• President Trump has stopped charging station subsidies and wants to roll back the Biden-era plan to reach 50% EVs sold in the US by 2030.
• NPR cited an internal GSA memo saying, “All existing charging stations that are deemed not to be mission-critical should be disconnected from the network and turned off.”
• Trump’s directive could result in many federal EVs being sold off at bargain prices, costing the government up to $1 billion, according to some reports.

Despite having Elon Musk at his right hand—and personally buying a Tesla recently—President Donald Trump doesn’t much like EVs.

“They don’t go far. They cost a fortune,” he said at one rally. In Iowa he said, “Electric cars are good if you have a towing company.” And in Michigan, “You go all-electric so you can drive for 15 minutes before you have to get a charge.”

In his first term, Trump tried unsuccessfully to take away California’s ability to set stricter fuel economy/emissions standards, and now he’s working on that again.

In office for the second time, he’s stopped charging station subsidies and wants to roll back the Biden-era plan to reach 50% EVs sold in the US by 2030.

But is he actually going much further and disconnecting existing federal chargers and selling off the government’s EV fleet? Maybe, but it depends on your interpretation of cryptic government directives.

Wasting no time, on January 20, Trump issued an executive order titled “Unleashing American Energy” that vowed to eliminate the “electric vehicle (EV) mandate” and promote true consumer choice, which is essential for economic growth and innovation, “by removing regulatory barriers to motor vehicle access.”

This was followed by a sweeping General Services Administration (GSA) order issued shortly after Trump took office. The GSA manages 650,000 vehicles, about two-thirds of the federal fleet.

The Denver Federal Center houses the US Geological Survey, where 22 EV charging stations there were being shut down, according to media reports.

The GSA directive implementing Trump’s executive order said the “policy allows GSA to support customer agency mission-critical vehicle charging using existing equipment at federally owned facilities under GSA’s jurisdiction, custody, and control and to discontinue the use of non-mission critical EVSE [chargers].”