Interesting news on the EV front.
Unlike the bodies that never stacked up like cordwood during the “pandemic,” they are piling up. There is a pushing three months’ worth inventory of unsold EVs – and there are only five months left in this year. It is probable that many 2023 model year EVs will not have been sold by the time it is 2024 – and it is possible there will be so many 2024s stacked up by then that dealers will be paying people to take the unsold (and rapidly depreciating) 2023s that are taking up space off their lots.
The reason for this problem is the putting of the supply horse ahead of the demand cart. It is of course normally the reverse. Demand for a thing prompts whoever sells it to supply more of it, to meet the increasing demand. But it is different with EVs. The “demand” signal is coming from the government – federal and state – via regulations that effectively require so-and-so-many EVs to made (and put on offer) but which the government isn’t buying.
We are expected to buy what the government demands.
The problem there is at least two-fold. First, most EVs are too expensive for most people to be able to afford – which renders economically irrelevant whether most people want an EV. Most people want many things they cannot afford – and so do not possess them. It is why most people do not own a private airplane, though it is likely true that most people would love to have one.
It is absurd to believe that $50,000 cars – electric or not – will ever become mass-market cars. For $50,000-plus cars – electric or not – are luxury cars and there are only so many people who can afford to buy a luxury car, electric or not.
The second problem is people do not have to buy EVs as there are still much more affordable alternatives to them, including the non-electric cars they already have. Evidence accrues in the form of the ever-increasing age of the average car in daily use – now around 12 years old – that millions of people either don’t want a new car or cannot afford one.
Electric or not.
Ordinarily, excess supply wold result in decreasing the supply of whatever it is that’s not selling. This would tend to lower the price of glutted-up inventory, thereby increasing demand and restoring the proper balance.
But this situation isn’t ordinary.
The government does not care whether there is sufficient market demand for EVs to justify increasing the supply of them. Because it does not care about the market. It is the antithesis of the market. It therefore insists the supply of EVs be increased – even in the face of obviously waning demand.
There are a couple of interesting things that are likely to happen as a result.
The first is that EVs are apt to become even more expensive – and so, even less affordable. This sounds paradoxical – and ordinarily would be, if there were an operative market. But because of government, the price will go up rather than down because government-mandated increases in the supply of EVs will drive up artificial demand for the batteries that power EVs – and batteries are the chief reason why EVs are expensive. And the raw materials needed to make EV batteries aren’t getting cheaper. Ergo, artificially induced, government-created demand for more EVs means more demand for EV batteries, which drives up the cost of the materials needed to make them, resulting in higher-priced EVs.
This will cause further decreases in demand for EVs – as higher prices will inevitably result in fewer people being able to buy one.
By the beginning of next year, there might be a six month supply of unsold EVs cluttering up dealership lots – leaving that much less space available to park the next batch of EVs produced for which there is little demand.
All of these parked EVs will need to be plugged in, too. EVs lose charge when they are just sitting. Just like a regular car’s 12 volt starter battery. If you leave the latter sitting for three or four months, it may not start when you try to start it. But you can always jump start it. You can’t do that with an EV. And – unlike a regular car’s 12 volt starter battery, which can be replaced for about $120 if you neglected to take proper care of it by leaving it sitting for months without keeping it hooked up to a battery tender – leaving an EV’s battery unplugged for months could mean having to replace it for a lot more than $120.
So, these idled – so to speak – EVs will have to be kept plugged in while they wait for buyers that might never come. Will the dealers get to write-ff their electric bills for this? And what about the wastage? And the “emissions”? After all, tens of thousands (possibly hundreds of thousands) of idled EVs plugged in for weeks/months will draw a lot of electricity from the grid – and cause the “emission” of “carbon” without anyone even driving the things.
All of this might have been avoided if the government hadn’t gotten into the business of demanding supply, Soviet Five-Year-Plan style. There might even be a market for EVs – if they cost less than a typical economy car. Which they would have, if the market had been allowed to operate – because there would have been a market incentive to offer cars that cost less (and so offered value) to people who wanted to spend less on a car. Such EVs would have been small – and as light as possible, in order to be as efficient as possible. They would not have been quick – but that is beside the point if the object is keeping costs down.
