Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday sought to rebut a frequent argument from former President Donald J. Trump that she would mandate the end of gasoline-powered cars, issuing a rare direct response to her White House rival’s exaggerations and misleading claims.

Speaking at a rally in Flint, a mid-Michigan city whose onetime cadre of thriving auto factories never recovered from closures in the 1980s, Ms. Harris tried to reassure voters in the state, who are being bombarded by Trump ads that claim she “wants to end all gas-powered cars.”

“Michigan, let us be clear,” said Ms. Harris, who called for phasing out gas cars during her 2019 run for president but has since said she does not support a mandate for electric vehicles. “Contrary to what my opponent is suggesting, I will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive. But here’s what I will do. I will invest in communities like Flint.”

The politics of the nation’s slow march toward more electric vehicles have been tricky in Michigan, a battleground state that is home to the nation’s three major automakers. As the climate crisis has worsened, President Biden’s administration has required emissions standards that will most likely require about half of the new cars sold in the United States to emit zero emissions by 2032.