Vice President Kamala Harris doesn’t want to talk about her evolving position on electric vehicles, despite her campaign insisting she “does not support an electric vehicle mandate.”

Last week, Harris’ campaign issued a “fact-check” email that claimed the Democratic presidential nominee “does not support an electric vehicle mandate,” but did not expound on the apparent policy change.

The Biden-Harris administration is imposing new emissions standards the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers argue are “going to feel and function like a ban” on gas-powered vehicles, as only EVs and five hybrid models currently available meet the new emissions thresholds.

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Polling from Ipsos found 75% of Americans, including 56% of Democrats, oppose government regulations that would ban internal combustion and hybrid vehicles, while 82% support an “all-of-the-above strategy” for U.S. energy policy.

The Biden-Harris emissions standards are part of the administration’s efforts to push EV sales to half of all new car sales in the U.S. by 2030, a goal Harris’ campaign affirmed in its “fact-check” email.

But Harris proposed a far more aggressive government-imposed transition to EVs as a senator from California, co-sponsoring the Zero Emissions Act in 2019 that would have required 100% of new vehicles in the U.S. to be emissions free – a designation that applies only to electric and hydrogen vehicles.

The next year, Harris unveiled an “accelerated model” as she campaigned for president that aimed to mandate “50% of all new passenger vehicles sold are zero-emission by 2030, and 100% are zero-emission by 2035,” according to her “Climate Plan For the People.”

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That elaborate five-pillar plan, however, stands in stark contrast to a void of policy specifics from her campaign in 2024, which has relied on anonymous campaign spokespeople who insist Harris has changed her position from four years ago on a variety of issues, from fracking, to Medicare for All, to border policies she promoted as one of the most liberal senators in the upper chamber.

“On Aug. 28 Axios asked the Harris campaign to clarify her position, and whether she would sign or veto a bill she co-sponsored in 2019 that included (an EV) mandate for manufacturers,” the news site reports. “On Tuesday afternoon, Harris’ campaign ultimately declined to comment.”

Harris’ silence on the EV issue is particularly deafening in Michigan, a battleground state that’s home to the Big Three and about 300,000 autoworkers who rely on the industry.

Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has promised to “end the electric vehicle mandate on day one,” a move he told the Republican National Convention is aimed at “saving the U.S. auto industry from complete obliteration, which is happening right now, and saving U.S. customers thousands and thousands of dollars per car.”

He’s also speaking directly to autoworkers concerned about the impact of EVs on the industry and their livelihood, noting during a recent stop at a Roseville campaign office that United Auto Workers union president Shawn Fain is selling members “down the tubes” with an endorsement for “Sleepy Joe” that has since moved to Harris.

“I just saw a poll and we have 88% of the autoworkers,” Trump said.

A recent survey commissioned by The Detroit News and WDIV also shows “people in Michigan are more aligned at this point with Donald Trump than they are the Biden-Harris administration on” EVs, Oakland University political scientist Dave Dulio told The News.

The telephone survey of 600 likely general election voters conducted July 22-24 found 71% have no plans to buy an EV, while 24% would consider one for their next vehicle purchase, and 5% are unsure.

In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration has pumped billions into the transition, claiming the spending will generate 12,000 jobs. A recent Bridge Michigan analysis found with $1 billion already spent, only 200 jobs have materialized.

Other polling shows 63% of Michiganders oppose a gas car ban, such as new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations promoted by the Biden administration that would eliminate all current internal combustion vehicle options.