by River Davis (Wall Street Journal) Akio Toyoda’s comments come amid cooling U.S. demand and a price war with China -- Toyota Motor Chairman Akio Toyoda, when asked about electric-vehicle challenges including a recent lull in U.S. demand, said the industry was coming to recognize that there isn’t a single answer to reducing carbon emissions.
“People are finally seeing reality,” Toyoda said Wednesday (October 24, 2023), speaking in his capacity as the head of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.
Toyoda, who stepped down this year as Toyota chief executive after nearly 14 years on the job, has long said the auto industry should hedge its bets by continuing to invest in hybrid gasoline-electric cars and other options beyond just electric vehicles.
As EV sales momentum lags behind in the U.S. and more buyers gravitate to hybrids, he may be enjoying an “I told you so” moment.
“There are many ways to climb the mountain that is achieving carbon neutrality,” Toyoda told a small group of reporters at the Japan Mobility Show, formerly the Tokyo Motor Show, which is opening this week for the first time in four years.
From Tesla to Ford Motor, automakers in recent months have been issuing warnings about a sudden slowdown in consumer demand for EVs, which are generally more expensive than traditional gasoline-powered cars and need to be recharged regularly, posing challenges for some drivers.
Higher interest rates are making them more unaffordable for many buyers, and despite increasing discounts on plug-in models, unsold inventory is starting to stack up at dealerships.
The pullback in buyer interest is a worrisome sign for an industry that is sinking billions of dollars in new factories and battery-making facilities and is facing tougher regulations on tailpipe emissions globally.
In the latest sign that car companies are walking back their plans, General Motors and Honda Motor said Wednesday that they are ditching a partnership forged a year-and-a-half ago aimed at developing a line of lower-priced EVs.
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GM also this week abandoned a self-imposed target to build 400,000 EVs by mid-2024, citing growing uncertainty in the EV market and the need to ensure it can build these new models profitably.
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One favorable sign for Toyota: Its head of sales in North America said recently the market for hybrids is “smoking hot” and the company is trying to make as many of the vehicles as possible. Last month, Toyota had a little more than a week’s worth of Prius hybrids in stock, compared with more than two months’ supply of its electric SUV, the bZ4X.
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General Motors said last week it was delaying the opening of an electric pickup-truck factory in Michigan. The Wall Street Journal also reported that Ford Motor was considering cutting a work shift at the plant where it builds its electric F-150 Lightning pickup as demand for the truck falters.
Meanwhile, hybrid sales have taken off in the U.S., growing at a faster clip than the broader U.S. car market. READ MORE
- Automakers Have Big Hopes for EVs; Buyers Aren’t Cooperating: Sales growth has slowed in the U.S. as car companies are finding a limited pool of consumers willing to pay more for these models (Wall Street Journal)
- GM Scales Back EV Plans as Buyers Hesitate: Detroit automaker posts strong profit, but cites slowing market for electric vehicles and says it is losing $200 million a week on UAW strike (Wall Street Journal)
- A Frustrating Hassle Holding Electric Cars Back: Broken Chargers: Owners of battery-powered cars sometimes struggle to refuel on longer trips because public chargers don’t work or malfunction while cars are plugged in (New York Times)
- GM Abandons Goal Of Building 400,000 EVs In North America By Mid-2024 (GM Authority)
- EU focus on electric vehicles favours the rich, says ethanol industry (EurActiv)
- Honda and General Motors Halt $5B Plans To Develop Affordable Electric Vehicles to Rival Tesla — What Now? (NASDAQ)
- Tesla Stock: Elon Musk’s Warnings Are a Red Flag for the Entire EV Industry, Says Morgan Stanley (Yahoo! Finance)
- Ford Retrenches Further on EVs Amid Demand Uncertainty (Wall Street Journal)
- Auto execs are coming clean: EVs aren't working (Business Insider)
- Tesla, EV Investors Face a Reckoning (Bloomberg/Yahoo!)
- Ford hits pause on EV battery plant backed by $9B federal loan -- The automaker still plans to build two other battery plants supported by the conditional loan commitment. (Politico Pro Energywire)
- EVs create profit potholes for major US automakers GM, Ford -- Ford and General Motors both announced changes to their EV production targets amid profitability challenges (Fox Business; includes VIDEO)
- UAW deal eases just one obstacle for EVs (Politico's Power Switch)
- Electric v. gas: Drivers make the case for and against each (KCRW)
- How car dealers could derail America’s EV boom: Some customers say auto dealers have steered them away from buying electric cars and trucks (Washington Post)
- Are Americans Falling Out of Love With EVs? Manufacturers need to cut costs as electric-vehicle inventories pile up, but this is easier said than done (Wall Street Journal)
- US Transition To Electric Vehicles Faces Delays (Agence France-Presse/Barrons)
- Biden’s Electric-Vehicle Push Hits a Speed Bump -- Mining projects are being delayed after a plunge in battery-metal prices (Wall Street Journal; includes VIDEO)
- Car Dealers Press Biden to Ease US Electric Vehicle Mandates: Customers cite prices, lack of chargers, weather limitations; White House says mileage, emission standards are not mandates (Bloomberg)
- Dealerships urge President Biden to slow government EV mandates (CNBC; includes VIDEO)
- More than 3,000 auto dealers sign letter opposing Biden's electric vehicle mandate: Electric vehicles 'are stacking up on our lots,' car dealers write to Biden (Fox Business)
- Nearly 4,000 dealerships urge Biden to ‘slow down’ on EV push: In a letter sent Tuesday, the dealerships urged Biden to 'slow down,' citing an EPA proposal from April that could push battery-powered vehicles to 60 percent of new-vehicle sales by the 2030 model year and 67 percent by 2032. (Automotive News)
- Thousands of car dealerships urge Biden to pump the brakes on ‘unrealistic’ EV mandates (Washington Times)
- Car dealers say they can’t sell EVs, tell Biden to slow their rollout -- The US already lags far behind China and Europe, but we're going too fast, dealers say. (Ars Technica)
- Car dealers tell Biden: Customers aren't ready for electric cars (Axios)
- Let our customer's voices be heard. (EV Voice of the Customer)
- Electric vehicles have almost 80% more problems than gas-powered ones, Consumer Reports says (CBS News)
- EVs less reliable than conventional cars: Consumer Reports (The Hill)
- Reliability Survey: Vehicles that plug in are more trouble-prone (Green Car Reports)
- Reports of an Electric Vehicle Slowdown Have Been Greatly Exaggerated -- The auto world is winnowing down which carmakers are producing competitive EVs. (Bloomberg)
- ELECTRIC VEHICLES REMAIN A TOUGH SELL IN TEXAS, ACCORDING TO NEW SURVEY -- UH–TSU Study Reveals Most Texans’ Interest to be Lukewarm (University of Houston)
- Ford Slashes Electric F-150 Plans in Ominous Sign for EV Market (Bloomberg)
- Winter & Cold Weather EV Range 10,000+ Cars (Recurrent Auto)
- Lawmakers seek study of EV impacts (WFTV)
- California is pumped about electric buses. Rural schools say they’re a pain (Los Angeles Times)
- GM, Ford and Tesla Contribute to Setback in EV Sales Growth -- BloombergNEF dials back forecasts for next year. (Bloomberg)
- More US auto buyers are turning to hybrids as sales of electric vehicles slow (Associated Press)
- Are EVs booming or flopping? Both are true. (Politico Pro)
- No One Wants Used EVs, Making New Ones a Tougher Sell Too (Bloomberg/Yahoo!)