Instead, government-demanded EVs meet almost no one’s needs – and are much more expensive than the non-electric alternatives.
Expect a government solution for this government-mandated problem. It will likely take the form of eliminating the alternatives to government-demanded EVs, as by applying extortionate fees and costs for owning one that isn’t.
But that still won’t solve the problem of increasing the supply of that for which there isn’t congruent demand.
. . .
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Truth about Electric Car Sales & Why it Could Wipe out Motor Industry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGMWk1Lj-gw
The fate of EVs may be due to changing interest rates, this week mortgage rates started going up again – and that means home prices will stagger, maybe decline. The magical threshold is 8% on a 30 year fixed mortgage, and rates are already above 7%, just a year ago they were below 3%.
No one writes about this, but it is my observation one of the key factors in EV sales was the huge price increases in homes, say your home goes up $100,000, that is like free money, and thus the EV buyer justifies the expense as affordable.
But if the housing bubble pops like it did in 2006-9, then such optimism fades, and home owners get hesitant on buying a new Tesla, and that makes the supply inventory build up, just as we are seeing.
And the disadvantages of an EV are not just blown off. Consumers get more cautious, and study what they might buy for their next car, instead of just getting an EV to virtue signal and keep up with the latest fad.
I really believe the EV craze was driven by Zero Interest Rate Policies of the Fed, which created huge asset bubbles in stocks and real estate, and like the 1920s – the bonfire of the vanities.
Hi Jack,
I don’t doubt that rising interest rates on loans are a contributory factor. On homes and cars. Now add devaluation (i.e., “inflation”) and this idea that $50,000 (or even $40,000) cars – EV or not – are going to be mass market cars is moonshine.
Huh? There was/is no “craze” for EVs. It is a Soviet style top down attack on mobility. To control it for those able to pay for an EV and to limit, if not totally eliminate it in any private capacity, for those who can’t. Period. The level of interest rates has nothing to do with it.
I think too many people fail to get this aspect of limited mobility that is being pushed by the PTB. Eric gets it, you & I get it, but most people just drink the ‘green Koolaide’ and go on about their day. We, on the other hand, must go on about our day, dodging the ‘koolaide waterfall’ as we go, lol!
I’ll be honest. I could afford to buy an EV. But I don’t choose to buy one.
Why? There are 2 main reasons. First, I live in a condo. There is an EV charger in the building but only a couple of them and they are almost always occupied. I don’t have the option to put one in my parking place for my personal use.
Second, I take one or two long distance drives each year. On those drives, I drive as much as 1000 miles in a day (true story). I can’t figure out how I would make those drives with an EV at all.
So the EV doesn’t fit my daily life because I can’t charge it from my personal parking space. And I can’t do long distance drives.
They could give me an EV for free and it would never become my main vehicle. (I would take it and sell it if anyone wanted to give me a Tesla of course.). It simply isn’t practical for personal use. That is all.
Hi Krista,
For me, an electric vehicle would be a useless vehicle. I do have a garage – so I could charge the thing at home. But who would willingly want to add the daily, endless hassle of plugging the stupid car in? And unplugging it? It sounds like a small thing, but – try it. I have. Instead of just getting in your car and going, you have to deal with that stupid cord, which is a trip hazard and annoying.
Then there is having to wait – for hours/overnight – to get any meaningful charge back. Now I have to constantly think about how far I can go and how much time I have to wait. Who willingly wants to do that? This problem compounds for me because I regularly drive more than 100 miles in a day and this pushes the typical EV’s less-than-fully charged range into the Danger Zone where you’re getting close to not much range left and dreading being stranded – or having to park at some “fast” charger for 30-45 minutes and enjoy the scenic beauty of a Wal Mart parking lot.
No, thanks.
Not for $50,000 especially.
Even if you didn’t mind the hassles of “plugging in”, there’s a few more problems those that tout these EVs haven’t figured out:
1) WHEN will you charge your EV? Right when you get home from work, during PEAK DEMAND hours? Expect “sticker shock ” with your next utility bill. If you set the timer to wait until peak demand is over, will that leave enough tjme to fully charge?
