“We have so many car company factories under construction or being designed right now. And they're coming from China. They're coming from Mexico,” Trump said at a White House event earlier this month. A few days later, he lamented the loss of US car production over the years and proclaimed: "Car factories are coming back."

But there is little evidence of a construction binge of new US car factories. Instead, auto companies are making tactical moves at existing plants as they adapt to the two pillars of Trump’s second-term business agenda: tariffs and policies hostile toward electric vehicles.

To sidestep tariffs, some automakers are retooling existing, idle factory space in the US to build vehicles that they have been importing and which now face levies.

For example, Nissan has said it plans to make more Rogue SUVs and other vehicles at its plants in Tennessee and Mississippi, while reducing imports from Japan. Japanese vehicles face levies of 15% under a tentative deal with the Trump administration.

“We’re seeing underutilised plants being filled with products that were previously imported. There is no boom in new builds,” said Sam Fiorani, vice president at research firm, AutoForecast Solutions.

Meanwhile, many car companies are pulling back from EV commitments they had made earlier in the decade and leaning in to production of fuel-powered vehicles. Much of the capital investment touted by companies in recent months amounts to an unwinding of EV projects that they had trumpeted during the administration of former President Joe Biden.

For example, General Motors (GM), said in June that it would retool a factory in suburban Detroit.

The industry’s huge collective bet on EVs that began late this past decade drove a sharp increase in factory spending during the Biden administration, figures compiled by consultancy AlixPartners show. The company tracked capital investments in the US by the traditional Detroit car companies - GM, Ford and Chrysler-parent, Stellantis – as well as EV-only players Tesla, Rivian and Lucid.

On average, those companies spent about $21 billion annually from 2017 through to 2020 – the same period as Trump’s first term. During the next four years, with Biden in office, their spending averaged about $38 billion a year, most of it related to EV and battery production, AlixPartners said.

Automakers had already been walking back EV plans, even before Trump won the 2024 election, citing weaker-than-expected demand. Car executives expect the Trump administration’s policies to further cool interest in battery-powered cars.

Trump has made the economy the cornerstone of his political brand, including tariffs, deregulation and promises of industrial revitalisation. A White House spokesman said his trade and energy policies have already fuelled historic investments in US automaking and shaved off billions in regulatory costs.

“As these policies and President Trump’s unprecedented trade deals with the EU, Japan and others take effect, cars will soon roll off Detroit assembly lines to showrooms in Tokyo, Frankfurt and Paris,” spokesman Kush Desai said.

The White House notes that imports of automotive vehicles, engines and parts have fallen by about 10% from the first quarter of this year, to $421.4 billion.

So far, US vehicle production has ticked higher by about 4% this year, but recent figures are tracking below the average of the past decade, Federal Reserve data shows.

David Adams, president of Global Automakers of Canada, disputed Trump’s claims that automakers are leaving Canada for US plants and said jobs are holding steady.

“The notion that everybody is vacating Canada to produce in the US doesn’t jibe with reality on the ground,” he said.

He said Trump’s aggressive tariffs could eventually reshape North American auto production, but added: “We’re not there yet.”

(Photo for illustration: Unsplash - Laurel and Michael Evans).