China Is Using Trump's Tactics Against Him to Corner the EV Market

Although Donald Trump presents himself as a fierce adversary of China, some of his policy moves appear to be a significant boon for the People's Republic.

This spring, as Trump's chaotic tariff war captured headlines, a game-changing electric vehicle provision in his "Big Beautiful Bill" lurked just below the surface. After being signed into law on July 4, it turns out that the massive piece of legislation is set to completely upend the American EV market.

That's thanks to a provision in the bill which terminates the US's long-standing $7,500 tax credits for buyers of new EVs, which tech companies like Tesla used to establish themselves as key players in the global EV market.

Analysts writing for Foreign Policy have called this a major handout to Chinese automakers, who are already leading the market as the number one global exporter of EVs. When EV tax credits do expire — which will come three months earlier than originally planned, thanks to the US Senate — the "entire [EV] supply chain could be ceded to China."

USA Today adds that US automakers are set to lose "billions of dollars" in manufacturing investments as American EV purchasing slows to a crawl without the $7,500 discount. That in turn could lead to "major job losses for Americans," and may very well give China the go-ahead to crush the United States in the EV trade once and for all.

Though the fall-out is still months away, Chinese lawmakers aren't waiting to set up the killing blow. Instead, they're taking a page out of Trump's tariff playbook by moving to heavily restrict US access to electric vehicle batteries through the market.

As the Wall Street Journal reported, China recently added components and technology related to EV battery production to its list of export restrictions. Basically, this means that authorities in Beijing will have to approve the export of any EV battery tech leaving China. For the rest of the world, this could mean supply chain slowdowns, higher prices, and depending on geopolitical attitudes, the halt of exports altogether.

"By managing emerging technologies across the entire EV industry, China, already a leader, can further strengthen its competitive position against other nations," Tang Jin, a senior research at Mizuho Bank, told the WSJ.

China already has a firm grasp on the world's EV market, with a commanding lead on crucial links in the supply chain, like lithium mining and battery cell production. When it comes to electric vehicles, Beijing is certainly playing with a stacked deck.

Trump, on the other hand, may not care to keep American auto factories open — a bizarre choice, given his insistence on "reindustrializing" the country — but those involved in the country's $120 billion EV market sure do.

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