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A New Law Supercharged Electric Car Manufacturing, but Not Sales
The New York Times ^ | November 8, 2023 | By Jim Tankersley, Ana Swanson, Jack Ewing and Coral Davenport

Posted on 11/09/2023 5:40:34 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer

President Biden’s signature climate law has stimulated a surge of investment in electric vehicle production across the country, including tens of billions of dollars on battery plants across the South and new assembly lines near the Great Lakes. Based on early evidence, it is succeeding at a goal that economists have long considered difficult and costly: using the power of government to rapidly grow a new industry.

That growth could prove crucial for the other side of the electric vehicle equation: enticing more consumers to buy them. That’s because Mr. Biden’s law effectively hitches the future affordability of electric vehicles to automakers’ willingness to source and build them in the United States.

For now, the climate law has not drastically affected trends in electric vehicle sales.

“I think it’s going to be a long time before you see your local waitress come in and buy an E.V. — they’re just too expensive,” said Rhett Ricart, the chief executive and owner of the Ricart Automotive Group in Columbus, Ohio, and a former president of the National Automobile Dealers Association. “If we’re going to get people to buy these electric vehicles in volume,” he said, “we will need more financial assistance from the manufacturers or the government.”

Auto dealers and administration officials are hopeful that a feature of the law that will take effect on Jan. 1 will further increase sales. It will allow qualified buyers to immediately pass their electric vehicle credit on to a dealer, essentially using it as a down payment, instead of waiting until they file a tax return to receive money back.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: electricvehicles; evs
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1 posted on 11/09/2023 5:40:34 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

DemocRATZ and the NYT love laws, but totally and utterly failed Science for Poets 101, let alone any real science subjects.


2 posted on 11/09/2023 5:47:21 AM PST by Da Coyote
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Government funded “investment” is no investment at all…


3 posted on 11/09/2023 5:50:04 AM PST by gov_bean_ counter (Eccl 10:2 - The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left )
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
A New Law Supercharged Electric Car Manufacturing, but Not Sales

Yeah, imagine that - you can't legislate consumer demand. I know precious few of our political class have ever run a business or held a real non-government job, but how many of them have ever even taken a basic economics class?
4 posted on 11/09/2023 5:50:25 AM PST by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

You would think that reading about the failed Five Year Plans of Soviet planners would have given the government a clue. Oh, wait true-believing communists would not read the bad parts. That is, if they can read.


5 posted on 11/09/2023 5:50:29 AM PST by Cincinnatus.45-70 (What do DemocRats enjoy more than a truckload of dead babies? Unloading them with a pitchfork!)
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To: AnotherUnixGeek

Even those that have ... I am looking at you AOC ... don’t grok Economics.


6 posted on 11/09/2023 5:54:19 AM PST by RainMan (Democrats ... making war against America since April 12, 1861)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I remember a liberal being interviewed where she stated that people weren’t buying small, fuel efficient cars because manufacturers weren’t building small, fuel efficient cars and manufacturers needed to be forced to make said cars. The interviewer rattled off the names of about ten tiny fuel-efficient cars that were available and not selling. I don’t recall her answer. But her mindset was that manufacturers are evil and must be forced to do what liberals think is the correct thing. I suspect she was one of those people who believe whatever they believe, and facts can be damned. You often hear this as some version of, “well, this is MY truth.”


7 posted on 11/09/2023 5:54:34 AM PST by Gen.Blather (Wait! I said that out loud? )
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To: Cincinnatus.45-70

You know that every communist thinks they can do it better than the last communist did…


8 posted on 11/09/2023 5:55:02 AM PST by gov_bean_ counter (Eccl 10:2 - The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left )
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To: Cincinnatus.45-70

Yup. The US today is so far away from a “capitalist” or “market-based” system. We are pushing the Central Planning hard. Because, you know, it’s worked so well in the past.


9 posted on 11/09/2023 5:55:42 AM PST by ClearCase_guy
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To: Cincinnatus.45-70

> You would think that reading about the failed Five Year Plans of Soviet planners would have given the government a clue. <

The #1 rule of liberals everywhere: “This time it will be different.”

Just why, they can’t say. But this time it will be different.


10 posted on 11/09/2023 5:57:13 AM PST by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
The sales problem can easily be fixed. We just need a law that requires us to buy EVs. While that sounds dictatorial, it really isn’t if government gives us the money to buy them. That’s only fair and equitable.
11 posted on 11/09/2023 5:57:29 AM PST by ConservativeInPA (Rebuild the Temple.)
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To: ConservativeInPA

they will fix the problem by regulating gas cars out of existence ie cafe

battery cars will still be too expensive

so many will be on the bus

the real goal


12 posted on 11/09/2023 6:01:55 AM PST by joshua c (to disrupt the system, we must disrupt our lives, cut the cable tv)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

A used ICE vehicle is a less risky purchase than a used EV.

This is because of the batteries.

Perhaps batteries should be leased items with the lease price being less than the cost of gasoline.

That would mean leasing of EV batteries would have to be mileage based.


13 posted on 11/09/2023 6:02:44 AM PST by Brian Griffin
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

“If we’re going to get people to buy these electric vehicles in volume,” he said, “we will need more financial assistance from the manufacturers or the government.”

BS; we don’t need that crap. ICE vehicles are far superior.


14 posted on 11/09/2023 6:04:28 AM PST by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: ConservativeInPA

“if government gives us the money to buy them.”

If you are posting on freerepublic, you probably are not the right “us”.


15 posted on 11/09/2023 6:04:36 AM PST by Brian Griffin
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

“Supercharged Electric Car Manufacturing, but Not Sales”

A supercharger called subsidies was put on sales, but it ain’t working.


16 posted on 11/09/2023 6:05:08 AM PST by cymbeline
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To: Brian Griffin

The new UI batteries (Unobtainium Ion) will solve the problem.


17 posted on 11/09/2023 6:05:22 AM PST by Jeff Chandler (THE ISSUE IS NEVER THE ISSUE. THE REVOLUTION IS THE ISSUE.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

The tradespeople like big pickup trucks to pull their warehouses on wheels.


18 posted on 11/09/2023 6:06:39 AM PST by Brian Griffin
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Making EVs affordable takes away just one of the negatives about them. Meanwhile, all of the other negatives remain, and there are plenty of those.

It’s like trying to make crap tasty to eat. No one is going to fall for it.


19 posted on 11/09/2023 6:07:25 AM PST by adorno
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Biden has been wrong on just about everything. Why would anyone think he was right on “green energy”, EVs, etc.?


20 posted on 11/09/2023 6:08:02 AM PST by oldtech
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