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UAW warns of hit across US from repealing EV investments

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Vance noncommittal on $500 mln investment in GM EV plant

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Harris says will not mandate EVs, wants choice for

consumers

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By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON, Oct 10 (Reuters) - United Auto Workers

President Shawn Fain on Thursday said hundreds of thousands of

U.S. jobs were at stake if Republican former President Donald

Trump won the Nov. 5 election and made good on his threat to

repeal investments in electric vehicles.

Democrats have seized on Trump's running mate, U.S. Senator

JD Vance of Ohio, declining to commit to maintaining a $500

million investment to help GM convert an existing

Cadillac plant into an electric vehicle facility.

Fain, who has endorsed the Democratic nominee in the race,

Vice President Kamala Harris, said removing the funds would put

at risk some 650 jobs in Lansing, Michigan, and have a greater

impact across the United States.

"It's a lot bigger than just the Lansing Grand River

investment. It's factories all over the United States, and it's

supply chain factories all over the United States that are being

put in place now. So you're talking hundreds of thousands of

jobs that Donald Trump is just writing off," Fain told reporters

ahead of Trump's visit to Detroit later on Thursday.

Vance had drawn fire from the UAW last week for giving

noncommittal answers on questions about the money allocated to

GM for the electric vehicle plant.

Asked about it again on Tuesday, Vance said neither he nor

Trump had ever said they would take "any money that's going to

Michigan auto workers out of the state of Michigan" and said the

Biden administration's push for EV investments threatened some

117,000 autoworker jobs.

"What we've said is that Kamala Harris is offering table

scraps - $500 million - when you have an EV mandate that's going

to cost 117,000 auto worker jobs," Vance said, adding that EVs

were selling slower than gas-powered cars.

Harris told a rally in Michigan last week she had no plans

to institute an all-EV mandate, but wanted consumers to have a

choice and companies to be able to compete with China.

Some autoworkers worry that switching to EVs could

reduce the number of jobs in the auto industry, a claim Harris

and her advisers reject, saying EV parts will also be made in

the U.S.

Fain underscored the UAW's endorsement of Harris, saying the

Biden administration had imposed a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs to

ensure U.S. automakers had space to expand in that sector.

He rejected the idea that a large number of autoworkers

supported Trump, saying internal polls showed that 65% of union

members had consistently voted for Democratic candidates.

"It's a very clear picture for us on who stands with working

class people," he said, adding that Harris had joined a picket

line in 2019 when GM workers were on strike and Trump was in

office but remained silent on the labor action.

Trump told Reuters in August that if elected he would

consider ending a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle

purchases included in the Biden administration's Inflation

Reduction Act, saying tax credits and incentives were "not

generally a very good thing."

If elected, Trump could take steps to reverse Treasury

Department rules that have made it easier for automakers to take

advantage of the $7,500 credit or could ask the U.S. Congress to

repeal it entirely.

While president, Trump sought to repeal the EV tax credit

which was later expanded by President Joe Biden in 2022.