2) What VOLTAGE will you charge with? 110 or 220? The latter is typically much better for electrical safety (lower amps) but often the available 220V is one 50 amp breaker. But if you don’t need to run AC, or the dryer, or range, or hot water heater….or you can add a second 50A circuit…after getting a permit, concurrence of the electric company, and hiring a qualified electrician…just add MONEY….LOTS of it!
3) Finally, your home insurer will likely raise your premiums if you have an EV, as they’ll assume its garaged. They might have concerns about EV fires in or near an insured’s garage.
These people must have watched Field of Dreams on loop until they believed the bulls#!+
“When The Dogs Won’t Eat the Dog Food”
‘Global EV penetration volumes have tracked below expectations so far this year, at 13.5% through May, “well below” estimates of just under 18%. It is “likely marking the first time in recent years that EV penetration has disappointed,” Barclays analysts said.
‘There are concerns about weak U.S. EV sales and also reports of “sharply rising EV inventory,” the analysts said.
‘Citing data from Wards, Barclays pointed at EV inventory of 95,000 vehicles by the end of June, the highest ever, with the highest amount of stock for Ford’s electric Mustang Mach-E SUV, at about 16,000 vehicles in inventory, and Volkswagen’s ID.4, also an SUV, at 14,000 vehicles in inventory.
‘GM is not off the hook, either: Despite the company’s increase in EV sales and “robust” market-share gain, much of that came from its Chevy Bolt models, which are nearing the end of production, the analysts said.’
https://tinyurl.com/47memka4
The idiot fedgov ginned up a huge EeeVee bubble. But when the bottom starts falling out, auto makers are on their own.
Lord knows, Eric warned them. But EeeVee Mary and Jim ‘Mach-e’ Farley just wouldn’t listen. Better pull the ripcords on them golden parachutes, guys!
“When Supply Exceeds Demand”
‘On Wednesday, Lucid (ticker: LCID) said it made 2,173 vehicles in the second quarter and sold 1,404 of them. The company made 2,314 units in the first quarter and sold 1,406.
‘Both numbers are down from the company’s record fourth-quarter production and deliveries. Lucid made 3,493 units in the final quarter of 2022 and delivered 1,932 of them.’
https://tinyurl.com/56u5kcry
Do the maff, and it appears that over the last three quarters, Lucid has built 3,238 more vehicles than it has sold. This means that some buggered bagholder is stuck with a whole lotta Lucids.
Hard to understand why punters aren’t lining up around the block, when they can get in on the ground floor at a low, low $87,400. 🙁
First they came for your car, but I wasn’t a car owner, so I didn’t speak up.
It is the plan to separate you from one of your belongings, you car is the target. You won’t need one, you’ll be happy without.
They’re sheep in wolf’s clothing, all bunkum and bosh, lies, deceit, never a word can be believed. They’ll run like scared jackrabbits. Bill is due for another shaving cream pie in the face.
Just how it is.
Drove a Toyota Rav 4, killer automobile.
Aesop told a great fable.
One was the fable of the wolf in sheep’s clothing. The wolf thought he had it all figured out, wear a sheep hide, you have a feast before your eyes.
One night, the Shepard decided to have some mutton for supper The Shepard not knowing the wolf was in sheep’s clothing chose the wolf as the victim, the wolf was slayed much to the surprise of the Shepard. The Shepard mistakenly killed the wolf, can’t always be right.
Much to the chagrin of the wolf. Have to make a sacrifice or two in this world.
Wise words from Aesop the Fable Guy:
That evening the Wolf entered the fold with the flock. But it happened that the Shepherd took a fancy for mutton broth that very evening, and, picking up a knife, went to the fold. There the first he laid hands on and killed was the Wolf.
“The tyrant can always find an excuse for his tyranny.”
“The unjust will not listen to the reasoning of the innocent.”
“The evil doer often comes to harm through his own deceit.”
Not often enough and never before they really muck things up.