- China’s Abandoned, Obsolete Electric Cars Are Piling Up in Cities -- A subsidy-fueled boom helped build China into an electric-car giant but left weed-infested lots across the nation brimming with unwanted battery-powered vehicles. (Bloomberg)
- If EVs Are the Future, the Future Is a Long Way Off (Bloomberg)
- Cooling EV Sales Have Tesla, GM and Ford Rethinking Investments: Elon Musk says squeezed consumers can’t afford expensive EVs; Gas-powered Chevy Blazer costs $37,000; EV version is $56,000 (Bloomberg)
- Why dealers say EV sales have slowed (CNBC)
- Hybrid Sales Soar While EV Sales Plateau (Clean Technica)
- 2024 to See EV vs. Ethanol Competition Heat Up (WCSI)
- What happened to EVs? The sudden slowdown in electric car sales is a symptom of a much uglier problem. (Business Insider)
- Jimmy Patronis: EV Fire Prevention is Critical to Keeping Floridians Safe (Florida Daily)
- How Electric Vehicles Are Losing Momentum with U.S. Buyers, in Charts -- EV sales grew nearly 50% this year but have plateaued in recent months (Wall Street Journal)
- EV transition cools as demand slows and automakers trim production (Washington Post)
- More Roadblocks Pile Up on the Road to Electromobility (Tranport Energy Strategies)
- Why America’s Car Buyers Are Rethinking EVs -- High sticker prices, steep financing rates and range anxiety will fuel a slowdown in US electric-car adoption this year. (Bloomberg)
- A pesky EV question keeps coming up (Fleet Owner)
- Hertz to Sell 20,000 EVs in Shift Back to Gas-Powered Cars -- Rental company cites customer demand, costs for fleet change; Hertz announced large purchase of Tesla vehicles in 2021 (Bloomberg)
- US Electric Vehicle Sales Growth Slowed in Latest Quarter -- Market for battery-powered automobiles is slowing, Cox says; Carmakers have been cutting prices to help stimulate demand (Bloomberg)
- Rental giant Hertz dumps EVs, including Teslas, for gas cars (Reuters)
- Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather: In freezing temperatures, the batteries of electric vehicles can be less efficient and have shorter range, a lesson many Tesla drivers in Chicago learned this week. (New York Times)
- Report: Caltrans Budget to Take Hit Due to Green Vehicles -- California Legislative Analyst’s Office Estimates $4.4 Billion Drop in Lost Revenue Within 10 Years (Transport Topics)
- Ford cuts F-150 Lightning output, ups Bronco, Ranger production. Here's the effect on jobs (Detroit News)
- Republican at auto show: EVs ‘won’t exist in a few years’: Lawmakers sparred over electric vehicles during a discussion at Washington’s Auto Show. (E&E Daily)
- Electric cars suffer ‘unsustainable’ depreciation in secondhand market (The Telegraph/Yahoo!)
