Posted on 04/19/2024 4:14:15 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Europe’s plunging electric vehicle sales are painful proof the market isn’t ready to stand on its own, putting governments on notice for more support until affordable EVs become a reality.
The glut is clogging up ports and factories are cutting production — a red flag for the region’s climate goals and risk of job cuts after Tesla’s mass layoffs this week.
Without subsidies, the cost of EV ownership no longer makes sense for many drivers. Insurance and repairs are more expensive than for combustion-engine cars, and many would-be customers still bristle at limited charging infrastructure. At the same time, rapid technological advances and Tesla’s price war are causing resale values to plummet, putting ownership further out of reach.
“We are losing momentum,” said Mattias Bergman, chief executive officer of auto industry group Mobility Sweden, where sales slumped by nearly a fifth during the first quarter. “The market is no longer growing, and the share of electric cars in the market is actually decreasing.”
In Ireland, electric vehicle sales in March were down on the same month last year. It was the fourth month out of the last seven where there was a year-on-year decline in electric vehicle sales.
“People just don’t earn enough to buy these cars,” said Laurent Favre, CEO of French auto-part supplier OPmobility. “There’s a gap between supply and demand and it’s normal that the subsidies won’t last forever. Reality is catching up with us.”
(Excerpt) Read more at irishexaminer.com ...
“electric putt-putt cars.”
My Ford F150 Lightning can do 0-60 in a little over 4 seconds. It is the most comfortable and quiet vehicle I have ever owned. I can charge overnight from 0-100% and that will get me over 320 miles in mixed driving at a cost of $9.00. Not exactly a putt putt car.
The problem is long distance driving. I just drove from Reno to Sacramento and down to Laughlin. Never had to wait to charge or have trouble finding chargers. The problem is the cost of fast charging on the road. We need plentiful electricity. Drill baby drill! Build nuclear power plants. The tech will come along with better batteries and faster charging but we need electricity!
A big reason why I won’t consider an EV is the limited range because I live in the American West. Interesting they won’t sell in Europe where range isn’t so much a factor.
Apartment dwellers can’t use em since they have no home charging capabilities.
The country doesn’t have enough juice to fill em up.
The copper is not in place to supply the juice to the chargers that don’t exist. The EV fad is almost as bad as the Covid-clutchers… proving it doesn’t take much to condition the intellectually challenged populace.
That is why Toyota is numero uno. They THINK.
‘Drill bay drill! Build nuclear power plants.
The koolaid has given you serious cognitive dissonance.
Without massive subsidies, the cost of EV ownership would never have made sense for any driver.
Toyota said wait on pure EV they are all in on solid state cells which they plan to have in the Asian megacity markets by 2027.
https://electrek.co/2024/01/11/toyota-solid-state-ev-battery-plans-750-mi-range/
20/80% SOC in 10 min or less is 450 miles in a 750 mile pack. Vastly further than the weekly distance in any dense city in America let alone Asia. Japanese drivers avg between 3000 and 5000km per year with daily drives under 25km. China is similar distances per day and year. Both countries import liquid fuels , Japan imports every drop. They have huge national incentives to move as rapidly as possible from liquid fuels to domestic electrons.
That said they are moving to all electric drive trains the flagship Camry is the first after the Prius to only be offered with an electric drivetrain all other Toyota will follow shortly. It’s cheaper for them to have two motors and two inverters vs 10+ gears, clutches, torque converters and all kinds of fluids and hydraulics. With a two motor EDU you have the flexibility to power it with a number of sources. ICE only being one of them. Fuelcells,gas turbines and batteries are the other’s the EDU doesn’t care where it gets high voltage DC current from. The faster you spin a generator the smaller and lighter it becomes the 170kva that powers a whole 777 is the size of a 5lb coffee can and can be held by one person with ease. This begs for a small gas turbine that can burn anything flammable liquid or gas. Think alcohols,H2,CNG,or any of the synthetic fuels made from CO+H2 gasses those can come from seawater, the air using nukes or off peak wind/solar or biomass gasification.
Toyota also has the most efficient ICE engine in mass production in the Prius and Camry hybrids that same engine they run in a Corolla on hydrogen with zero emissions they race it in the Corolla at that under huge levels of boost. That same engine with the right software will burn any of the alcohols from methanol to isopropyl at greater efficiency than petrol due by to the very high octane of alcohols you can run 16:1 compression and 18:1 expansion ratios with VVT you can go down to 12:1 for petrol at a huge penalty of efficiency. The OTTO cycle effective BSFC is based nearly entirely on it’s max compression ratio. Higher is better due to Carnot and physics.
