Biden Is Botching the Dream of Made-in-America EVs

In the 1980s, as Japanese cars flooded the already-struggling US auto market, then-President Ronald Reagan’s trade representative, William E. Brock, found a way to limit them with tariffs and import quotas. The measures eventually resulted in the likes of Toyota Motor Corp., now the world’s largest car company, investing hundreds of millions of dollars to set up factories — or transplants, as they were known — across America. They churned out millions of vehicles that led to the proliferation of an efficient auto-supply chain and employed thousands of workers.

If the US plays it right, this could happen again — sans the tariffs — as it tries to build the great American electric-vehicle supply chain independent of the world’s factory floor (and largest battery and EV maker), China. This time, though, the South Koreans will be joining the Japanese.