- Hybrid Cars Enjoy a Renaissance as All-Electric Sales Slow -- Automakers like Ford, Kia and Toyota are offering more hybrid options to appeal to buyers who aren’t ready for fully electric vehicles. (New York Times)
- The Hidden Costs of Transitioning to Electric Vehicles (Government Fleet)
- Ford Cuts Workforce Making Electric F-150s on Weak Demand: Follows December news that 2024 production would be halved; Carmaker adding third shift to make more Broncos, Rangers (Bloomberg)
- Inside America's electric vehicle whiplash (Axios)
- GM stops selling the Chevy Blazer EV to deal with ‘software quality issues’ (The Verge)
- Stellantis warns of EV ‘bloodbath’ as Ford cuts F-150 Lightning output (Financial Times)
- How freezing temperatures are affecting electric vehicles (Axios)
- Winter & Cold Weather EV Range 10,000+ Cars (Recurrent Auto)
- GOP governors urge Biden to reconsider EV goals (Agri-Pulse)
- Opinion: Evidence EVs are a fading fad is ‘rolling in fast’ as Tesla, GM and Ford slash prices; EV doubters like Toyota bet on hybrids, and now look prescient (Market Watch)
- Are Electric Cars a Dead End? (Project Syndicate)
- Large-Scale Wind and Solar Developers Concerned About Social Factors Affecting Deployment (North American Clean Energy)
- Survey of Utility-Scale Wind and Solar Developers Report (Energy Markets and Policy Berkeley Lab)
- Another Angle to Electromobility: The Challenges of the Second-Hand Market (Transportation Energy Strategies)
- Why Americans don’t want electric vehicles (The Hill)
- Tesla settles California hazardous waste lawsuit with a $1.5M fine (TechCrunch)
- Tesla’s week gets worse: Fines, safety investigation, and massive recall --There have been 2,388 complaints about steering failure in the Model 3 and Model Y. (Ars Technica)
- The electric vehicles farce has reached a shambolic new low -- If the industry wants to survive, it should stop making bad cars nobody wants to drive. It appears to want subsidies instead (The Telgraph)
- California EV sales are falling. Is it just temporary, or a threat to state climate goals? (Los Angeles Times)
- The Six Months That Short-Circuited the Electric-Vehicle Revolution -- Automakers went all in on battery power, but buyers have proven more hesitant (Wall Street Journal)
- Don’t Believe the EV Hype—For Ethanol, Stay the Course (South Dakota Farmers Union)
- Biden Administration Weighs Slowing the Shift to Electric Vehicles (Washington Post)
- Kemp: Biden’s electric vehicle push spawned a backlash (Politico)
- UK public EV charging costs up by 11% -- Latest figures reveal an 11% rise in electric car charging costs across the UK’s public network, with ultra-rapid charging options increasingly preferred despite their higher prices (Energy Live News)
- Price hikes revealed across public electric vehicle charging network (Fleet News)
- Democrats pushed climate action. Then utility bills skyrocketed. Electricity bills are biting lawmakers in coastal, Democratic-leaning districts (Politico)
- Study: Lower gas prices make ICEs more affordable to fuel up than EVs (Detroit News)
- Q&A: Roger Penske on Detroit's renaissance, NFL Draft, EV adoption and Le Mans (Detroit News)
- Car shoppers aren’t electrified by electric vehicles -- EV growth slows as skeptical consumers look to hybrids and plug-ins (Washington Post)
- EVs and plug-in hybrids average more problems than hybrids and gasoline cars, J.D. Power found in its 2024 Vehicle Dependability Study. (Green Car Reports)
- Toyota says it would rather buy credits than ‘waste’ money on EVs (electrek)
- Electric Cars Emit More Particulate Pollution: They have greater tire wear, the source of most particulate matter. California is trying to conceal that fact. (Wall Street Journal)
- Electric Vehicle Boom Hits a Wall of Consumer Ambivalence (Forbes)
- How EV Charger Hacking Threatens Personal Data and the Power Grid (Wall Street Journal; includes VIDEO)
- EV winter? Tesla sales cooling, while Fisker is wobbling (Axios)
- Car shoppers aren’t electrified by electric vehicles: EV growth slows as skeptical consumers look to hybrids and plug-ins (Washington Post)
- Why some conservatives think EVs are bad for the environment -- Studies show that heavy battery electric vehicles wear down tires, adding to pollution. But that doesn't mean EVs are bad for the planet. (Politico Pro Climatewire)
- 30% of Americans say they’ll never buy an EV — survey: The Boston Consulting Group survey shows U.S. drivers are more hesitant to buy electric vehicles than a first wave of consumers several years ago. (Politico Pro Energywire)
- Tesla shares fall after deliveries drop 8.5% from a year ago (CNBC)
- Tesla deliveries fall more than expected as firm cites production issues -- The company said it delivered 387,000 vehicles in the first quarter, down from the previous quarter and fewer than analysts predicted (Washington Post)
- Tesla sales tumble nearly 9%, most in 4 years, as competition heats up and demand for EVs slows (Associated Press/Washington Post)
- Ford to delay production of new electric pickup and large SUV as US EV sales growth slows (Associated Press)
- 2nd Gear: Vehicle Imports Pile Up At European Ports (Jalopnik (scroll down))
- European ports turned into ‘car parks’ as vehicle imports pile up (Financial Times)
- China's first-quarter EV sales growth slowest in a year (Reuters)
- VW to invest $2.7 billion in China to accelerate EV rollout -- VW executive says latest investment in Hefei hub will help bring technologies to market around 30 percent faster as the carmaker hikes EV output there. (Automotive News)
- BYD Got €3.4 Billion Chinese Aid to Dominate EVs, Study Says -- German think tank flags China’s support for clean technologies; Europe is facing calls to re-balance trade with Asian economy (Bloomberg)
- Electricity prices rise faster than inflation: Industry groups say transmission costs drove the 5 percent annual increase. (Politico Pro Energywire)
- Tesla lays off more than 10% of its workforce (BBC)
- Fewer car shoppers who don't already own an EV are considering one, according to a new Gallup poll. (Green Car Reports)
- More in US say they wouldn’t consider buying EV: Gallup (The Hill)
- Exclusive: BP's EV charging arm cuts jobs, reduces global ambitions (Reuters)
- What Tesla’s layoffs signal for EVs: After several years of steady growth, Tesla’s year-over-year sales in the first quarter declined more than 8 percent. (E&E News Energywire)
- Tesla Delays Cybertruck Deliveries, Leaving Buyers Confused -- The pause is the latest issue for the carmaker, which recently announced job cuts (Wall Street Journal)
- Not even Tesla can hide from market forces (Politico's Power Switch)
- GM and Ford count on gas-powered trucks as EV growth slows (Reuters)
- 2 reports document slowdown in EV sales -- The first quarter saw the first year-over-year EV sales retraction since the height of Covid-19 lockdowns. (Politico Pro Energywire)
- What happened to Tesla? Weak sales, layoffs and recalls weigh on outlook. Just a few years ago, the company was flying high. Now, investors are contending with a grim earnings report Tuesday. (Washington Post)
- Tesla profit plunges on price cuts, but company unveils plans for affordable models -- Tesla says profits fell 55 percent in the first quarter to $1.13 billion while revenue declined 9 percent (Washington Post)
Excerpt from Yahoo! Finance: Shares duly tanked as investors digested an uncertain future for the undisputed EV leader. In fact, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas makes the case that Tesla’s dire outlook could have massive ramifications for the wider industry.
“Beyond the scope of negative estimate revisions for Tesla following a disappointing 3Q result and one of the most cautious conference calls in years, we believe investors should seriously consider the implications for the broader global EV complex,” Jonas explained. “We see a warning from the ‘gold standard’ of EVs having a ripple effect across the industry. In our view, Tesla’s caution = caution for EVs broadly.”
