Named as former President Donald Trump’s running mate this week, millennial Ohioan J.D. Vance rose to relative stardom during the pandemic. In 2020, his 2016 best-selling book Hillbilly Elegy was adapted into a film and released on Netflix. Both covered Vance’s rise from Appalachian poverty to Yale Law School. Not long after, Vance was elected to the U.S. Senate. Some say it was because of his inspiring story. Others insist it's because he went from Trump critic to Trump supporter, but kept a pro-worker, pro-middle class emphasis. For example, he supported the United Auto Workers’ strike last year and shared their desire for higher wages and better contracts, but he also said that he would have rejected the 2020 election results.
Yet, no matter how inspired you may (or may not) be by Vance’s story, his policy positions are unfriendly to electric vehicles, and he remains dismissive about the effects of climate change. If Senator Vance becomes Vice President Vance—or perhaps more than that as he emerges as the successor to 78-year-old Trump, who is limited to only one more term if he wins in November—the effects on the EV transition would be devastating for all parties involved. Get Fully Charged
J.D Vance's Proposed Drive American Act Would Disincentivize EVs
Introduced in 2023, this bill drafted by Ohio Senator J.D. Vance is meant to boost the production of vehicles and increase American car manufacturing by taking the $7,500 tax credit from EVs, and giving it to gas and diesel-powered vehicles.
Vance’s EV antagonism came into the limelight during 2023’s well-publicized UAW strike. The senator took to X (nee Twitter) to show support for the striking workers, many of whom were Ohioans employed at the nearly dozen manufacturing plants run by Stellantis, General Motors and Ford. Considering Ohio’s historic source of labor for American automakers, this could be seen as a nonpartisan show of support for Ohio’s autoworkers. Yet, the tail end of the statement frames his support against “green” technology, citing Ford’s high EV manufacturing costs, claiming tax credits have failed to get drivers behind the wheel, and criticizing the auto manufacturer’s plans to make EVs entirely. (Of course, much of that isn’t based in fact; tax incentives have helped drive record EV adoption, and while Ford is dealing with high upfront costs, it is now America’s no. 2 EV brand behind Tesla.)
This wasn’t just a one-off quip on social media, either. Four days after those posts, Vance penned an op-ed for the Toledo Blade where he claimed that an EV future would be a surefire way to erode American jobs and wages, and enrich China. For what it’s worth, Toledo, Ohio is where all Jeep Wranglers are produced, including the Plug-in Hybrid Wrangler 4xe model—which happens to be America’s best-selling PHEV.
Vance’s piece was a direct response to a different op-ed by the same paper, which expressed concern that the EV transition would leave UAW members behind—a significant claim when some EV manufacturers seeking to build EVs in right-to-work, anti-union states or in Mexico. The Chevrolet Blazer EV and Equinox EV are made in non-union Ramos Arzipe, Mexico. Likewise, GM’s new Ultium battery production plant in Lordstown, Ohio, located down the road from its old factory that once produced Chevy Cobalts and Cruzes with union labor, was not initially a UAW plant. It only later joined the UAW after striking, with the contract ratified in early 2024. Officially at least, UAW President Shawn Fain has said that the union isn’t anti-EV; it just wants to build those cars and their components here, with American labor. The same goes for gas cars and hybrids too.
Vance clearly doesn’t see it that way. Here’s a snippet from his Op-Ed published back in September, critiquing another op-ed that advocated for the UAW to be strong in ensuring that American automaker’s EV plans include UAW workers: “Instead of leveraging this moment to steer the Biden Administration away from their obsession with EVs, the editors would have Toledo’s autoworkers resign themselves to a fate of lower wages and fewer job prospects. Make no mistake: that is what the future holds if Joe Biden’s EV folly is allowed to continue,” he wrote.
