U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to remove subsidies given to GM, including its “electric car subsidies” because they announced that they are shutting down factories in the US.
Earlier this week, GM announced that they are closing 3 assembly factories and 2 propulsion plants in North America.
It is going to result in over 10,000 layoffs in the US.
Trump wasn’t having it and he tweeted his disappointment with GM and CEO Mary Barra today.
He followed up with an actual threat of “cutting all subsidies” given to GM including “for electric cars”.
Here are the tweets:
….for electric cars. General Motors made a big China bet years ago when they built plants there (and in Mexico) – don’t think that bet is going to pay off. I am here to protect America’s Workers!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2018
It’s unclear how Trump could intervene to “cut” the “electric car subsidies”.
He is presumably referring to the federal tax credit for electric vehicles, but those credits are given to buyers of electric vehicles and not manufacturers themselves.
Trump is not the only politician criticizing GM’s restructuring in the US after having taken advantage of subsidies.
Bernie Sanders also commented yesterday:
GM responded by claiming that they have a “strong” commitment to U.S. manufacturing:
GM is committed to maintaining a strong manufacturing presence in the U.S., as evidenced by our more than $22 billion investments in U.S. operations since 2009. Yesterday’s announcements support our ability to invest for future growth and position the company for long-term success and maintain and grow American jobs. Many of the U.S. workers impacted by these actions will have the opportunity to shift to other GM plants where we will need more employees to support growth in trucks, crossovers and SUVs. GM’s transformation also includes adding technical and engineering jobs to support the future of mobility, such as new jobs in electrification and autonomous vehicles.
Electrek’s Take
Hey Donald, forget about the electric car subsidies. The one given to GM buyers is set to phase out anyway.
If you want to really stick it to GM, you should ask the EPA to increase the fuel consumption standards. GM was lobbying to have them reduced and that would really show them that you are serious.
In all seriousness, I doubt anything will come out of this. He probably already forget about it.
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