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As such, Jonas anticipates a bit of an about-face to take place. “We expect to see the Detroit OEMs bring greater attention to the attractiveness and profitability of their ICE portfolios while, at the margin, de-emphasizing their EV plans. This process has already begun,” he summed up. READ MORE
Excerpt from Business Insider: Several C-Suite leaders at some of the biggest carmakers voiced fresh unease about the electric car market's growth as concerns over the viability of these vehicles put their multi-billion-dollar electrification strategies at risk.
Among those hand-wringing is GM's Mary Barra, historically one of the automotive industry's most bullish CEOs on the future of electric vehicles.
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But this week on GM's third-quarter earnings call, Barra and GM struck a more sober tone. The company announced with its quarterly results that it's abandoning its targets to build 100,000 EVs in the second half of this year and another 400,000 by the first six months of 2024. GM doesn't know when it will hit those targets.
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While GM's about-face was somewhat of a surprise to investors, the Detroit car company is not alone in this new view of the EV future. Even Tesla's Elon Musk warned on a recent earnings call that economic concerns would lead to waning vehicle demand, even for the long-time EV market leader.
Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz — which is having to discount its EVs by several thousand dollars just to get them in customers' hands — isn't mincing words about the state of the EV market.
"This is a pretty brutal space," CFO Harald Wilhelm said on an analyst call. "I can hardly imagine the current status quo is fully sustainable for everybody."
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That's as inventory builds up at dealerships, much to the chagrin of dealers. While car buyers are in luck if they're looking for a deal on a plug-in vehicle, executives are finding even significant markdowns and discounts aren't enough. These cars are taking dealers longer to sell compared with their gas counterparts as the next wave of buyers focus on cost, infrastructure challenges, and lifestyle barriers to adopting.
Just a few months after dealers started coming forward to warn of slowing EV demand, manufacturers appear to be catching up to that reality. Ford was the first to fold, after dealers started turning away Mach-E allocations. In July, the company extended its self-imposed deadline to hit annual electric vehicle production of 600,000 by a year, and abandoned a 2026 target to build 2 million EVs.
In scrapping plans with GM to co-develop sub-$30,000 EVs, Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe said the shifting EV environment was difficult to gauge. READ MORE
Excerpt from Wall Street Journal: Sales of all-electric models in the U.S. have plateaued around the 100,000-a-month mark for the past half year after a period of rapid growth. Inventories are piling up and prices are falling, led by market leader Tesla. The average new EV sold for about $52,000 in October, down from around $65,000 a year ago, according to Cox Automotive.
Whether or not adoption of EVs in the U.S. is actually stalling—the jury is out—it is clearly weaker than manufacturers were anticipating.
Ford and General Motors have both pushed back investments, and even Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk hinted on the company’s October earnings call that he might slow down. While the course correction is starker in the U.S., there are similar moves across the Atlantic:
Volkswagen has put a plan to build a fourth battery plant on hold.
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The bigger picture is probably that the affluent tech enthusiasts who fueled the first wave of interest in EVs already have them. The next cohort of consumers may need a combination of lower prices, better charging infrastructure and benchmark-setting new products to make the big switch. Baby steps are easier: Hybrid leader Toyota was one of the few manufacturers to say it was boosting its investments recently.
Some potential EV buyers may be waiting for Tesla’s refreshed Model 3, which has just become available in China and Europe but not yet in the company’s home market. Another reason to wait is Washington’s $7,500 EV tax credit: Starting next year, it will be accessible as a rebate at the point of sale rather than months later when filing tax returns. This change could give the EV market a lift next year, but it is hard to be sure because the sourcing hoops manufacturers must jump through to qualify for the subsidy also will get tighter.
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As HSBC analyst Mike Tyndall points out, cars sold through leases are reliant on robust forecasts for secondhand values to keep monthly payments down. Price cuts have wreaked havoc on the used-EV market, making such forecasts harder to justify. Leasing went quiet during the pandemic, but is making a comeback with EVs because leased models qualify more easily for the federal tax credits.
The only long-term solution is for manufacturers to lower costs through radical re-engineering. Except for Tesla and a few Chinese companies, today’s EVs are even more expensive to make than to buy. Ford, which is unusual in breaking out its EV business, continues to report massive losses on a portfolio including the Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning.
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Musk called the next-generation $25,000 Tesla “utilitarian” on the last earnings call, which didn’t inspire confidence.
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The basic problem is that metal-rich batteries and electric motors are more expensive than the gasoline tanks and engines they replace, particularly for the heavy sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks Americans favor. EV running costs are lower, but most consumers only pay attention to fuel efficiency during gas-price spikes. Manufacturers need to assume that the average car buyer won’t pay a premium.
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And nonunionized EV startups such as Rivian have had even bigger cost problems than Detroit. READ MORE
Excerpt from EV Voice of the Customer: In just three weeks, 3,882 dealerships reflecting the voice of our customers, representing all major vehicle manufacturing brands spanning 50 states, called on the President of the United States to tap the brakes on the proposed Electric Vehicle Mandate. Below is the letter and list of the dealerships that signed.
A Letter to the President
Dear Mr. President,
We are auto dealers from across the country who collectively sell every major brand in the U.S. We are small businesses employing thousands of Americans. We are deeply committed to the customers we serve and the communities where we operate, which is why we are asking you to slow down your proposed regulations mandating battery electric vehicle (BEV) production and distribution.
Your Administration has proposed regulations that would essentially mandate a dramatic shift to battery electric vehicles (BEVs), increasing year after year until 2032, when two out of every three vehicles sold in America would have to be battery electric.
Currently, there are many excellent battery electric vehicles available for consumers to purchase. These vehicles are ideal for many people, and we believe their appeal will grow over time. The reality, however, is that electric vehicle demand today is not keeping up with the large influx of BEVs arriving at our dealerships prompted by the current regulations. BEVs are stacking up on our lots.
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 BEVs 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.
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. Already, electric vehicles are stacking up on our lots which is our best indicator of customer demand in the marketplace.
Mr. President, no government agency, no think tank, and no polling firm knows more about the automobile customer than us. We talk to customers every day. As retail automotive dealerships, we are agnostic as to what we sell. Our business is to provide customers with vehicles that meet the needs of their budgets and lifestyles.
