Any significant reduction or a rollback of the Inflation Reduction Act’s support for electric vehicles would benefit China, according to General Motors board member Jon McNeill.
“I think we risk losing the auto manufacturing share to China. We really do, globally,” McNeill, a former Tesla president and cofounder and CEO of DVx Ventures, said Wednesday.
The IRA of 2022 includes incentives for consumers to purchase EVs as well as significant support for carmakers and suppliers to produce all-electric vehicles and their components in North America rather than overseas.
McNeill, in an email said the IRA is providing enticements to both the manufacturers and consumers “to level the playing field” against Chinese car companies.
The expansion of Chinese automakers has been a growing concern for companies from Detroit to Germany. Global automakers are worried that BYD and other Chinese rivals could flood their markets, undercutting domestic production and vehicle prices.
The IRA is also a potential issue in the upcoming November presidential election. There have been recent media reports that if former President Donald Trump is elected to a second term, he would gut many of the Biden administration’s clean energy and climate initiatives such as the $430 billion IRA.