US markets met president-elect Donald Trump’s victory with jubilation. In Asia, the mood is less celebratory. Asian stock markets were untroubled on Thursday but some blue-chip stocks have tumbled: the Trump trade has become synonymous with selling out of sectors related to cars, especially electric vehicles and batteries. Investor concerns there are not overdone.
The future of electric cars sales is a key market concern. Trump has said that if he were re-elected he would, on day one, end what he calls a mandate to sell EVs to save the US auto industry from “complete obliteration”. Trump’s victory brings a higher likelihood of cuts to current subsidies to EV battery makers and fewer federal tax incentives for EV buyers. Vice president-elect JD Vance has supported repurposing those credits for gas cars instead.
EV and battery makers had been some of the biggest beneficiaries of the Biden administration’s aggressive push for an EV transition. Current US targets mean that about two-thirds of all new cars and trucks sold will need to be electric by 2032. That would mean unprecedented demand for millions of new vehicles and batteries in the coming years. EV sales are forecast to hit about 73mn units in 2040 with 14mn sold in the US alone, according to Goldman Sachs forecasts.