Some customers are in the market for electric vehicles, and we are thrilled to sell them. But the majority of customers are simply not ready to make the change. They are concerned about BEVs being unaffordable. Many do not have garages for home charging or easy access to public charging stations. Customers are also concerned about the loss of driving range in cold or hot weather. Some have long daily commutes and don’t have the extra time to charge the battery. Truck buyers are especially put off by the dramatic loss of range when towing. Today’s current technology is not adequate to support the needs of the majority of our consumers.
Many of these challenges can and will be addressed by our manufacturers, but many of these challenges are outside of their control. Reliable charging networks, electric grid stability, sourcing of materials, and many other issues need time to resolve. And finally, many people just want to make their own choice about what vehicle is right for them.
Mr. President, it is time to tap the brakes on the unrealistic government electric vehicle mandate. Allow time for the battery technology to advance. Allow time to make BEVs more affordable. Allow time to develop domestic sources for the minerals to make batteries. Allow time for the charging infrastructure to be built and prove reliable. And most of all, allow time for the American consumer to get comfortable with the technology and make the choice to buy an electric vehicle.
Sincerely,
Supporting Dealerships
Download List of Supporting Dealerships READ MORE
Except from CBS News: Electric vehicles have nearly 80% more problems and are generally less reliable than cars propelled by conventional internal combustion engines, according to a new report from Consumer Reports.
Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) have an even worse scorecard, with an average of almost 150% more problems, the consumer group found. By contrast, ordinary hybrid cars are a "bright spot," with about a quarter fewer problems than gas-powered cars, the analysis found.
Consumer Reports' latest vehicle reliability report comes as car buyers can take advantage of a federal tax credit worth up to $7,500 for purchasing an EV and as automakers roll out a host of new models. But consumers have been slower to adapt to EVs than expected, partly because they are often more expensive to maintain than traditional vehicles and require extra equipment, such as a home electric charging port.
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EV owners most frequently reported troubles with battery and charging systems, as well as flaws in how the vehicles' body panels and interior parts fit together.
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PHEVs may have more problems than conventional cars and electric vehicles because they combine internal-combustion engines with an electric drive, which creates additional complexity, Consumer Reports said. That means there's more than can go wrong.
Consumer Reports rates vehicles on 20 problem areas, ranging from squeaky brakes to EV charging problems, and PHEVs can experience every one of them, it noted. READ MORE
Excerpt from Bloomberg: “The slowdown in the ambition from the two of the Big Three US automakers, combined with Tesla’s aging model lineup limiting its growth potential, and tougher economic conditions for many of the US customers, indicate that the US EV market is facing a more difficult year,” BNEF analysts led by Aleksandra O’Donovan write in the report.
GM and Ford pushed back near-term EV targets in the second half of this year, citing less consumer demand for their plug-in models than expected.
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The researcher also trimmed its projections for Europe and China, citing factors including high interest rates for the former and broader economic malaise for the latter. READ MORE
Excerpt from Business Insider: America's EV plan was flawed from the start. Instead of seeing EVs as one piece of a plan for more sustainable transportation, America has focused on using EVs as a one-to-one replacement for gas guzzlers. But this one-size-fits-all solution fails to address our broader transportation problems, meaning emissions targets are likely to be missed and other transportation problems will continue to go unaddressed.
"The entire myth at the heart of this whole transition is that the battery car seamlessly fits right into the gas car's position," Edward Niedermeyer, the author of "Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors," told me. "It doesn't, and that's the problem."
The EV myth
The mission to replace gas cars with EVs has led to a series of major miscalculations, one of which has to do with the sheer size of the new electric vehicles being put on the road.
Over the past few decades the American auto industry has become obsessed with huge vehicles. The reasons for the size inflation range from profit margins to distorted government fuel standards, but the proliferation of bigger vehicles created a doom loop of consumer preference: Drivers saw the vehicles around them getting bigger, so they wanted bigger cars to make themselves feel safer. Automakers argued that this was proof that people wanted only big cars, so they cut small models and made existing vehicles bigger, which made people with smaller cars feel less safe — you get the picture. Meanwhile, road deaths and injuries soared, while the larger, less efficient vehicles wiped out environmental benefits from higher emissions standards.
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When automakers pivoted to EVs, they focused on the kinds of cars that were already popular — which meant a flood of big electrified SUVs and trucks. But massive-bodied EVs don't make much sense. Larger EVs require bigger batteries, which require more raw materials to manufacture, which requires producers to beef up their environmentally destructive mining operations. While bigger batteries allow drivers to travel farther between charges, they also make the cars heavier, more dangerous, more expensive, and worse for the planet.
The "range anxiety" that has resulted in massive batteries is another reason EVs don't work as a replacement for gas cars. Niedermeyer said that while an electric car can meet most people's driving needs, it struggles with edge cases like road trips because of the need to recharge. Since Americans have been promised a one-to-one substitute for their gas cars, this seems like a failure; an EV should be able to do everything a gas car can. This idea persists even though in 2023 the average US driver traveled only about 40 miles a day, and in 2022 about 93% of US trips were less than 30 miles. Still, in a survey conducted by Ipsos last fall, 73% of respondents indicated they had concerns about EV range.
The focus on increasing EVs' range is contributing to their relatively high prices. Unlike with gas cars, the more you pay for an EV, the more range you can expect to receive. And since Americans have been conditioned to want a lot of range, cars with big batteries and longer ranges have dominated the market, resulting in stubbornly high prices.
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The researcher Benjamin Sovacool and his colleagues have pointed out that, just like in the US, EV buyers in Norway "tend to be in higher income brackets, often using their EV as a second car."
The Norwegian approach has also had a ton of unintended consequences. Joshi told me that the decline in gas tax revenue due to EV adoption had triggered a contentious political debate about increasing road tolls to make up the difference. (A political party was even formed on the platform of stopping the tolls.) Plus, heavier electric vehicles are harder on roads, produce more air pollution, and pose a greater safety risk for pedestrians.
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If the government and automakers are serious about making transportation more sustainable, they should be incentivizing smaller vehicles, hybrid cars, and public transportation like trains and buses.
