Trump’s EV Rollback Could Cost Taxpayers $1 Billion

Last week, the Trump administration ordered all electric vehicle chargers at federal buildings to be shut down and all federal government EVs to be sold. It’s a reversal of Biden-era policies that spent $300 million installing those EV chargers and buying those cars. But rather than saving the $300 million, the new policy reversal could reportedly cost United States taxpayers an additional $1 billion.

According to Politico’s E&E, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)—the agency in charge of government real estate, buildings, products, and equipment—is being forced to remove 654 EV charging stations, which totals 2,226 charging ports, and sell more than 25,000 government EVs. A GSA employee, who chose not to be named because they aren’t allowed to speak with the media, told E&E that decommissioning those chargers could cost around $50-$100 million. Furthermore, selling 25,000 EVs would flood the market, resulting in massive depreciation, and the GSA would be forced to sell them at around 25% of their original value, resulting in an additional $225 million loss.

But the added costs don’t stop there. Since 25,000 working vehicles will be missing from the government’s fleet, they’ll have to be replaced. That’s reported to cost another $700 million. If you total all of those costs—the $700 million in new cars, the $225 depreciation hit, and the $100 million from decommissioning EV chargers—you’re looking at $1.025 billion. And that’s excluding the $300 million already sunk on the charging stations, money that’s now being lit on fire since they’re in the trash.

Most of these chargers are at federal buildings, like FBI headquarters and military bases, where they’re mostly used by government employees. However, many are available to visitors at other buildings, like federal libraries and museums. So it isn’t just government EVs that are being affected but also everyday Americans who’d like to charge their own electric cars while visiting government facilities. So, not only is this costing taxpayers additional money, but it’s also making the lives of EV owners just a little bit harder.

What’s more, this move is said to cost even more in the long run. As pointed out by InsideEVs, investment consulting firm ICF claims that the federal EV fleet was going to cost $6 billion less than a conventional combustion fleet over the lives of the vehicles. While the initial purchase cost of the EVs was higher and required the additional cost of installing chargers, they would have cost less in fuel and maintenance.

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