(CBS DETROIT) - Big changes could be coming to the automotive industry after President Donald Trump announced a new executive order that targets several Biden-era policies.
The announcement was made during Trump's inauguration speech on Monday. Among the president's executive orders were declaring a national emergency related to energy costs for American consumers and ending electric vehicle mandates.
Jan Griffiths, president and founder of Gravitas Detroit, says the development of electric vehicles could slow down and believes that changes could have an immediate impact on the Detroit automakers.
"Trump revoked Biden's 2021 executive order that said a target, not a mandate, a target for 50% of new vehicle sales to be electric but by 2030," Griffiths said. "Trump has suspended the distribution of unspent funds allocated for EV charging stations. Originally, there was $7.5 billion associated with this. He's now halted the disbursement of those funds. With the EV charging stations, halting the funding on EV charging stations will slow down the growth of the infrastructure that we need for EV adoption."
Another executive order Trump is expected to sign will do away with EV tax credits.
"Trump has also indicated that he's targeting removing the $7,500 tax credit for consumers who choose to buy an EV under the idea that it will give consumers more choice. Well, we already have a choice," Griffiths said.
Griffiths said that moving forward, automakers will now have a choice whether to focus heavily on EV production and sales, which has benefits and costs.
"It essentially gives us give us an opportunity to catch up, which could be seen as a good thing, but the Chinese are advancing so fast the issue is how do we get the auto industry to be competitive," she said.