In an unlikely partnership, Tesla and Rivian along with other industry leaders like ChargePoint, have joined forces to fight against the Trump Administration with the creation of the National Coalition for Advanced Transportation (NCAT).
When the Trump Administration signalled a weakened stance on emissions standards in the US, legacy automakers such as GM, Fiat Chrysler and Toyota went along with the plan, to much criticism and negative feedback. So much so that the state of California vowed to no longer purchase gas vehicles from those automakers who agreed to lowered emissions standards in an effort to lower their carbon footprint as a result of the planned changes. This would have a big impact on those manufacturers, as California purhcased over $27 million from GM alone in 2018 according to a report from eletrive.com.
Not only are lower emission standards on the horizon, but the US government also took away California’s right to decide their own emissions standards, as they did not want to go along with the plan. Now NCAT has filed a motion to join California and the other states involved in the lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Highway Trans over California’s restricted rights.