpipe regulations do require major efficiency upgrades from the vehicle fleet, though they fall short of an outright mandate.

EPA rules published this spring require that in 2032, the overall U.S. car fleet will emit roughly half the carbon emissions of vehicles sold today. The EPA estimates that to meet that standard, more than two-thirds of new cars sold by that time will be electric — over eight times their market share today — though automakers could also comply with lower EV sales if they squeeze more efficiency out of their gas-powered vehicles. While not a purchase mandate itself, to some Michigan voters, the rule amounts to Big Brother telling them what they can drive.

“Nobody wants EVs,” Heidi Baldwin, a self-employed house cleaner, said on the sidelines of the concert in St. Clair Shores. “We want freedom to drive what we want.”

Baldwin, who said she plans to vote for Trump, added that she has clients who work at a local EV plant, but “they aren’t working” right now, due to weak demand for electric vehicles. It’s a concern that the Trump campaign brings up in its new ad, warning of massive auto layoffs, as well as an ad from the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

The attacks point to another issue Democrats are dealing with in the state — road bumps for their green industrial policy, embodied in the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.

Michigan has more industrial projects under construction due to those laws than any other state, according to a report from the nonprofit Climate Power, and Slotkin has made industrial policy a centerpiece of her campaign, touting the “44 new factories” being built in her state at each campaign stop. But those investments come with risks — both financial and political — for the companies and politicians that support them.

Despite billions set aside for battery factories in Michigan, a handful of flagship factories have only produced around 200 jobs so far, a report from local outlet Michigan Bridge found this summer. Two major battery facilities being built to supply GM and Ford have been scaled back due to soft EV demand, and a third being constructed by an energy startup is delayed.

A fourth plant, being built by a subsidiary of the Chinese firm Gotion, has attracted local and national backlash for its connections to the Chinese government. Last year, voters in Green Charter Township, where the plant is being built, threw out their local government in a protest vote against the plant. But the construction is still going forward, making the plant a flashpoint in the Republican campaign against electric vehicles.

This summer, vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance visited the facility and railed against Democrats’ industrial policies, and Slotkin’s opponent, former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers has been consistently hitting her over the plant.

In response, Slotkin has moved to take a tougher line on China, telling POLITICO last month that despite her desire for more domestic EV manufacturing, she would rather the Gotion plant not be completed — a position the Rogers campaign labeled a flip-flop. The Rogers team has hammered Slotkin on EV policies regularly since then, bringing up her votes against House GOP bills this year that would have gutted the EPA tailpipe regulations.

“Slotkin voted three times, including last month, to let the EPA and liberal states ban gas cars that are made in Michigan,” said the Rogers campaign’s communications director Chris Gustafson. “Just like an EV, no one is buying her lies.”

But through the controversies, Slotkin and other Michigan Democrats are sticking to their message, betting that Michigan voters will reward them for directing money toward the automotive sector, regardless of its fuel source.

“The other side can make it as political as they want,” Sloktin said after her event in St. Clair Shores. “I’m not going to miss this next generation [of vehicles], and I want us to be the ones to build it.”