The solution embraced by the Psychopaths In Charge is to give you no option, by disposing of ICVs, so you have to buy EVs. Except most folks in this totally effed up by the same PIC economy most folks can’t afford even a new ICV, much less a twice the price EV. Their goal is obvious, get you out of your car. Which does not bode well for the car makers. Especially when they end up sitting on inventory that CAN’T be sold. Because their potential customers are already living on credit.
As you, I, and others here have noted before. The EV market is saturated. All those who can afford one, and want one, already have one. Frankly, I’m surprised there is ANY demand for EVs. Not sure what’s going on in China, except it may be exactly what’s going on here. That being required to make them, regardless no one wanting one, which is creating these massive storage facilities for a thing they can’t sell.
‘People do not have to buy EVs as there are still much more affordable alternatives to them, including the non-electric cars they already have’ — eric
Funny, that’s exactly what Toyota says in a July 5th letter to EPA ‘administrator’ Michael Regan, about the harsh new ’emissions’ regs effective in 2027:
‘The annual stringency increases in the first three years of the proposed rule are extreme and outside historical norms. We are concerned that this extreme rate may have a paradoxical effect on CO2 emissions – lowering the volume of older, higher polluting vehicles replaced because artificial shortages will be created of low-carbon non-BEV vehicles that many customers prefer.
‘EPA should adjust the standards to account for major uncertainties over which automakers have little control, but for which we face significant compliance and brand/reputation ramifications should they not come to bear. Compliance cannot be based on factors over which we have no control.’
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/toyota-calls-bidens-epa-plan-boost-ev-sales-unrealistic
Artificial shortages of vehicles with engines will be caused by bitter clingers like myself, who exhibit hostile anti-government attitudes while snarling, ‘They’ll have to peel muh vintage vehicle from muh cold, dead fingers.’
Who contributes more to our quality of life — Toyota, with its superbly engineered vehicles; or a parasitical DemonRat apparatchik like ‘Michael Regan,’ who wants to punish the productive for factors beyond their control?
Okay, I apologize for giving away the answer with such a loaded question. 🙁
EPA should just disappear. There is no need for it (like many mafia agencies) any longer and its totally an affront to a free society. They are true parasites. Living off of productive people while sucking the life out of them.
I saw one of those China report videos on youtube. Apparently BEV makers in China in order to show they are meeting their numbers are building BEVs, registering them, and then parking them in vacant lots and other odd places.
Politics always ends up this way, nothing but lies and illusions of meeting what is required by power. Much like the 55mph NMSL and states pretending they were getting compliance. Now there be this pretending that BEVs are selling and being used.
I can afford a $50K car. My reasonable cut-off/limit for a new (or new-to-me) car is about $65K at the moment. But I promise you the last fucking thing on earth that I would buy for $50K (or more) is a god damned EV.
I have to believe that there are other people in my “range” too that, while they still can, will buy anything *but* a fucken EV.
To be honest, if they weren’t forcing away ICE vehicles and if EVs were just an available option, *maybe* I wouldn’t be so hard over on it. Maybe but I doubt it. I like engines.
Now if they had affordable *new* EVs (i.e., down in the $20K range or so) *and* they weren’t being forced, maybe I would have considered one for a second or third vehicle. Maybe. But again, I fucken like engines!
But, point being, all of this bullshit put together means: NO FUCKEN WAY. It’s the last thing I will do. I am taking delight seeing these fuckers eat shit and die. There’s few things more satisfying than a government mandated bullshit trip going up in flames. And watching all the collaborators up to their eyeballs in broken, stupid plans… that’s just the icing on the cake.
I recently bought a 2023 Subaru Crosstrek, Kinda small but I have a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee, a 2012 Tahoe and a 2007 Envoy. Several drivers. I bought the Crosstrek after Eric’s review, and also as it may be the last manual tranny by Subaru. We had an outback but the rubber band tranny went kerplukt was 7 K to replace. Then the car would be worth 6K. I figure the manual will be repairable. It gets great mileage averaging 30 city, 38 highway ( I measured this myself, not the mfg). It is fun to drive, has few nanny features, I just swear at them. The only one I really dislike is the read text on the screen “nanny” it will not show text messages on the screen if I am driving, my thought is WTF it shows other shit like channels, etc, just as “distracting” so if I want to see the text my wife just sent, I have to use my personal spy device. That just became against the law in my state, Michigan. We will see how that works out. Cops of course are the worst offeders as far as being distracted by screens, most have 3-4 screens going with varying sound effects, not including the music.
