Posted on 10/15/2023 10:15:04 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The auto industry’s push to boost sales of electric vehicles is running into a cold, hard reality: Buyers’ interest in these models is proving shallower than expected.
While EV sales continue to grow—rising 51% this year through September—the rate has slowed from a year earlier and unsold inventory is starting to pile up for some brands.
Some car companies, such as Ford Motor and Toyota Motor, are tempering their expectations for EVs and shifting more resources into hybrids, which have been drawing consumers at a faster clip.
The first wave of buyers willing to pay a premium for a battery-powered car has already made the purchase, dealers and executives say, and automakers are now dealing with a more hesitant group, just as a barrage of new EV models are expected to hit dealerships in the coming years.
“The curve isn’t accelerating as quickly as I think a lot of people expected,” said John Lawler, Ford Motor’s chief financial officer at a conference in September, on the EV adoption rate. “We’re seeing it flatten a bit.”
The abrupt slowdown in EV sales is a contrast to a year ago, when carmakers found themselves caught off guard by long waiting lists for battery-powered cars and trucks. It is also a troublesome sign for the car manufacturers plowing billions of dollars into building factories and battery plants to support what they hope will be a strong pickup in demand for plug-in models.
In recent years, the auto industry’s pivot has accelerated, prodded by Tesla’s meteoric rise and tougher regulations globally on tailpipe pollutants, including outright bans on gas-engine cars in the coming years.
The Biden administration has made EVs a centerpiece of its industrial policy,
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
EVs? Nah.
I should pay more for a vehicle that could ignite on me for no reason, and that has limited range, especially in cold weather, and takes forever to recharge, and is environmentally damaging to make, simply to give automakers the business?
Forget that.
>> and the inconvenience of driving a vehicle that has a limited range and needs regular recharging.
Softpedaling the real issues, are we?
1) Total cost of ownership of an EV is already huge, and will only get worse. Damage to EVs from even minor collision mishaps are ridiculously expensive. And that battery is a CONSUMABLE — a very expensive one. You won’t be able to bypass that reality by trading your EV every couple years, because used vehicle buyers will catch on.
2) “Needs regular recharging” is a manipulative way of putting it. ICE vehicles “need regular refueling”, right? But regular refueling for an ICE is ridiculously quick and easy — and can be accomplished at literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of places across the world. Recharging an EV is enormously time-consuming — and recharging stations are relatively few and far between, suffer from “someone’s already there recharging” issues, take FOREVER for the most part, and these days are hugely subject to vandalism.
As I saw it said elsewhere “All the people who WANTED electric cars, HAVE electric cars”.
i cant figure this out
they have plenty of supply
govt subsidies
gee what is missing?
demand maybe?
In my city of 25,000 there is not one place to charge your car. People have to drive 15 miles away to the nearest charger.
Interesting data on current EV owners. I saw an earlier figure that 17% would never buy one again. Now this:
“Researchers found that EV buyers tended to stay electric — 63.3% bought another EV. About a quarter — 26.3% — went back to a gas-powered car.” May 4, 2023.
Kelly Blue Book.
I believe new serious drawbacks will be uncovered every few months.
Dangerous fires while charging. Accident damage repair causes insurance to go up. Chinese and others raise battery prices to squeeze the US. Sabotage to charging sites.
Far less mileage range than car company figures show. Revolt by apartment renters who resent the landlord charging them for the exorbitant cost of building EV rechargers in the complex. Price added to rent increases.
Oh,I’m sure our government has a way to coerce us into it.
I would imagine that many of the EV owners are two car families. One EV one ICE.
Add to that liberal states that are outlawing non electric appliances in homes and apartments. They can’t keep up with the load as it is now. Then they want to add on a huge additional electrical demand for charging the glorified golf carts.
They should have a fire sale!
I guess that’s not the best way to put it.
Yes and California won’t allow new permits for gas stations. Eventually the long lines for the few gas pumps around will discourage people who have the audacity to choose gas cars.
Funny poll results of hypocritical Californians (FR exempt)
showed overwhelming numbers of them wanted increased public transportation but wouldn’t ride on it and wanted others to use them.
Like “Limousine Liberal” Dems whose drivers took them past the hordes of citizens waiting for public transportation before getting mugged or abducted and raped.
We aren’t stupid. We know what making these batteries does to tue environment. We know where the energy comes from. We know we don’t want to get stuck in blizzards. We know we don’t want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere. We know we don’t want to wait 30- who know how long for a “fill up”. We know we don’t want to pay extra for virtue signaling.
We know we don’t want EV’s. Gas killed EV’s over a century ago. For a good reason.
a bunch of genius commie Democrats running these companies about to find out woke=broke
What we found out is that dealerships and auto manufacturer internet model data were from different planets. About half the cars reviewed by Car & Driver or other websites can not be gotten by the dealers. Most of the dealers had two to three month waiting lists for cars. You needed to pay a deposit and then wait for the dealer to be allocated a car and if you are lucky it might have the features and colors you want or if you are real lucky the dealer might be able to trade with another dealer for what you want.
We ended up with a hybrid and a lot more expensive than we intended as there really weren't that many “in stock” non internal combustion cars. If we had wanted a straight gasoline powered car, we could have had our immediate choice of many.
I think that the whole EV and plug in hybrid thing is one big scam.
In my city of 25,000 there is not one place to charge your car. People have to drive 15 miles away to the nearest charger.
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I betcha your city has plenty of gas stations. If there were profits to be made in selling charges, gas stations would be installing them left and right. Chargers available are heavily or totally subsidized with tax dollars.
American WORKERS understand that the batteries that power EVs are US job killers with most of the content coming from overseas.
American VOTERS have had enough with high gas prices, runaway inflation, unaffordable housing and pay that does not keep up with the cost of living.
THE WINDS OF CHANGE ARE BLOWING.
>>suffer from “someone’s already there recharging” issues,
Not if you’re Energy Secretary Granholm. You have staff to hold the charging station for you until you arrive with an ICE vehicle.
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