EVs can be an important part of the fight against the climate crisis, but America's EV plan needs to lean into what these cars do well: short daily trips that can be taken in small, affordable cars. People who frequently take long trips can take advantage of hybrid cars. And better public transit and faster intercity trains could make a huge difference for people and the planet.
While it may be a sexy and industry-friendly approach to the climate crisis, an EV-first plan isn't the most effective way to tackle the enormous challenge we face. READ MORE
Excerpt from Bloomberg: “It all pivoted really quickly,” says Mickey Anderson, a car dealer who’s seen long waitlists for EVs evaporate while battery-powered models pile up at his dealerships in Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado.
What changed, industry executives and analysts say, is that the initial rush of buyers consisted of wealthy drivers purchasing an extra car for their household because they wanted the latest technology. Now that the early adopters are sated, mainstream buyers who depend on their car as their daily vehicle find EVs “more expensive and less useful,” Anderson says.
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It’s not just the charging network that’s unreliable. EVs had 80% more problems than cars with traditional internal combustion engines, according to the latest survey by Consumer Reports magazine. EV owners reported the most troubles with their battery and its ability to take a charge.
“This has nothing to do with the chargers in the field. This is specifically about a problem with the vehicle where it would not accept a charge,” says Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing at Consumer Reports. “It’s like you can’t get gasoline into the car. That’s a problem, a big problem.”
That helps explain why more than half of American car buyers now say they’re not interested in EVs, up from just 42% who ruled out battery-powered models in 2022, according to a survey of a quarter-million US car buyers by automotive research firm Strategic Vision.
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But as he stumps for a return to the White House, former President Donald Trump has called Biden’s plan a “a ridiculous all-electric-car hoax” and warned EVs will kill jobs and put American automakers out of business.
“Blue states say EVs are great and we need to adopt them as soon as possible for climate reasons,” Bill Ford, executive chair of Ford and great-grandson of founder Henry Ford, said in an October interview with the New York Times. “Some of the red states say this is just like the vaccine, and it’s being shoved down our throat by the government, and we don’t want it. I never thought I would see the day when our products were so heavily politicized, but they are.” READ MORE
Excerpt from Reuters: Hertz will instead opt for gas-powered vehicles, it said on Thursday, citing higher expenses related to collision and damage for EVs even though it had aimed to convert 25% of its fleet to electric by 2024 end.
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CEO Stephen Scherr had last year at the JPMorgan Auto Conference flagged headwinds from higher expenses for its EVs, particularly Teslas.
Hertz even limited the torque and speed on the EVs and offered it to experienced users on the platform to make them easier to adapt after certain users had front-end collisions, he said.
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"Expenses related to collision and damage, primarily associated with EVs, remained high in the quarter," Hertz said in a regulatory filing on Thursday.
The company, which had earlier planned to order 100,000 Tesla vehicles by 2022 end and 65,000 units from Polestar over five years, said it would focus on improving profitability for the rest of its EV fleet.
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"While 20,000 cars isn't a large number in the total used vehicle market, it does mean Hertz will be taking a major loss on each of these sales while further contributing to the trend of falling used EV values," iSeeCars.com analyst Karl Brauer said.
Hertz is selling some Tesla Model 3 for as low as about $20,000, nearly half the purchase price for the cheapest variant of the compact sedan, its used car website showed.
It lists more than 700 EVs on sale, including BMW's i3, Chevrolet's Bolt and Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y SUVs. READ MORE
Excerpt from Detroit News: Ford Motor Co.'s decision to reduce all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup production is affecting 1,400 jobs in Dearborn. Meanwhile, it's hiring nearly 900 people in Wayne for assembly of Bronco SUVs and Ranger midsize trucks.
The Dearborn automaker in a Friday news release said it’s seeking to balance production to meet customer demand. It says it expects growth for Lightning sales this year, but it’s less than previously anticipated. The production cut is the latest pullback by the automaker in the EV space. READ MORE
Excerpt from The Verge: Edmunds reports that two months after purchasing a 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV RS AWD for its long-term test fleet, the SUV has been at the dealership for two weeks. With 23 fault codes on a diagnostic test, they wrote that “What we got back from the dealer was alarming: the single longest list of major faults we at Edmunds have ever seen on a new car.”
Things went even worse for InsideEVs writer Kevin Williams, whose weeklong test ended after 28 hours. The vehicle’s CarPlay- and Android Auto-free infotainment system went blank while he was driving, and then an attempt to charge the battery failed, producing a “Service Vehicle Soon” error message.
InsideEVs followed up its initial report, noting owners of other Ultium-powered electric vehicles from GM complaining of unusual and, so far, hard-to-fix issues with their cars. READ MORE
Excerpt from Transportation Energy Strategies: Will the second-hand market be one of the main tools for the massification of electromobility?
Not so soon, though. As for brand new vehicles, similar obstacles block the way:
Price, first. Maybe as a consequence of scarcity, the average price of second-hand electrified models is still significantly higher than for thermal vehicles, 33 grand for a BEV v. 20 for a gasoline-powered car. Or 22 for a diesel-powered car, still popular in non-urban areas, not concerned by low emission zones present and future diesel bans and with a good image of durability and low operating cost. Good ol’ diesel is not dead yet.
Recharge and range anxieties, next. Whether in France or in the U.S., opinion polls concur: 40% of respondents, including present “electro-motorists”, are not convinced that either recharging infrastructure or autonomy are on par with the existing state-of-the-art of the internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEV) ecosystem. Consequence: These are likely to wait and see before crossing the Rubicon to BEV, or will go halfway, toward HEV first, PHEV possibly, both relying on a thermal engine as a solace to autonomy anxiety.
Regarding range per se, it seems the more carmakers boast about progress, battery-wise mostly, the more incumbent motorists ask for more.
Location and ubiquity of recharge, a proxy for cost and competitiveness vs thermal vehicles, and for non-availability of the car, may also prove a near-future hurdle: cheap home-charging (but for how long? Check what happened last November in Connecticut when reality struck that liquid fuel taxes would somehow evaporate) was the fate for most early adopters, less likely to be the dominant model if urbanites or condo dwellers purchase BEVs.
