The US risks falling further behind China in the global electric car race after the Trump administration’s championing of the petrol engine led to a steep drop in EV investments, industry executives and experts have warned.

Since returning to the White House in January, the US president has scrapped tax incentives for consumers to buy EVs and proposed axing rules on greenhouse gas emissions in a departure from the backing the Biden administration gave the industry.

EV-related investments, which span batteries, vehicle assembly and charging equipment, tumbled by almost a third to $8.1bn in the three months to September compared with a year earlier, according to US Clean Investment Monitor, a database created by Rhodium Group and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.