It was about 26K out the door. Doesn’t have a lot of other nanny features.
I’m with you. The thought of being forced to buy an EV makes me want to hurl. I bought my latest car for the engine and am very happy to have upgraded. It’s so satisfying every time I start it up and the thing drives like a dream. I think its going to get weird for car buyers the closer we get to 2035. Funny thing is all these fast chargers in our area are always almost empty. Are people learning already that sitting around wasting 45 minutes in a hot or cold parking lot is not their idea of a good time?
There is a guy up my street who sells used cars, and he has a brand new looking Chevy Bolt, and it has been parked there for at least 6 months. He drives his other trades, but not that one. It just sits there. Never moves, last week he stuff it full of junk. LOL he’s using it as a storage locker and it is brand new!
I have this sneaking suspicion that poor guy got suckered and now is the bag holder. The original owner probably noticed the range decreasing and unloaded it – for more than it was worth, and now my neighbor has this EV albatross around his neck.
Scotty Kilmer, the infamous youtube mechanic, says dealers absolutely do NOT want any Prius on trade in – because they do not want some hybrid whose battery is about to go tits up – which is also why Prius is all over Craigslist and Facebook marketplace. (a good topic for an essay Eric).
Obviously the problem with Prius battery pales in comparison to EV battery. (The real problem with Prius is Toyota should of made it fully operational without the hybrid battery – so it would always be a aerodynamic little car with their 1.5 liter engine).
And does GM really want to build Bolts?
Wiki “An unnamed source cited by Bloomberg News estimated that General Motors is expected to take a loss of US$8,000 to US$9,000 per Bolt sold”
EVs are like musical chairs, they get passed around until the music (battery) stops. The grim reality of every EV is someone is going to get stuck with replacing the battery some day.
The irony is I see multiple ads for rebuilding Prius batteries ranging from $400-800 USD. It involves testing and selectively replacement of bad/weak cells and.usually has a 3 year warranty. For a car that gets 40-50 mpg, that’s almost a cost of regular repair/maintenance, nothing like a $22,500 Tesla battery!!! And I routinely see Prius’s for sale with 200-300K miles at the low end of used car prices. I’ve almost bought one,may do it yet…just depends on gasoline prices.
Everything Fedzilla touches turns to goo. As you pointed out, real organic competition doesn’t exist in the EeeeVeee market. If it did we could buy 5K$ eeevees from China. Misallocation of resources always happens at or near market tops. The market now hovering, out over the cliff, Wiley Coyote style, is peak civilization.
Seems like the mania has moved on. Soon they’ll come up with a new current thing. Those early EV adopters probably wont get fooled again. Even though a suckers born every minute, most suckers don’t have 50-60K Laing around. Unless there is some fantastic leap forward in the current battery technology, my guess is, its over. The heart of their narrative is about to experience some heart stopping bumpity bumps.
‘Unless there is some fantastic leap forward in the current battery technology …’ — Norman Franklin
Meanwhile, here and now, Big Gov is subsidizing a vast build-out of plants to make obsolete Old Tech batteries that weigh 1,000 to 2,000 lbs, turning EeeVees into lead sleds.
It’s as if the Woody Wilson administration had subsidized 600-lb cast iron, coal-burning stoves, just as sheet-metal gas stoves emerged on the scene. But the US fedgov wasn’t that rich, back in them days. And Wanker Woody blew megabucks fighting his useless WW I.
https://www.oldhouseonline.com/kitchens-and-baths-articles/kitchen-appliances/history-of-the-kitchen-stove/
Karma being what it is, batteries weighing ten times less probably will be discovered a few years after the EeeVee bubble and Battery Baloney crash and burn. But next time round, EeeVees will have to succeed on their own merits.
