President-elect Donald Trump has been busy making fresh appointments for his second term in office, and that now comes with news concerning what initiatives all these new government employees will be busy getting to work on. The picture on what impact Trump could have on the auto industry is quickly becoming clear, concerning everything from unions to a looming renegotiated North American trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, as the industry shifts to new technologies like fully electric cars and self-driving vehicles. All of these will impact the auto industry overall — but one company may come out relatively unscathed: Tesla.

Yes, Tesla CEO Elon Musk spent considerable effort (and money) helping to elect Trump, becoming a sort of direct advisor to the president elect in the process. That might buy him some influence in a second Trump administration (and seemingly already has) but it's Trump's proposals for the regulatory environment surrounding vehicles and AI — most of which were registered before Musk's campaign involvement — that stand to help his new buddy Elon's car company. Let's dig in:

Where does Trump stand on self-driving cars?

A Bloomberg article now reports that members of the Trump transition team have already highlighted self-driving vehicle legislation as a priority for the new administration, which will develop a federal framework for regulating self-driving cars on US roads. The article suggests that these new rules would not come through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration nor the Department of Transportation, but instead that a bipartisan measure is being proposed to the US Congress. This new legislation would create federal rules to allow for mass adoption of self-driving vehicles on public roads.

In Trump's first term, a measure to expand the cap of a company's self-driving cars on the road from 2,500 units to 100,000 passed the House but failed in the Senate, and then failed again as part of other motions. It's possible that's the framework with which the Trump team will resume its efforts in this next administration. Trump has yet to name a new Secretary of Transportation.

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How will Tesla benefit more than others from new self-driving rules?

Tesla CEO Elon Musk was a major political donor to Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and was a very vocal supporter, both stumping along the campaign trail, as well as frequently posting and interviewing Trump on the social platform Musk owns, X. Musk has previously lamented publicly about the desperate need for the federal government to initiate a framework for the mass adoption of self-driving vehicles, which Tesla claims it will be able to produce in the next couple of years.

This includes Tesla vehicles already on the road with Autopilot and so-called Full Self-Driving driver assistance systems that are supposed to be able to be upgraded with the full self-driving tech once it's ready, as well as vehicles like the recently-announced Tesla Cybercab, which lacks any traditional driver inputs like steering or pedal controls at all.

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Tesla is the best-positioned, if its claims about the safety of its technology end up true, in terms of technology already implemented, versus competitors like General Motors or Ford, which also only have driver assistance systems on pubic roads for now (GM shut down its Cruise self-driving program temporarily after hitting a pedestrian and misleading investigators, but its tech is apparently not at all close to ready for mainstream execution regardless).

Other self-driving focused companies, like Waymo, do not have the mass production capability of Tesla, though they arguably have more advanced tech on public roads already. Basically, Tesla has the right mix of tech that's already available, or reportedly nearly ready for primetime, with the production capabilities to also adopt and scale next-gen tech like the Cybercab relatively quickly. If Trump's administration moves quickly on passing a new framework, Tesla could execute at least part of its business plans for self-driving vehicles almost immediately, while no other automaker or tech company could say the same. It would give Musk and Tesla the same jumpstart they had with EV technology, which has positioned them at the top of the world so far.

The future will still be completely software-defined, with Over-the-Air update capability a definite priority as more advanced driver assistance and self-driving tech becomes more mainstream and can be sent out to cars already equipped with camera and sensor hardware, especially if there's a fresh government framework for deploying the tech on new cars in the next few years.

Where does Trump stand on electric vehicles?

The next Trump administration has already reportedly threatened to roll back President Biden's current EV rules and tax incentives, likely in favor of no incentives for electrified vehicles at all, as Trump does not support protective or preventative climate and environmental initiatives.

That could mean at least a few years of inflated real-world pricing for EVs, without tax credit relief closing the MSRP gap between EVs and gas-powered equivalents, at least until the costs associated with EVs come down, which could take some time. Expect to see a harder pivot to hybrid vehicles from traditional automakers, which should require fewer EV components but still offer plenty of practical, refinement and efficiency based benefits in the next-gen wave of new cars on the road. We don't expect the major automakers already committed to EVs to backtrack on their current plans too much, as most have already shifted to the complex dynamics of the still-growing EV market, with refocused investments but more EVs still on the way. Remember, automakers — even those that grouse about certain regulations — cycle plan years in advance, so rules see-sawing back and forth isn't likely to inspire immediate reviews of business plans. Money has been spent and research and development focused on building more EVs, meaning automakers with sunk costs in that direction are likely to hold course. One thing that will change, should the rules encouraging EV production be undone, is automakers could stop facing fines for not meeting average fuel economy targets.

More:How bad is Tesla's full self driving feature, actually? Third-party testing bodes ill

It might seem like doing away with the EV tax credit or reducing fuel-economy-related fines on traditional automakers would hurt Tesla, but that's not likely. The tax credit, in particular, seems like bad news for Tesla — but it's worse news for Tesla's competitors, which have struggled to deliver competitive EVs (in terms of performance, range and desirability) at similar prices. Tesla is the best-known maker of EVs, still sells some of the most affordable long-range EVs on the market — even if you don't take the tax credit into account — and it's profitable. Traditional automakers already taking losses on their EVs or struggling to break through into the mainstream electric car market will continue to do so, only now without a $7,500 tax credit to dangle in front of would-be buyers, upping their challenge.

How will Trump renegotiate the US-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement?

President Trump will have the special distinction of renegotiating not one, but two North American free trade agreements. The current USMCA was installed under his first term, establishing special trade rules between the U.S., Mexico and Canada, some of which directly benefits cross-supply and manufacturing for the auto industry that's heavily spread out across the continent. Considering the current political angling around the US-Mexico border, we're not sure where the next agreement discussion might lead, nor how long it might take or how it might change. But Trump will be there to do it again, and the auto industry — which has increasingly set up factories just over the border — has a lot at risk in the mix.

While any renegotiation will probably focus on shifting North American manufacturing back into the US, something that will hit some automakers particularly hard if it were to happen — Tesla already manufactures all of its North American-bound cars (and its batteries) stateside. So, it's another situation where Tesla won't be directly impacted, but could benefit from the pain incurred by competitors forced to rethink their Mexico or Canada plants.

Photos by MotorTrend staff, manufacturer