US President Donald Trump wants to get rid of electric cars in the US public sector. It is estimated to cost taxpayers 7 billion kroner.
Right now, the US government stands to lose one and a half billion kroner on selling off the electric cars that the state has already purchased.
But according to Politico , taxpayers are in for an even bigger bill. The US government owns 25,000 electric cars.
And if you count the several thousand charging stations that Trump has ordered to be dismantled, the bill becomes even bigger.
Anonymous US government sources, whom Politico has spoken to, estimate that simply removing the charging stations and getting the infrastructure out of the way will cost another $100 million.
As for the electric cars, the anonymous sources believe that the 25,000 units will overwhelm the market so much that the government will have to accept a loss in value of at least 25 percent just to be able to get rid of the cars.
Trump could lose even more billions on government electric cars
That's a loss of another 225 million dollars, equivalent to one and a half billion Danish kroner, if you ask the anonymous sources. Sources who are also anonymous because they have been banned from speaking to the media.
In addition to the loss in value, the government will have to spend money on replacements for the 25,000 electric cars that Trump no longer wants in the fleet.
Politico's sources estimate that this will cost the US government around $700 million. Money that can only be found in one place – namely in the pockets of taxpayers.
According to the sources, this includes the $300 million that the former Biden administration spent on purchasing electric cars and on getting the infrastructure up and running at government buildings and other public offices.
According to a calculation from the consulting firm ICF, which InsideEVs refers to, an additional six billion dollars can and should be added to the final bill.
The six billion dollars, which corresponds to 41 billion kroner, is what the United States stood to save in expenses by keeping the 25,000 electric cars that now have to go.
Some of the bill could also be passed on to people other than the American taxpayer. The president in the White House has already imposed a 25 percent tariff on cars from Canada and Mexico, and more could be on the way.
At the same time, Trump is threatening to hit European car brands that do not move production of their American sales to the United States with at least the same amount of tariffs. Read more about it here .
