Trump Attacks Electric Vehicles, GM Claps Back With Blazer EV.R

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Last Updated on: 15th February 2025, 01:12 pm

Amidst the backdrop of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s real-life rolling coup against the US government, Corporate America has been all cricket chirps. Well, almost all. Signs are beginning to emerge that electric vehicles are the battleground upon which some titans of big business are willing to fight. Exhibit A is GM, which is using the backdrop of the iconic NASCAR Indy 500 race to showcase its new EV lineup.

GM Is Sticking With Electric Vehicles And “Consumer Choice”

Last year GM joined the hangdog parade of automakers contributing $1 million a pop to Trump’s inauguration fund, hoping to curry favor with the new administration. That was a hefty sum, though it was peanuts compared to the $277 million reportedly shelled out by Tesla CEO Elon Musk to set up housekeeping in the Oval Office.

Much water has passed under the bridge since then. In his inaugural address on January 20, Trump pledged to “revoke the electric vehicle mandate” and enable drivers to “buy the car of your choice.”

The consumer choice message also popped up in a list of “America First Priorities” posted by the White House on January 20, which stated that “President Trump’s energy actions empower consumer choice in vehicles, showerheads, toilets, washing machines, lightbulbs and dishwashers.”

On February 5, Energy Secretary Chris Wright further carried the consumer choice torch in a press release describing nine priority areas, though he chose to focus only on home appliances. “The Department will pursue a commonsense approach that does not regulate products that consumers value out of the market; instead, affordability and consumer choice will be our guiding light,” he said.

Well, right back at you. On February 16, GM’s Chevrolet branch unveiled a new electric vehicle, the Blazer EV.R NASCAR prototype, just in time to catch the wave of publicity for the iconic Daytona 500 NASCAR event on Sunday.

“The Blazer EV.R is an example of Chevrolet continuing to test, learn, and explore new technologies that could be applied to both race programs and production cars,” Chevrolet explained.

“Customer choice is at the center of Chevrolet’s success in the marketplace, offering one of the broadest lineups of vehicles in the industry, from first cars to supercars and everything in between,” the automaker emphasized.

Meet The Chevy Blazer EV SS At Daytona 500

Of course, GM is not nearly ready to give up on gasmobiles. However, GM is among the many automotive stakeholders that have deployed the NASCAR circuit as a testing ground for new automotive technologies, and electric vehicles are in the mix.

“While we will continue to race our proven and winning V8 technology in NASCAR for years to come, we continually look for ways to improve the combination of power, durability, and efficiency to transfer learnings from the racetrack to the showroom, especially as we bolster Chevy’s consumer EV lineup,” explains GM executive director of global motorsports competition Eric Warren.

“Exploring new technologies allows Chevrolet to apply learnings for vehicles in the showroom,” Chevrolet emphasizes.

Don’t look for the Blazer EV.R at your local commuter parking lot any time soon. In conformance with NASCAR specs, the prototype features the racing organization’s “Next Gen” chassis and suspension. Chevrolet states that it “delivers over 1,300 horsepower from three six-phase electric motors that instantly rev up to 15,000 rpm, powered by a 78-kWh liquid-cooled battery,” which is a bit more than needed for a ordinary street use.

The prototype also sports Goodyear Racing Eagle tires, which are not street legal.

On the plus side, the racing car does echo some of the styling featured in the Blazer EV SS (short for Electric Vehicle Super Sport) production SUV, which is the whole point in terms of EV sales. Phil Zak, executive director of Chevrolet Global Design, explains that the Blazer EV.R project “was a great opportunity with NASCAR to design a new crossover utility vehicle body and bring forward design elements from our Blazer EV SS.”

See for yourself. The Blazer EV SS will pace the 67th Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 16. Chevrolet calls it the “quickest SS model Chevrolet has ever produced.” The 615-horsepower vehicle can go 0–60 mph in 3.4 seconds.

NASCAR Not Ready For The Electric Vehicle Revolution … Yet

Its firm grip on gasmobile culture aside, NASCAR (the National Association for Stock Car Racing) is leaning on electric vehicles to carry its automotive innovation mission to the next level.

“With the Blazer EV.R NASCAR prototype, Chevrolet and its engineers meshed new technologies with the NASCAR Next Gen platform — and the result is a powerful, exciting vehicle that we believe fans will love when they see it at Daytona International Speedway,” observes Brandon Thomas, NASCAR’s vice president for vehicle design (Next Gen refers to NASCAR’s soup-to-nuts gasmobile overhaul, introduced in 2022).

The Blazer EV.R is the latest step in a long-running EV-curious journey for the organization. NASCAR featured an electric pace car back in 2012, later joining the Obama administration’s EV Everywhere electric vehicle initiative. The launch of FIA Formula E electric racing in 2015 probably helped move things along as well.

Last summer, NASCAR debuted the new ABB NASCAR Prototype EV at the Chicago Street Course, underscoring its commitment to reflecting, amplifying, and transforming street-legal production vehicles.

Don’t hold your breath for an all-electric NASCAR series, though. In a press statement announcing the new prototype, NASCAR SVP and chief racing developer John Probst explained that an all-electric series will not happen any time soon, but the organization does want to keep its ear to the EV ground.

“We, from a NASCAR perspective, want to be in the driver’s seat when it comes to where our future is going,” Probst added.

The same engineering team responsible for NASCAR’s Next Gen gasmobile overhaul also contributed to the organization’s prototype along with collaborators on the Garage 56 Le Mans experimental program, including Hendrick Motorsports, IMSA, and Goodyear in addition to Chevrolet and NASCAR.

As for the US auto industry, hold onto your hats. Trump is trying to claw back $5 billion in federal funding for EV charging stations and the federal EV tax credit is on the chopping block, too.

Loss of the tax credit comes at a critical period for electric vehicle adoption in the US, as legacy automakers finally begin to close the sales gap with Tesla. More electric vehicles are sold year over year, with the notable exception of Teslas, and more activity is bubbling up in growth areas. Light-duty fleet electrification is one example as forward-looking automakers (except for Tesla) tap the market for electric vans and box trucks.

These automakers are already sending their lobbyists to Washington in hopes of saving the tax credit. It would help if members of Congress heard from their constituents back home, too. Find your representatives here to call, write, or email.

Photo (cropped): Trump is likely to kill the federal tax credit for electric vehicles, but automakers like GM are determined to go down swinging (Blazer EV.R prototype courtesy of Chevrolet)