Toyota is a world car maker they know rightly so that what works in dense Asian megacites is not going to work in Africa , or Latin America. That why they will go hybrids with EDU for areas with poor infrastructure and use the same EDU with larger plug in packs for suburban area’s and the larger of the two motors for urban area’s with solid state packs and dense networks of fast DC chargers to support those 5C plus charge rate packs. One platform all uses this is exactly what Toyota is doing not will do. The other models will follow in short order.
Why would anyone buy an EV now if this is coming but this will not be what they think it is
And there you have it. Nuclear power is a dead horse thanks to GE, Toshiba and Westinghouse.
You might as well wish for electricity from unicorn farts.
I’m doubling down on ICE. Just ordered a new GMC Sierra with the Duramax diesel engine.
A few were always spouting the latest propaganda from the industry, throwing out figures and statistics, and then insults when confronted with the truth.
“”Without subsidies, the cost of EV ownership no longer makes sense””
It never “made sense” in the first place. Every time we wound drive by an EV, I would point out another car that we all helped purchase, usually for someone with more $$$ than us. (I do not mind someone making, having a lot of money. No poor person ever gave me a job.) Paying part of their car (subsidies = tax dollars) is another thing.
There is no “market” for these EVs without other people’s money.
Norway is big with EVs.
Norway has an abundance of hydroelectric power, said to provide in excess of 90% of their electricity needs. Very few countries have that advantage.
I read an article recently that said Britain has some crappy wireless coverage, so if you pull into a charging station you might not be able to connect with the phone app to start charging..
“painful proof the market isn’t ready to stand on its own, putting governments on notice for more support until affordable EVs become a reality.
:and there it is....................”
Yep, I’ll take my chances with Climate change. The subsidies need to end for cars, solar and everything else. The ever increasing deficits will lead to financial Armageddon. Anarchy, civil wars......
“Norway has an abundance of hydroelectric power, said to provide in excess of 90% of their electricity needs. Very few countries have that advantage”
Not to mention only 5.5 million people. Significantly less than the entire state of AZ.
You are right which is why I lease a Tesla not own it. When solid state cells with twice the energy density and also 5C+ charge rates are in commercial production the Tesla gets returned off lease and a solid state car replaces it. I figured out that by peer to peer lending my Tesla it pays the lease payment in a few days of rentals. I also let a neighborhood college guy sublease it for Uber use he pays by the hour for it and that’s money in my pocket. EVs get preference and higher rates on Uber. I’m looking at weekly leasing a second Black Model Y Tesla specificity for Uber Black use it’s $200 hr.average for a Uber Black ride. Hire a driver who doesn’t have the credit score to lease a Model Y directly from Tesla or Uber. I foot the capital they do the driving labor we both make money as I take a percentage of the Uber payout to cover the lease expense and my.capex recovery profit. I have two plugs on site so both can charge over night to 100% before the drivers come and take them for the day. I only take the Tesla for entertainment runs into the city or bumper to bumper gridlock with FSD turned on. The other days it just would sit as sunk capital so why not peer to peer and Uber it out. I’m all about passive income it’s what gets me out of bed in the morning.
Speaking of the Indians here in Frisco, they loves them some Teslas.
All Asians love Teslas my Vietnamese friends all have model S or Ys. They go home to Vietnam and drive electric bikes or tuk tuks or motocycles all are electrified now due to pollution in the cities. that can be eye watering from all the diesels and 2 cycles which are banned now in most Asian cities. LPG aka autogas is the only legal fuel for 4 cycles as well. Same for the Indians all their major cities have gone Autogas or electric petrol is largely banned now. So they get exposure to how in high density environments people just don’t need 300+ miles of range in a single drive. A 300 mile EV is more than a weeks of driving for urbanites once they experience that truth first hand range anxiety disappears and you think well I need a plug over night once week or less or 20min at a super charger to get to 90% SOC every ten days or so. Asians fly and rent cars on the regular so having a city car is second nature. Especially the ones who only had a 2 or 3 wheeler where they lived in Asia beforehand. I will be in Thailand for at least 60 days and plan on renting a electric motorcycle for the whole time and peer to peer rentals of EV cars if I need one in Bangkok parking is a nightmare so the 2 wheeler is the go to.
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