Repairability and battery end-of-life, finally: Several media have been showing scary footage of huge BEV graveyards in China, battery problems not being minor in the decision to wreck those recent vehicles. ICEVs nowadays are resilient and a three-year old car is nearly as good as new when it comes to life expectancy. Is it the case for electrified vehicles, especially considering battery life, a big unknown with little to show in terms of experience curve? Not mentioning the present attitude of insurance companies, systematically recommending scrapping in case of accidents with possible shocks to the battery.
Can climate consciousness, in areas where electricity can really be low-carbon, temporary lower total cost of operation and the fear of low emission zones bans erase these worries? Time will say. For the time being, we note the nascence of a second-hand market for electrified vehicles, another prop for the massification of electromobility. READ MORE
Excerpt fromTechCrunch: “While electric vehicles may benefit the environment, the manufacturing and servicing of these vehicles still generates many harmful waste streams,” San Francisco district attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement.
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The complaint, filed January 30 in San Joaquin County Superior Court, stated that Tesla improperly labeled and disposed of materials like “lead acid batteries and other batteries,” paints, brake fluid, aerosols, antifreeze, acetone, diesel fuel and more at its production and service facilities throughout the state. Tesla also allegedly improperly disposed of the waste, both on-site and at landfills that can’t accept hazardous waste, according to the lawsuits.
While the lawsuit was just filed a day ago, the environmental investigation has been a six-year effort. READ MORE
Excerpt from Wall Street Journal: That energy is rapidly fading. Ford is cutting the plant’s output by half, and workers are relocating to other facilities, mostly those making gas-powered pickups and SUVs.
The sudden change “was a little bit of a shocker,” said Matthew Schulte, who inspects trucks at the factory in suburban Detroit. “Reality has set in.”
As recently as a year ago, automakers were struggling to meet the hot demand for electric vehicles. In a span of months, though, the dynamic flipped, leaving them hitting the brakes on what for many had been an all-out push toward an electric transformation.
A confluence of factors had led many auto executives to see the potential for a dramatic societal shift to electric cars: government regulations, corporate climate goals, the rise of Chinese EV makers, and
’s stock valuation, which, at roughly $600 billion, still towers over the legacy car companies.
But the push overlooked an important constituency: the consumer.
Last summer, dealers began warning of unsold electric vehicles clogging their lots. Ford,
, Volkswagen and others shifted from frenetic spending on EVs to delaying or downsizing some projects. Dealers who had been begging automakers to ship more EVs faster are now turning them down.
Even Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk warned of “notably lower” growth in vehicle deliveries for the company in 2024.
“This has been a seismic change in the last six months of last year that will rapidly sort out winners and losers in our industry,” said Ford Chief Executive Jim Farley on an earnings call in early February.
EV sales continue to grow, and auto executives say they remain committed to the technology. But many are recalibrating their plans.
Ford has pulled back on EV investment and could delay some vehicle launches, while increasing production of hybrids, which run on both gasoline and electricity. It lost a staggering $4.7 billion last year on its battery-powered car business and projects an even bigger loss this year, in the range of $5 billion to $5.5 billion.
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Many were hesitant to pay a premium for a vehicle that came with compromises.
Farley and other industry CEOs are still confident that EVs will eventually take off, albeit at a slower pace than initially envisioned. But for now, the massive miscalculation has left the industry in a bind, facing a potential glut of EVs and half-empty factories while still having to meet stricter environmental regulations globally. READ MORE
Excerpt from Politico: Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp told POLITICO’s Governors Summit on Thursday the Biden administration’s efforts to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles have been “counterproductive” and created public resistance to the technology.
Georgia has drawn billions of dollars in investments from carmakers Hyundai and Rivian for new EV manufacturing plants in the state. But Kemp said President Joe Biden’s legislation that poured billions of dollars into EVs had exposed gaps in the infrastructure needed to support the industry and spawned a backlash against the technology.
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“Most of that was not needed to drive that industry. It was already coming anyways,” Kemp said. “Along with the Biden mandates, it’s really pushed the market too quickly without charging being out there and other things. You look at the rare earth mineral markets, it’s just collapsed, it’s just a mess.”
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Kemp said a slowdown in Biden targets for EV sales would also be a welcome step.
“Anything they can do to undo some of that would be helpful. I mean, the time frames they are putting out there are simply unrealistic,” he said. READ MORE
Excerpt from Detroit News: With gasoline prices dropping, a new study suggests gas-powered vehicles may be more economic to fuel up versus an equivalent electric vehicle.
Entry-level gas-powered cars like the Honda Civic and Subaru Impreza had an average fueling cost of $9.46 per 100 purposeful miles, which are defined as those going to a destination, not a gas or charging station, according to the East Lansing-based consulting firm Anderson Economic Group, which has done business for automakers like General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. Ltd.; auto suppliers; and groups like the Nature Conservancy.
Meanwhile, the cost for 100 miles of operating similarly segmented EVs likes the Nissan Leaf or now-defunct Chevrolet Bolt was estimated at $12.55 when charging mostly at home based on U.S. Energy Information Administration energy cost data, which typically records Michigan electricity prices higher than the national average. The cost jumped to $15.98 with mostly commercial charging.
“With electricity prices steady and gas prices slightly down," Patrick Anderson, CEO and study author, said in a statement, "we continued to see most traditional gas-powered vehicles as more economical to fuel than their EV counterparts in late 2023." READ MORE
Excerpt from electrek: The CEO of Toyota isn’t mincing words, saying that he believes EVs will only make up 30% of the US new-vehicle market in 2030, half of the target the EPA sought last year. As the car industry’s largest hybrid pusher, Toyota says it is better positioned to just buy credits to close the EPA gap rather than “waste” money on BEVs, its CEO said.
In an interview with Automotive News, Toyota CEO Ted Ogawa said that the Japanese automaker plans to go with customer demand – and in his view, that’s varying degrees of “electrification,” usually in the form of hybrids with gas-burning engines.
