U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm emphasised on the significance of quadrupling import duties on Chinese electric vehicles to over 100 per cent in August as planned, stating that it is crucial for the health of the U.S. auto sector. “We need to have this industry here. And if we didn’t do that, we would just be ceding the entire territory to China like we saw happen with solar panels,” Granholm said in an interview with Reuters reporters and editors.
Granholm acknowledged China’s “very aggressive” industrial policy and highlighted the U.S. government’s efforts to counter it. “We had done nothing, and now we are doing something about it,” she said.
The U.S. is investing hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy tax subsidies to develop domestic EV, solar, and other new industries. The administration aims to protect American jobs from a potential influx of cheap Chinese imports with the tariffs set to take effect on August 1.
“We want to have a manufacturing backbone. We have to be tough about it,” Granholm stated. She rejected the suggestion that keeping lower-priced Chinese EVs out of the U.S. would deter American automakers from reducing prices, asserting that “U.S. automakers are doing everything they can to continue to reduce prices.”
Addressing Republican criticism of EVs, Granholm said it would be “political malpractice” for a future Congress to reverse EV tax credits that benefit workers building vehicles in Republican-voting states. “I think it would be hard for a member of Congress to undo these tax credits that are creating jobs in your district,” she said, adding that the business community would strongly oppose such a move. Granholm emphasized that any president would support “fighting back against the industrial policies of China – and this is what our fighting back is, what our counterpunch is.”
Granholm also provided an update on the USD 7.5 billion federal government program for public EV charging stations, stating that she expected about 1,000 stations to be operational by the end of the year. She acknowledged the challenges, saying, “These are the hardest ones to do,” and mentioning that some locations do not have electricity.