A Letter to President Trump

President Trump,

Congratulations on your election victory!

We represent more than 5,000 auto dealers from across the country who collectively sell every major brand in the U.S. We are small businesses employing hundreds of thousands of Americans. We are deeply committed to the customers we serve and the communities where we operate.

For two years, we have raised the alarm that customers were not willing to buy electric vehicles at the scale the government is trying to mandate. With your election, we are hoping the voice of our customers will finally be heard.

We talk to customers every day. Some want to buy an electric vehicle. These buyers tend to be wealthier and often want an EV as a second vehicle. And some customers just like the technology.  We are more than happy to sell EVs to any customer who wants to buy them.

But these buyers are the exception. Despite massive subsidies from the government and unprecedented incentives from manufacturers, across the U.S. less than 1 in 10 customers buy an electric vehicle today.  

Customers have different reasons for not wanting to buy an electric vehicle. For many, EVs are too expensive. For others, they don’t have access to charging, or the extra time to wait for the vehicle to charge. We hear their concerns about losing range in the cold, or extreme heat, or when towing. They worry about getting stranded in an emergency. And many just don’t want the government to dictate what vehicle they can buy with their hard-earned money.

During the campaign, you consistently called for an end to the government electric vehicle mandate. Now that Americans voted overwhelmingly for you, we ask that you move quickly because the threat is closer than most people realize.

The de facto electric vehicle mandate enacted by the EPA begins in 2027. We hope you will stop it. But much worse, this time next year, more than one-third of Americans will have their choice of vehicle taken away by 14 bureaucrats in California.

As you know, the California Air Resource Board (CARB) has adopted a regulation that mandates one in three vehicles sold this time next year be battery electric. The mandate climbs every year after, until 2035, when they would ban the sale of any vehicle that is not an EV.

They are not just dictating to California residents - that would be bad enough. But 11 other states have adopted this regulation. The governors of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Maryland, Vermont, Delaware, Rhode Island, Oregon, Colorado, and Washington have given these bureaucrats the power to decide what kind of vehicle residents of their states can buy. Collectively, these states represent 40% of the market for automobiles.

Simply put, CARB’s mandate is unrealistic. A group of bureaucrats in California are attempting to dictate what kind of cars and trucks Americans can buy – taking away their freedom of choice while also creating an affordability crisis for customers that prefer gas or hybrid vehicles.

On behalf of our customers, we wholeheartedly support your promise to give back to the American people the choice of what car they can buy.  We ask that in addition to addressing the EPA’s de facto battery electric vehicle mandate, you also take away the power of 14 bureaucrats in California to dictate to American consumers that in less than a decade, the only car or truck they can buy will be a battery electric vehicle.

Let the consumer decide and a free market reign. Let the automobile manufacturers and dealers compete on the quality of their product and service to customers – as opposed to selling based on artificial mandates. This will lead to more choices and more affordable options. This is healthy for the auto industry, creating more investments and more jobs.

Thank you for your consideration on this critical matter. We look forward to working with you to keep the American auto industry the greatest in the world!