Off a rose or three…apparently!
Electric vehicles are becoming an unprofitable boondoggle for multiple motor companies. It turns out that woke virtue signaling is not the wisest business strategy.
There are, no doubt, multiple factors that feed into the drop in electric vehicle (EV) sales for companies including Ford, Tesla, and Mercedes-Benz. I would, however, mention one: EVs are too expensive and too unreliable for most Americans to purchase. They are a pricey and impractical choice. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if EV sales continue to drop for companies with EVs in America and Europe for the foreseeable future.
Full article, HERE from PJ Media.
And the Gaza protests are not being well received in certain schools… HERE
Much less at UGA… HERE
It seems that many are getting quickly fed up with it, and universities are taking steps including dismissing participants, cancelling scholarships, kicking them out of dorms, etc. GOOD!!!
The only thing EVs had going for them was government subsidies to buyers and manufacturers. With actual experiences being shared on the inter-webs and physics rearing it’s ugly head even government bribes can’t overcome reality.
Evs also do more damage to the roadways because of their weight which is much more than what i call real cars, gas engines. As to the Hamas Soros is paying many of them and they are not even students but are professional protesters and the students interspersed among them are duped into going along with their insanity.
EVs would probably work for in town commuting with limited distances. We don’t have near enough infrastructure to support them – maybe another 10 -12 years but for now, best to avoid them. Maybe battery life technology will improve enough by then.
Hey Old NFO;
EV will work for the short distance commuter, but for the average American, nope it will not, and the subsidies from Uncle Joe can’t keep the boondoggle afloat. Companies trying to stay ahead of the woke crowd bought into the EV vehicles and they lost their butt. Now the fiscal realities have come home to roost. As far as the Protestors goes, most of the college protestors are being agitated by professional agitators that stir them up, just in time for the 2024 election. If it wasn’t this, it would be some cop shooting some black “Teen” and that would have kicked over the applecart. Chaos is what they thrive on and chaos is what they get especially with those wishy washy administrators. Whereas in the south, the colleges don’t play unlike the Ivy League schools.
I read somewhere that everyone inclined to buy an EV has done so already. So unless the .gov forces everyone into the electric buggies (which I seriously doubt) the market will continue to shrink.
They are suppose to be building a large EV battery plant here that will employ around 2000 people.
I wonder if the economics still justified finishing the plant.
https://www.wbko.com/2022/08/30/envision-aesc-breaks-ground-bowling-green/
Depending on the type of the exact type of batteries the plant can manufacture, it may still be viable. Hybrids still seem to be doing OK, from what I have read, and seem to be what some of the car companies are retreating to. There are also non-automotive battery uses to consider, such as house batteries for RV’s. Solar + battery is increasingly popular among RVers who like to boondock,, though many still go with generators.
Read up on how Green Charter Township revolted and is giving Gotion the CCP battery company out of their township.
All- Thanks for the comments and good questions. NO good answers here… dammit!
The insurance costs for the EVs is also going up. Damage to the battery pack in a minor accident can mean that the car must be totaled instead of the minor cosmetic repairs a normal car would require.
EVs: Now comes the legal and regulatory push to do away with all internal combustion engine options, new or used.
The goal isn’t emissions reduction, the goal is to make freedom of travel a lot more restricted, difficult, expensive, and inconvenient. Only the right people will be able to travel freely, and by that you should know that means “the people in power”. The self-described “elite” want to be kings, and they want the population as serfs.
If they can’t have us as willing serfs, remember that their Plan-B is carbon reduction, and you are a carbon based life form.
Protests: Aesop’s essay entitled “Tomorrow” keeps coming to mind.
Blackouts and brownouts in CA, and they are not even planning on increasing electrical output for the state, but are still pushing for everyone to move to EV’s. What’s wrong with this picture?
EVs. Buick will go all EV by the end of the decade. All Buick dealers must retrofit or build new service departments to Buick’s standards.
One Buick dealer in Wyoming has said, “Hell no! Take your franchise and put it where the sun doesn’t shine”. That was their private message; the public message wasn’t as graphic.
A friend who runs a dealership in Wyoming (different brand) shared the back story with me.
Just because EVs are a losing proposition financially doesn’t mean the criminals in power won’t continue cramming it down our throats. Even if it bankrupts every automaker in the country. In fact their ChiCom masters in Beijing WANT the big three bankrupted.
We are on our 4th hybrid from Ford and have been very happy with them. Electric efficency and low emissions at low speeds and ICE range and refueling times. Best of both worlds.
Mom and DadRed are quite happy with their Toyota hybrid. As you say, you get the efficiency without most of the drawbacks of all-electric.
Hybrids work for those who can afford to buy new, don’t put a premium on weight carrying, and do a lot of stop-start driving.
Long-haul , long-life and freight carrying … the costs outweigh the benefits with any technology currently available . That includes any tech closer than the theoretical and experimental, TTBOMK.
My list of needs includes the ability to carry 1 ton of cargo, off-road (not just dirt-road in fine weather) without being so heavy that it is constantly getting bogged, a range of 400mi with the heater/aircon and headlights running… and AFFORDABLE.
Any ban on new ICE will hurt the poor most. It will drive many of those who would normally turn over vehicles regularly, into retaining their old ICE longer, and force them back into the second-hand market for replacements. That will inevitably drive up prices in the 2nd-hand market, putting cars further and further out of reach of the poor.
Ironically, it will force the repair and retention of old clunkers, built in times of lower emission standards, because the most affordable thing will be to keep putting gas in the old guzzler.
Ask me why I drive vehicles that were built in the 90s.
Unfortunately “Cash for Clunkers” helped destroy the used auto supply, along with parts for same.
Oh, yeah. When the normal amount of junker models went from 6 or so, to 3 entire rows or more of the same model, kiss them goodby. Those sporty models? Gone!
Two years ago, I sold my 1st gen Eagle Turbo Talon to someone looking for a replacement for his crashed car, since he had a built motor waiting. He found a better condition one and sold mine off to a third state. If I needed a part, there MIGHT be one car 50 miles up the road if I was lucky. Got tired of trying to fab parts the dealers no longer stocked, or even had part numbers for.
A customer worked with Customs at the Dundalk, MD docks.
As car carriers unloaded their imports they would reload with “clunkers.” Mostly SUVs and pickups. Yes, “saving the environment” just meant moving the vehicles to South America. Many of the vehicles still had the windshield markings put on when traded in under the Cash For Clunkers program. I’m certain someone in the Obama administration go their 10% from this.
All- Valid points made, and it does come down to ‘use’ and ‘needs’. Stretch- Yep, same thing out of NOLA and Houston, plus the Toyotas being trained across the Texas border by the Mexicans.