When Congress approved the Inflation Reduction Law in 2022, it was the largest climate law in the history of the United States, with important incentives for the production and adoption of electric vehicles (VE). As a result, investment in the US electric vehicle industry accelerated. But in 2025, the so -called the great and beautiful law of President Donald Trump eliminated most of the incentives, and US investment collapsed.
Starting electric vehicles will clearly mean less progress in reducing transport emissions and lower strategic leadership in the United States in a key technology of the future. However, in a new study, my colleagues from the Carnegie Mellon University and I discovered that a lower amount of electric vehicles will also mean a lower investment to clean up the electricity sector.
How we get to this situation
The adoption of electric vehicles in the United States is relying from the rest of the world, especially from China, which invested significantly and strategically to dominate the markets and supply chains and overcome the historical domain of US, European and Japanese manufacturers of vehicles propelled by internal combustion engines.
Electric vehicles are much simpler to design, which opened the door to a great commitment to electric vehicles with investment, incentives and experimentation. With the drastic drop in battery prices, VE became a real competition for gasoline cars, especially in the huge Chinese market, where buyers did not have a clear preference for gasoline. China now dominates the battery supply chain, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese, as well as the rare earths used in electric motors.
In 2022, EU took measures to change this trend when Congress approved the inflation reduction law. This law promoted VES’s adoption by reducing costs for manufacturers and consumers. But he also encouraged car manufacturers to find ways to make electric vehicles without Chinese materials, conditioning the greatest incentives to completely avoid the use of China.
After the approval of the law, the investment shot in hundreds of new battery manufacturing and material processing facilities in the US.
But in 2025, Congress approved and Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Law, which eliminated most of the incentives. The US investment in the production of electric vehicles has collapsed.
We recommend: manufacturers have new electric vehicles in the Munich Motor Show before the industry crisis in Europe
You see are cleaner
As an expert in technology, economy, environment and policy of electric vehicles, I carried out numerous scientific studies reviewed by pairs that characterize the benefits and costs of electric vehicles throughout their life cycle, from its production to its use and end of useful life. When charged with clean electricity, electric vehicles are one of the few existing technologies that can provide transport with almost void emissions.
With the current electricity, emissions of electric vehicles may vary according to the combination of electric generators used in the region where they are charged, driving conditions, such as climate or traffic, specific vehicles that are compared and even the time of load. However, electric vehicles are generally more respectful of the environment throughout their life cycle than most gasoline vehicles, even if more efficient gasoline and electricity hybrids remain cleaner in some places. Electric vehicles become cleaner as the electricity grid becomes cleaner and, more importantly, it turns out that electric vehicles can even contribute to the electric grid is cleaner.
This is important because transport and electricity together represent most of the greenhouse gas emissions in the US, and the cars and light trucks that we all drive produce most of our transport emissions.
In its efforts to prevent the government from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, the Trump administration now states that car and truck emissions do not contribute significantly to climate change. But in reality, a technology that cleanses both transport and electricity at the same time is crucial.
An opportunity for cleaner electricity
Our research has discovered that abandoning electric vehicles not only missing the opportunity to reduce transport emissions, but also miss the opportunity to achieve a cleaner electricity supply in the country.
In our article, my co -authors Lily Hanig, Corey Harper and Detenie Nock, together with me, we analyzed possible scenarios for the adoption of electric vehicles in the United States from now on Greenhouse for 2050.
In each of these scenarios, we calculate how the electricity and electricity generators of the country would respond to the demand for electric vehicles.
We discover that, when more electric vehicles are loaded, more electric power plants would be necessary to build. Due to cost competitiveness, most of these new plants would be solar, wind, storage in batteries and natural gas, according to the region.
Once the wind and lots are built, their operation is cheaper than that of fossil fuel plants, since electric companies do not need to buy more fuel to burn and generate more electricity. This cost advantage means that wind and solar energy is used first, so it can replace the generation of fossil fuels even when electric vehicles are not loading. A virtuous (or vicious) circle
Our analysis reveals that what benefits the weather in the transport sector – eliminating the emissions of the exhaust pipes of the vehicles – also benefits the climate in the electricity sector, promoting a greater investment in clean energy and displacing the generation of energy from fossil fuels.
Consequently, promoting the adoption of electric vehicles is even better for the climate than many expected, since the load of electric vehicles can boost the construction of electric plants with lower emissions.
Gasoline vehicles do not last forever. Cheap oil will end. And the batteries of the electric vehicles have been low, with autonomies comparable to those of gasoline cars, that the global transition is already underway. Even in the US, consumers are adopting more electric vehicles as technology improves and offers more for less. The US government cannot stop this transition on its own; You can only decide how much to advance, delay or resist. Removing the incentives for electric vehicles now means greater emissions, less investment in clean energy and a lower EU competitiveness in a crucial industry for the future.
Our findings show that slowing down the adoption of electric vehicles not only affects transport emissions. He also misses opportunities to build a cleaner energy sector, which could lead to the United States to higher emissions in its two sectors with the highest emissions – the generation of energy and transport – while shortening the window to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
*Jeremy J. Michalek He is a professor of engineering and public policies, professor of mechanical engineering, Carnegie Mellon University.
This text was originally published in The Conversation
Follow us on Google News to always keep you informed
