DETROIT (WXYZ) — With former President Donald Trump returning to the White House, changes could be coming to the U.S. auto industry.
Throughout his campaign, especially during his stops in Michigan, Trump has criticized the push for electric vehicles, called for more tariffs on foreign vehicles and promised to bring more manufacturing jobs back to Michigan.
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Inside metro Detroit’s auto plants, union voters have been divided.
United Auto Workers member Jasmine Martin was at work at the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne as the race was called for Trump in the early morning hours on Wednesday.
"I'm a little demoralized,” Martin said of the result. "It wasn't quite hostile, but some people were very mixed... For so many autoworkers and union members overall to support him? It's shocking, very shocking.”
Martin says in the last year, support for Trump inside her plant has grown to become the majority.
Twenty-six-year-old Brendan Fluker is a UAW member who works at the same plant with Martin but voted for Trump.
“It's really good for us that Trump is coming in and he can enact tariffs and can help keep our jobs here," Fluker said. "People are really worried about job security.”
Fluker says the economy is the no. 1 reason Trump got their support, along with his pledge to cut EV mandates.
"Ending the EV mandates will have the biggest effect on us... That will make it so we have more jobs, more shifts,” Fluker said. “I really do think there is a future for electric vehicles; it's just the government mandating electric vehicles by 2035? That's not going to work.”
When in Michigan, Trump constantly courted autoworkers with his pledge to shift away from policies geared toward EVs.
I spoke to two industry experts who say an EV policy shift adds a lot of uncertainty for the Big 3, which have already invested billions into the transition.
"I think what the auto industry wants more than anything is clarity and consistency and continuity,” automotive analyst David Zoia said. "To go back and forth between policies that say you know, you must invest in electric vehicles, and then to dial it back, that’s the problem.”
"It certainly adds more uncertainty to the mix and different strategies are going to be explored, they have to,” said Mike Wall, auto analyst with S&P Global Mobility. "Rest assured, all the automakers have got on their white boards different scenarios they’re going to be adjusting for.”
Zoia adds that China has been producing good electric vehicles, and worries a shift away from U.S. investment in EVs could put the Big 3 behind.
"The auto industry is a global industry,” Zoia said. "If you dial that effort back here, you are in some ways hampering the auto companies' ability to compete on a global basis.”
Trump has also pledged stronger tariffs against vehicles made outside the U.S., which is another variable auto companies will have to prepare for.
“It does feel like we’re going to see more tariff risk than less and for automakers and suppliers, that forces them to go back to their playbooks," Wall said.
“As a Band-Aid in the short term, if the industry takes advantage of it (tarrifs), it could be helpful," Zoia said. "If it's a long-term strategy, then I think it might hurt the industry.”
As for what Martin thinks will happen to the auto industry in the next four years?
"With Trump winning, I think it's going to boom,” Martin said. "I think we're going to go backward from EVs which is fine but at the same time, our environment is going to take a hit.”
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While Martin feels Trump could help her industry, she has many other concerns about his presidency. However, she hopes her union and the country can come together.
"Harris and Biden were the reasons we got such a lovely (UAW) contract. Trump has said multiple times we got too much money already,” Martin said. "I just feel like the country is going backward. We're going 60 years backward.”
“We just want Trump to live up to his message to actually get rid of the EV mandates, to do the tariffs," Fluker said. "We really need those things in the auto industry in Michigan.”