Currently, the company is building a $13.9 million battery complex in North Carolina to be used in its EVs and hybrids sold in North America. Since 2021, Toyota has invested about $17 billion into its US manufacturing operations to build mostly hybrids.
“I know that EPA is now reconsidering what the regulation level should be. However, again, our starting point is what the customer demand should be. So, for example, 2030 regulations said the new-car market, more than half of it should be BEV, but our current plan is like 30%,” Ogawa said. “We are respecting the regulation, but more important is customer demand.” READ MORE
Excerpt from Wall Street Journal: The Biden administration is reviewing California’s plan to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035. To get federal approval, California claims it “needs” this ban to prevent harm to public health from particulate matter—airborne particles like dust, dirt and soot. But banning gasoline cars would do little to reduce particulate emissions, and it could even increase them.
That’s because new gasoline cars are very clean. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, cars emit only about 1% of all direct fine particulate matter in California, and most of those emissions come from older models. The newer gasoline cars that California wants to ban will often have particulate filters that reduce emissions to below one 1/1,000th of a gram per mile driven.
Where do most particulate emissions attributed to cars come from? California speaks as if their primary source is the tailpipe. That was true in the past. But today most vehicle-related particulate matter comes from tire wear. Cars are heavy, and as their tires rub against the road, they degrade and release tiny, often toxic particles. According to measurements by an emission-analytics firm, in gasoline cars equipped with a particle filter, airborne tire-wear emissions are more than 400 times as great as direct exhaust particulate emissions.
California calls electric cars “zero emissions vehicles” because they don’t have tailpipes. That is deceptive. Generating the electricity that powers those cars creates particulate pollution, and of course electric cars still use tires, which are made from petroleum. Electric cars weigh far more than gasoline-powered ones, so their tires degrade faster, as electric car buyers are learning. The same analytics firm cited earlier compared two cars—a plug-in electric and a hybrid. The electric car weighed about one-third more than the hybrid and emitted roughly one-quarter more particulate matter because of tire wear. Total direct emissions went up, not down, when the electric car was driven.
But when California’s air agency analyzed the effects of its ban, it used a model that assumes both kinds of cars have the same tire wear. When the public pointed out the error, the agency doubled down, claiming it would be “speculative” to assume that electric cars will continue to be heavier than gasoline cars. The agency mused that in the future automakers could probably “offset” the weight of heavy batteries with unspecified “weight reduction in other components or the vehicle body.”
California’s bureaucrats have it backward. What’s “speculative” is assuming that electric cars will soon weigh the same as the gasoline cars they replace. Electric cars are 15% to 30% heavier because batteries store far less energy per pound than liquid fuels. While weight differences between electric and gasoline cars have remained roughly constant over the past decade, the only reasonable prediction of trends is for electric cars to get heavier as manufacturers increase battery size to boost range. READ MORE
Excerpt from Forbes: Wall Street placed a hefty bet on the EV industry as if it was a tech company–software on wheels–without knowing much about car customers.
As a recent report in The Wall Street Journal put it, the EV hype and investment of the past several years, “overlooked an important constituency: the consumer.”
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Consumer Reports in its most recent annual auto reliability report, gave EVs low marks for reliability, especially pickup trucks. The survey found that new plug-in EVs have 79% more problems than conventional gasoline-powered vehicles. Plug-in hybrids were even worse, with 146% more problems.
The one standout category was hybrids–gasoline powered engines that are battery-assisted. The cars recharge themselves as they are driven. The survey found that these standard hybrids had 26 percent fewer problems than conventional cars. READ MORE
Excerpt from Associated Press: With U.S. electric vehicle sales starting to slow, Ford Motor Co. says it will delay rolling out new electric pickup trucks and a new large electric SUV as it adds gas-electric hybrids to its model lineup.
The Dearborn, Michigan, company said Thursday that a much ballyhooed new electric pickup to be built at a new factory in Tennessee will be delayed by a year until 2026.
The big electric SUV, with three rows of seats, will be delayed by two years until 2027 at the company’s factory in Oakville, Ontario near Toronto.
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Hybrid sales, however, grew 45% from January through March, while plug-in hybrids, which can go a short distance on battery power before a gas-electric system kicks in, grew 53% according to Motorintelligence.com.
Ford also said it “expects to offer” hybrid versions of all its gasoline passenger vehicles by the end of the decade in North America.
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Industry analysts say most early technology adopters and people who want to cut emissions have already purchased EVs. Automakers now have to convince skeptical mainstream buyers to go electric, but those customers fear limited range and a lack of charging stations.
Ford expects pretax losses for its electric vehicle unit to widen from $4.7 billion last year to a range of $5 billion to $5.5 billion this year. But it foresees commercial vehicles making $8 billion to $9 billion, up from $7.2 billion last year. Gasoline powered vehicles and hybrids are expected to make $7 billion to $7.5 billion, about even with last year. READ MORE
Excerpt from Financial Times: Port and car industry executives have pointed to a pile-up of Chinese electric cars as one of the leading causes of the problem, with some companies booking shipping delivery slots without ordering onward transportation. In other instances, carmakers in general are struggling to order trucks because of the lack of drivers and equipment to move the vehicles on.
“Car distributors are increasingly using the port’s car parks as a depot. Instead of stocking the cars at the dealers, they are collected at the car terminal,” said the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, whose port at Zeebrugge is Europe’s busiest port for car imports. “All major car ports” were struggling with congestion, the port added, without specifying the origin of the vehicles.
Some car industry executives said Chinese carmakers were not selling their vehicles in Europe as fast as they expected, which was a major contributor to the glut at the region’s ports.
“Chinese EV makers are using ports like car parks,” said one car supply chain manager.
Some Chinese brand EVs had been sitting in European ports for up to 18 months, while some ports had asked importers to provide proof of onward transport, according to industry executives. One car logistics expert said many of the unloaded vehicles were simply staying in the ports until they were sold to distributors or end users.
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BLG Logistics, the company that operates the car-handling terminal at the German port of Bremerhaven, Europe’s second-busiest port for vehicles, said it had experienced longer dwell times at its facilities after Germany’s federal government stopped subsidising purchases of EVs in December last year. READ MORE quoted in Jalopnik
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