According to a document seen by Reuters, the recommendations, which have not been previously reported, come as the U.S. electric-vehicle transition stalls and China’s heavily subsidized EV industry continues to surge, in part because of its superior battery supply chain. On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to ease regulations on fossil-fuel cars and roll back what he called President Joe Biden’s EV mandate.

The transition team also recommends imposing tariffs on all battery materials globally, a bid to boost U.S. production, and then negotiating individual exemptions with allies, the document shows.

Taken together, the recommendations are a stark departure from Biden administration policy, which sought to balance encouraging a domestic battery supply chain, separate from China, with a rapid EV transition.

The proposals came from a Trump transition team charged with crafting a strategy for swift implementation of new automotive policies. The team also calls for eliminating the Biden administration’s $7,500 tax credit for consumer EV purchases, a plan that Reuters first reported last month. The policies could strike a blow to U.S. EV sales and production at a time when many legacy automakers, including General Motors and Hyundai have introduced a wider array of electric offerings to the U.S. market.

Cutting government EV support could also hurt sales of Elon Musk s Tesla, the dominant U.S. EV seller. But Musk, who spent more than a quarter-billion dollars helping to elect Trump, has said that losing subsidies would hurt rivals more than Tesla.

The Defense Department in recent years has highlighted U.S. strategic vulnerabilities because of China s dominance of the mining and refining of critical minerals, including graphite and lithium needed for batteries, and rare-earth metals used in both EV motors and military aircraft.

A 2021 government report said the U.S. military faces “escalating power requirements” for weapons and communication equipment, among other technologies. “Assured sources of critical minerals and materials” are “critical to U.S. national security,” the report found.

Trump transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said voters gave Trump a mandate to deliver on campaign promises, including stopping government attacks on gas-powered cars.

"When he takes office, President Trump will support the auto industry, allowing space for both gas-powered cars and electric vehicles," Leavitt said in a statement.

ALLOWING MORE TAILPIPE POLLUTION

Automakers globally have been shifting toward electric vehicles in part to comply with stricter government limits on climate-damaging tailpipe pollution.

But the transition team recommendations would allow automakers to produce more gas-powered vehicles by rolling back emissions and fuel-economy standards championed by the Biden administration. The transition team proposes shifting those regulations back to 2019 levels, which would allow an average of about 25% more emissions per vehicle mile than the current 2025 limits and average fuel economy to be about 15% lower.

The proposal also recommends blocking California from setting its own, stricter vehicle-emissions standards, which more than a dozen other states have adopted. Trump barred California from setting tougher requirements during his first term, a policy that Biden reversed.

Many of the transition-team proposals appear aimed at encouraging domestic battery production, primarily for defense-related interests. Others appear aimed at protecting automakers, even those producing EVs, in the United States.

The proposals include:

– Instituting tariffs on “EV supply chain” imports including batteries, critical minerals and charging components. The proposal viewed by Reuters said the administration should use Section 232 tariffs, which target national security threats, to limit imports of such products.

– Waiving environmental reviews to speed up “federally funded EV infrastructure projects,” including battery recycling and production, charging stations and critical mineral manufacturing.

– Expanding export restrictions on EV battery technology to adversarial nations.

– Providing support for exports of U.S.-made EV batteries through the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

– Eliminating requirements that federal agencies purchase EVs. A Biden policy requires all federal acquisitions of cars and smaller trucks to be zero-emission vehicles by the end of 2027.

– Ending DOD programs aimed at purchasing or developing electric military vehicles.