After eliminating the electric vehicle tax credit, lowering fuel economy standards and blocking California’s stricter vehicle emissions standards, the Trump administration is now citing slowing growth in electric vehicles as the basis for relaxing air pollution standards for cars.
In a proposed rulemaking released Friday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to postpone adoption of the Biden administration-era Phase 4 air pollution standards for cars and trucks and reconsider them in the future.
The agency said the proposed changes were in response to “the overwhelming negative reaction to electric vehicles (EVs) by the American public and manufacturers’ shift away from electric vehicles.” This comes amid debate over environmental regulations and the influence of industry interests in the Trump administration.
The Stage 4 pollutant standards, established in April 2024, are the latest vehicle emission standards adopted under the Clean Air Act. The standard required manufacturers to meet vehicle average limits for emissions of smog-producing volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter from the exhaust pipe, and was scheduled to be phased in starting in 2027.
When the standard was first adopted in 2024, electric vehicles accounted for 8% of new light duty vehicles (cars, vans, and trucks weighing less than 8,500 pounds) sold in the United States.
The growth of EVs was predicted to continue. However, as soon as President Donald Trump took office for a second term in January 2025, he initiated a series of deregulatory measures that inhibited the growth of the EV market.
On his first day in office, President Trump moved to rescind California’s special exemption that prohibits states from enacting stricter air and climate pollution regulations than the federal government. In June, he signed three Congressional Review Act resolutions that formally block the state’s tougher vehicle emissions standards.
Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, President Trump has set an expiration date of September 2025 for federal tax credits for new and used EV sales. After those credits expired, EV sales plummeted, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Automakers are also poised to gain more freedom following the overturning of the EPA’s endangered status finding, a 2009 rule that was the basis for federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.
Despite the Trump administration’s deregulatory actions in the auto sector and deliberate efforts to slow the growth of EVs, the EPA determined that the Biden administration’s “incorrect assumptions” about the industry were responsible for the Tier 4 rule changes.
“In the past few years, since the Biden-Harris Administration set the 2024 Phase 4 emissions standards, assumptions about EV trajectories have not materialized,” the agency said in a press release Friday. “This prevents manufacturers from achieving Tier 4 standards and increases vehicle costs as they try to comply.”
Although the agency noted the federal government’s role in shaping the EV market and cited the use of the Congressional Review Act to repeal the “EV mandate,” the rationale for the rule change appears to be based primarily on consumer apathy.
“The American people have made it clear that they do not want EV mandates,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a press release.
In a follow-up statement to Inside Climate News, the agency cited several examples of major auto companies discontinuing EV lines months before the administration’s regulatory decisions.
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“We know it’s a tough pill for the left to swallow, but Americans didn’t like having EVs thrust upon them,” a spokesperson for the agency’s press office wrote. “There’s no other way to say it. Americans made this clear by leaving EVs unsold in parking lots, and the Trump administration listened to the American people.”
The proposed rule change has the League of Environmental Voters questioning whether the EPA can define its actions as pro-consumer, especially as Americans face higher prices amid the conflict between Iran and the United States in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical crossroads for global oil shipping.
“With gas prices exceeding $4.50 a gallon, the Trump administration’s decision to eliminate tailpipe standards meant to reduce gasoline use in motor vehicles will further drive up costs for our families and make us sicker,” Matthew Davis, a former EPA scientist and the league’s vice president for federal policy, said in a statement released Monday.
The International Clean Transportation Council, an independent nonprofit research organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., links the decline in U.S. EV sales to policy decisions.
In a press release on Friday, the council noted that in 2025, the electric vehicle sector had grown in all major markets except the United States, where “one in four cars sold globally last year was electric, a historic milestone. …Meanwhile, weaker U.S. policy has left the market largely stagnant,” the council reported.
The U.S. share of global EV production will fall from 7% in 2024 to 5% in 2025 as automakers slow production and curb investment, a decision likely to impact the “long-term competitive advantage” of these companies, the researchers wrote.
However, the entire auto industry has welcomed the proposed rule changes.
“This is a wise and necessary step by Secretary Zeldin and the EPA toward Tier 4 emissions standards, and it makes a lot of sense given current market conditions,” John Bozella, president and CEO of the Automotive Innovation Coalition, said in a statement to Inside Climate News. The Alliance is a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying and trade association whose members include automobile and light truck vendors operating in the United States.
“Emissions standards finalized under the previous administration will not only remain unattainable without a significant increase in electric vehicle sales, but will also increase the price of gasoline-powered vehicles,” Bozzella said.
EPA said the move to delay the compliance phase-in date is part of a “comprehensive review of the Tier 4 standards.” In Part 2, the agency will reconsider the entire Tier 4 program, with potential changes to standards, implementation dates, testing procedures, and phase-in schedules.
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Annika Jane Beemer
iowa state reporter
Annika Jane Beamer covers Iowa’s environment and climate change, with a particular focus on water, soil and CAFOs. A lifelong Midwesterner, she writes about ecological change from one of the continent’s most altered landscapes. She holds a master’s degree in science writing from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in biology and Spanish from Grinnell College. She is a former Outrider Fellow at Inside Climate News and was named a Taylor Blakeslee Graduate Fellow by the Council for the Advancement of Scientific Writing.
