In electric vehicle hotspot, SC’s McMaster defends market for cars that Trump questioned

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, whose state has become a magnet for electric vehicle manufacturing, said Wednesday there is a strong market for electric vehicles, even though a Republican crowd Saturday booed when former President Donald Trump asked if they liked “the idea of all-electric” vehicles.

In his speech Saturday at the South Carolina Republican Party Silver Elephant Gala, Trump criticized federal pushes toward electric vehicles.

“The gas is going up, everybody. The cars are going to have to get smaller, and then they’re forcing you into all-electric,” Trump said to the crowd of some 1,400 people. “Does everybody like the idea of all-electric and you can drive for one hour?”

The crowd in unison shouted, “No!”

“Mandates from the federal government typically are not good, because one size does not fit all. So I, too, am opposed to mandates,” McMaster said in reaction Wednesday. “But we realize, and I think the former president realizes as well, that there’s a huge market out there for electric vehicles.”

The Department of Defense has mandated all military branches to convert all of their non-combat vehicle fleets from gas powered to electric by 2035.

President Joe Biden is pushing a plan to require all federal agencies to transition their fleets to all-electric by only buying light-duty zero-emission vehicles by 2027 and buying only medium- and heavy-duty zero emission vehicles by by 2035.

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed emission standards it says would lead to electric vehicles accounting for 67% of light-duty vehicles sales and 46% of medium duty sales by 2032.

The federal Inflation Reduction Act, passed last year, included a tax credit of up to $7,500 for people who purchase electric vehicles assembled in North America.

With the automotive industry moving toward electric vehicles, South Carolina is trying to encourage manufacturers to set up shop in the state — and it’s working.

McMaster, a Trump supporter, has touted recent large electric vehicle-related economic announcements, including BMW’s plan to build only electric cars in its Upstate facility, Redwood’s $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery recycling plant in Berkeley, and Scout Motors’ plan to build a $2 billion electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Blythewood.

South Carolina awarded hundreds of millions of dollars worth of incentives to help those projects take place in the state. Those incentives have to be given because South Carolina is competing with other states.

“Incentives must be reasonable for things that (the) government, through its representatives, would like to start like to encourage, but to prop (businesses) up, hold them up, artificially is not the answer,” McMaster said. “That’s not what we do in this state when a business or an industry wants to come in and spend a billion or $2 billion.”

McMaster pointed to the “one-stop shop” electric vehicle manufacturers have in South Carolina to help them navigate available resources.

“But that’s letting the market work, and I think there is a market,” McMaster said. “Many of us believe there is a market for electric vehicles. Is it total electric vehicles? I don’t know. Is it hybrids? We don’t know what it is, but we know there is a market, and we want to have as many resources necessary for that in this country.”