The EV market is evolving
Kevin Drum has a post up showing that EV sales have plateaued recently in the US. It’s not clear to me whether that’s all EVs or just Teslas, but since Teslas remain the dominant EVs in the US, that’s a distinction without a difference.
I’d be happy to see more EVs on the road. But what would make me buy one? Well, one issue is price. I’d consider an econobox EV under $30K, but auto makers seem mostly to be slotting EVs as luxury purchases. Then there’s charging stations. My Tesla-owning friends shrug that off: there’s software to map the stations, you just have to plan. Well, I can’t recall a time since the gas shortages of the 1980s when I’ve had to plan my route around gas stations, and from what I’ve read, many charging stations are either broken or take hours to charge*.
So until EVs get cheaper and the infrastructure becomes more reliable, our next car will probably be an ICE or hybrid.
*Yes, I know some EV owners charge at home, but that’s not gonna help you on a multi-day driving vacation.
EV sales have plateaued
I’d be happy to see more EVs on the road. But what would make me buy one? Well, one issue is price. I’d consider an econobox EV under $30K, but auto makers seem mostly to be slotting EVs as luxury purchases. Then there’s charging stations. My Tesla-owning friends shrug that off: there’s software to map the stations, you just have to plan. Well, I can’t recall a time since the gas shortages of the 1980s when I’ve had to plan my route around gas stations, and from what I’ve read, many charging stations are either broken or take hours to charge*.
So until EVs get cheaper and the infrastructure becomes more reliable, our next car will probably be an ICE or hybrid.
*Yes, I know some EV owners charge at home, but that’s not gonna help you on a multi-day driving vacation.
EV sales have plateaued
Joel
consider keeping the freeway cruiser for those multi-day driving vacations. if you don’t do a lot of those you might still be helping the planet. then buy a hybrid you like for the shorter trips.
i lost my enthusiasm for EV’s for other than CO2 environmental concerns. high costs and dubious post purchase costs also made me think the market was not ready for me. and i just don’t like the idea of big expensive more powerful EV’s when the whole point was to reduce pressure on the planet. your concerns are not likely to be the same as mine, but seeing the USA in your Chevrolet might be a good transition strategy. I will say that my very reliable but old Ford did not encourage me to drive long distances on empty roads to go see remote places I would have liked to see, but I also hesitated because I have found those remote places to be crowded with tourists (like me) and not welcoming of people who want to be left alone to wander in the wilderness with their off leash best friends.
Unsurprisingly, luxury vehicle sales don’t do so well while the Fed is working diligently to crush wages and living standards.
EV takeup has likely permanently plateaued given that the automakers will not produce econobox EVs themselves and have purchased rules to ban low-cost EV imports.
Unsurprisingly, transport electrification is yet another problem that rentier societies cannot solve.
Ulysses
a word for the Fed: I understand the impression people have that the Fed is “crushing wages and living standards” but from what I can see the Fed is using the tools it has to try to drive a course between inflation and recession given the economy we have. it may be the tools they have are not the right tools for an inflation that is not driven by wage-price spiral in an economy that is in the hands of people with the power to control prices without fear of competition. that is a problem for us and Congress to solve.
personally i would rather not see an increase in luxury car sales.