Posted on 01/09/2024 5:15:56 PM PST by Red Badger
A new analysis of the U.K. car market shows that consumers’ interest in electric vehicles has fallen sharply amid turbulent local economies, sticker shock, waning government rebates, and a dearth of charging ports.
The Daily Mail looked at EV purchases across the U.K., concluding that sales were down double digits in 2023 compared to the previous year. In total, 23 percent of all car sales in 2023 were EVs, representing 71,984 out of 314,687 vehicles sold that year. That’s a steep decline from the 33 percent in sales in 2022, when 88,910 EVs were sold.
Trouble on the car lot is a warning sign for manufacturers who are under increasingly stringent regulations from the government to electrify greater and greater percentages of their annual production. While the requirement for 2024 is only 22 percent of all cars produced, that number rises sharply to 80 percent by 2030.
Higher-than-average inflation, combined with the loss of EV incentives by the Department of Transport in 2022, have added up to a loss in consumer confidence in the market for electric vehicles. In addition, a study of the U.K.’s 43,000 charging ports found that number must be increased fivefold if the nation hopes to meet its 2030 goals.
The news is not much different across the pond, where enthusiasm among Americans for EVs is waning despite the introduction of flashy new vehicles like the Tesla Cybertruck and the Hummer EV. The White House is under pressure from both auto unions and manufacturers to curb the government’s regulations around EV production ahead of the November elections.
“Last year, there was a lot of hope and hype about EVs. Early adopters formed an initial line and were ready to buy these vehicles as soon as we had them to sell. But that enthusiasm has stalled. Today, the supply of unsold [battery electric vehicles] is surging, as they are not selling nearly as fast as they are arriving at our dealerships — even with deep price cuts, manufacturer incentives, and generous government incentives,” manufacturers wrote to President Joe Biden in December.
“While the goals of the regulations are admirable, they require consumer acceptance to become a reality. With each passing day, it becomes more apparent that this attempted electric vehicle mandate is unrealistic based on current and forecasted customer demand.”
An attempt by the Biden administration to tout the nation’s growth of charging ports took an ironic turn when one of his top transportation aides was caught cutting the line at a charging station due to the lack of ports.
How much of this is Bidenomics? People can’t afford a car or are worried about job loss + car payments?
And yes, I know there’s an EV hangover.
If my compound bordered a golf course and I played golf, I’d own an EV cart...
YMMV
“If my compound bordered a golf course and I played golf, I’d own an EV cart...”
You don’t want to try to drive it between Dallas and El Paso TX.
I’m old enough to have no need to visit Dallas [stood on the grassy knoll in the last 5 years], El Paso. nor anywhere in between.
My compound is 340 miles to the next larger city and I haven’t seen too many charging stations along the ways.
Half the country can’t afford them and another 49% knows better. The rest can have their pick.
If Biden would just issue an Executive Order mandating All Federal Employee’s exclusively use EV’s for any and all transportation and strip all States of ALL Federal Funding if 100% of their Public Employee’s aren’t using EV’s for All Travel. We could Boost sales tremendously and Save the Planet from the dreaded Climate Change boogeyman.
People are still buying affordable, well made cars. Good EVs sell just like good ICE vehicles.
What isn’t the entire fleet of government bureaucrat vehicles EVs?
Why isn’t the Post Office using EVs?
Why aren’t all military staff cars EVs?...................
Nobody want oversize electric golf carts that cannot go very far, fanbois hardest hit.
The market for EVs in their current form is very small. The majority of people who want and can afford one have pretty much already purchased one. The market will continue to shrink until the reliability, safety, battery efficiency, and cost of the vehicles improve.
Perhaps the most important article of the past 5 years appeared today.
It was Reuters announcing that in keeping with new gov’t regulations, Tesla’s displayed range remaining numbers on their screen reduced about 30% across the array of models they manufacture, bringing them in line with other EVs.
They were never superior. Apparently this corruption of the physics was in programming installed 10 years ago. Today, it changed, without announcement.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-lowers-range-estimates-u-154352348.html
“How much of this is Bidenomics?”
Probably not much since this is the UK
It’s beyond the UK, too.
It’s physics.
My surprise is that over 20% of vehicle sales were for evs.
p
“ People are still buying affordable, well made cars. Good EVs sell just like good ICE vehicles.”
Really?
In the second half the article specifically refers to the US situation being similar to that in the UK.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s worse here, if you could get the true situation.
It looks like Taylor knows how to scam the system.
Karma arrived, he got scammed himself by a car dealer...!
“A physical assault at work left him traumatized and he now collects Veterans Affairs (VA) disability benefits”
Those benefits amount to $3,832 a month.
‘It’s a fourth of your freaking take-home pay’: This Oklahoma man owes $51K on his RAM truck with a payment of $1.1K/month
http://tinyurl.com/mw5yd9zy
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