Is Trump About To Reignite His Big EV Push?

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There are so many ironies with the Trump presidency. I remember writing about many of them in his first term. Now, though, we have some additional ones. For example, despite his apparent hate for clean technologies (wind power, solar power, electric vehicles, energy efficient appliances), Trump has pushed a ton of people to buy electric vehicles, including people who really wouldn’t consider doing so even with normal EV incentives in place.

Of course, we all know what this is about. This was a key reason for the absolutely massive blue tsunami that took over the country this week. Trump’s war on Iran, which many Americans can’t explain in the slightest, drove gasoline prices up enormously and pushed people to go to the polls and vote Republican.

Trump and his team also knew this. They knew that the war on Iran was raising gas prices and that high gas prices are one of the worst things you can have when running for office. So, even though Trump didn’t leave himself any easy and simple way to get out of the war on Iran, he quieted down or paused his most significant actions against the country for the midterm elections and gas prices are not as high as they were a few months ago. They are just above $4/gallon on average, whereas the rose above $4.50/gallon earlier this year. Just in the week leading into election day, the national gas price average dropped by 12 cents a gallon. Of course, it was too little too late, and Republican politicians’ lack of concern for families and their high gas costs didn’t fare well in the election. This was probably the leading single factor for the swing to the left.

Now that the election is over and the war is not close to any resolution as far as we can tell, Trump may be inclined to heat it up again. If he has been holding back, he may go full force again into trying to force Iran to give in, and this could lead to a bigger closure of the Strait of Hormuz … which would likely lead to spiking gas prices again. Naturally, even at $4/gallon, Trump is making a lot of Americans (and humans more broadly) think about buying electric vehicles, and some of them are going to go ahead and making the switch. What if Trump goes further, as many now expect he will, and oil supply is disrupted much worse and oil prices spike again? He could become one of the greatest EV salesmen in history. We’ll see what happens….