For most of the past two decades, the majority of electric vehicle-related investments have gone to Republican-led districts, especially in the Southeast. With the industry pulling back from electric cars and trucks, the fate of those investments is now an open question.
Automakers and battery makers invested more $200 billion in EV and battery manufacturing facilities in the U.S. from roughly 2000 to 2024, according to data and policy research firm Atlas Public Policy. About 84% of battery investments went to Republican-led districts, as well as 62% of EV manufacturing investments, the firm said. These were expected to create more than 200,000 jobs, 77% of which would be in Republican districts.
Almost half of all that investment — 40% — went to the Southeastern U.S., according to Atlas. For more than half a century, the South has become a manufacturing hub for the automotive industry, but the EV push yielded some of the biggest investments in the history of the region.
Then federal incentives for EVs enacted through the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act were stripped away, and sales fell short of expectations. The companies that can are pivoting to other types of vehicles or entirely different products to avoid losses and layoffs.
