An analysis from the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) finds that the Biden-Harris electric vehicle (EV) could gut 123,000 domestic auto manufacturing jobs, and an even more radical proposal Vice President Kamala Harris has pushed would be even more devastating, especially in Rust Belt states.
The analysis, published Monday, finds the administration’s “current EV rules could wipe out 123,000 auto manufacturing jobs,” according to a release.
The administration introduced a rule in 2024 to phase out gas-powered vehicles. The rule requires the majority of new cars sold in the United States to be EVs or hybrids by 2032. As the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board noted, the rule means that “gas-powered cars can make up no more than 30% of auto sales by 2032.”
In her 2019 presidential campaign, Harris’s policy platform included a plan to phase out the sale of new gas-powered vehicles entirely by 2035.
“If Vice President Kamala Harris’s extreme plan for an outright ban on gas-powered and hybrid vehicles by as soon as 2035 is implemented, job losses could soar to more than 191,000,” AFPI adds in the release.
The analysis finds Harris’s 2019 proposal would eradicate tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs in several Midwest states if put into effect. Michigan would lose approximately 37,000 jobs, Ohio would lose 21,000, and Indiana would lose 24,000.
Michigan Republican U.S. candidate Mike Rogers, who is running against Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) for Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s (D-MI) seat, slammed the electric vehicle mandate and Harris’s proposal at a press conference on Monday.
“The consequences of what this policy is doing to autoworkers in this state…I worked in an auto plant. It helped me get the money I needed to go through college. … These factory jobs are critical to our economy and to families,” he said before citing the AFPI’s analysis.
“There was a report that just came out today that said 200,000 manufacturing auto jobs would disappear if the Biden-Harris-Slotkin agenda was put into motion,” he added.
“You start thinking about what that does to our community here. … It will ripple through our economy in a way we have never seen in our history because we are knowingly putting our foot on the necks of Michigan autoworkers,” Rogers said.
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