During his brief tenure as a Senator for the state of Ohio, Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance introduced the Drive American Act, which was intended to eliminate over $100 billion in existing electric vehicle (EV) subsidies and replace them with the America First Vehicle Credit to promote gas-powered vehicles made in the United States. Now, with the potential to become Vice President, Vance could help usher in a new era of administrative changes to decrease both the cost of gas-powered vehicles and gasoline in general. This could mean there will soon be several EV stocks to sell if Vance makes it into office.
For both investors in the sector and those hopeful that EVs can pave the way to a less emissive future, a Trump-Vance ticket victory might seem like the end of the world. However, it’s important to remember that even presidential elections only have cyclical effects on the market, and the truly valuable EV companies will survive even unfavorable legislation.
Nio (NIO)
While Vance has been cited as saying that buying Chinese-made EVs is not the answer to climate change, a company like Nio (NYSE:NIO) has a lot to lose should the Republicans win the presidency in November. This stems from the fact that Nio intends to release its EV models to the U.S. market in 2025.
Yet, with Republicans potentially in power by then, it’s unlikely the political climate will be conducive to Nio’s growth in America. Moreover, Nio does not leverage its affordable labor and supply chain costs to make cheap EVs; instead, it focuses on premium models to compete with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) in the Chinese market.
Should the Trump-Vance ticket succeed, Nio cars will unlikely ever break into the U.S. auto markets since it will already need to compete with Tesla for brand recognition and pricing.
Lucid (LCID)
Currently focused on the luxury sedan market, Lucid (NYSE:LCID) is an American EV maker with production facilities in Arizona and Saudi Arabia. This production structure could potentially allow Lucid to escape some of the crippling tariffs that could occur in a Trump-Vance presidency.
Unfortunately, due to Lucid’s luxury market, a reduction in tax credits or complete discontinuation of these credits could dissuade future customers from buying the company’s cars. This would ultimately further exasperate the current stagnation that Lucid is experiencing in sales, which has already forced it to reduce prices for some of its flagship sedans.
As a result, LCID stock could take a significant dive in the months following the presidential election should Vance win the vice presidency. Moreover, due to the company’s relatively weak sales performance compared to other U.S. EV companies, LCID likely won’t recover from four years of a constrained EV industry, making it among the EV stocks to sell.
Rivian (RIVN)
When competing in the U.S. auto industry, no subsection is more competitive than pickup trucks for working Americans. That’s because large crew-sized pickup trucks make up the backbone of much of the agricultural and smaller-scale construction across the United States daily.
For Rivian, the attempt to enter this industry as an EV maker initially saw its initial public offering price plummet over 90% since going public in 2021. Now pair the incredibly competitive industry with the potential for legislation passing in November that promotes gas-powered American-made vehicles over electric, and the prospects for Rivian stock seem even more grim.
Beyond this, the price point at which Rivian sells its vehicles is simply out of reach for people who buy pickup trucks as tools and leisure items. As such, investors may want to treat Rivian as one of the EV stocks to sell ahead of the election, regardless of its new catalyst of $5 billion in cash investments from Volkswagen (OTCMKTS:VWAGY).
On the date of publication, Viktor Zarev did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
On the date of publication, the responsible editor did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.