And as a krusty, knuckle-dragging Luddite, I still won’t buy one. Indeed, I may even seek out an ancient ring-ding two-stroke, just to spread a mephitic blue cloud of contempt in my wake. Troubled? Don a mask, comrade! 😉
Whoa — had no idea the ‘blockquote’ html tag would print out in sky-blue, 48-point italic. Whassup with that? :-0
@ Jim H,
Do you actually *remember* html tags (props if you do), or is there a “side entrance” to this discussion group with a more “robust” interface, meaning buttons you can push, to make life easier?
Hey, Eric sent me.
Will a fiver do it? 🙂
Seems they’re turning my boyhood stomping ground into a mega high tech manufacturing Mecca. The whole 303 bypass is already littered with high tech. They probably picked that area because its close to the Amazon airport in Goodyear.
All the spittle and phlegm coming from our scrub of a guvrenesssss about ‘securing the water future,’ utter nonsense to further their war on the rural counties. After all, if they poison their groundwater with a giant lithium battery plant, they’ll just come to points north and steal it.
The funny and ironic part of it is, they really could have their utopia. All they would need to do is stop allowing unlimited immigration and the situation would stabilize as the older Arizonians died off. Wouldn’t want to do that though as they might have to pay everyone a few $$$ more. They’re probably making replacement robots in those factories anyway. Hope they make one capable of wiping politicians asses.
Woody Wilson was bankster Bernard Baruch’s bitch. Hence why he hornswoggled the US to go “Over There” and kick the Kaiser’s ass.
The present Phony POTUS is sucking the member of Baruch’s great-grandson, as well as Xi.
Economic reality in the USA has caught up, the baseline cost of survival about equal to stagnating wages doesn’t leave $$ excess for a $50k vehicle or, for many, a $35k vehicle.
Daughter teaches at local university, tenure track jobs getting scarce so most there like her are year to year contracts for less than $65k a year. Son in law Army vet, finished a degree in GIS job offers in high cost places less than $75k. Cost to move not worth it for 1990 wages. I made more with a 2 year tech degree 20 years ago.
Some may see those wages as more than enough, try buying a house here in WA good luck. Move for better pay, it needs to be a lot better or forget it. I read or hear stories of companies “can’t find hard workers for these tech jobs”. Well, if you paid in line with modern living expenses you’d be well staffed. Don’t mean to sound socialist but this situation in USA is BS.
We tried to make Vancouver, WA work for four years. We were never able to afford a house despite a six figure take home income after taxes.
The people who make it work either have family help/inheritance, mid six figure take home incomes, or got established on the real estate food chain 20+ years ago.
This is exactly the situation, “kids” are mid forties the military stint of 20 years meant many moves and about 25k in money lost on two houses bought and sold North Carolina and Alabama over 18 years. When they returned here no equity to buy, they lucked out and got a Craftsman style old house as a rental. It had just been refurbished was great, especially considering the over priced trashers they looked at for six months running. Swung a deal with the owners to buy, I helped with a down payment and all good but not much extra dough each month even with two incomes. Taxes eat up even a decent dual income here in WA. Move again and think about buying, with current mortgage rates, fuggeta bout it.
Apparently, they can be shipped to Sweden, or is it Norway that has a large percentage of EVs among new car sales? That might take up 10% of the excess supply, either nation being a good bit smaller than the US market. It will be interesting what the hell the US Psychopaths In Charge do to “solve” this, and probably not in a good way. What, nationalize the car industry, new and used? They could get us all out of cars a lot quicker that way. Although it may double the 32 trillion dollar debt a lot sooner.
“Five year plans and new deals,
Wrapped in golden chains”. – CCR – “Who’ll stop the rain?”
Except the chains are starting to show a little rust now.
Cash for Clunkers 2.0 is coming.
I didn’t look into the numbers closely, but Tesla reported record deliveries for Q2 last week. The masses still believe that they will eventually cruise to work at Ludicrous Speed.
Until the Cybertruck disappoints on a large scale, I think Tesla has Teflon PR. That may be enough to carry the company until this time next summer, when CAFE kicks in for the 2025 model year and limits alternatives to EVs.
“The government does not care whether there is sufficient market demand for EVs to justify increasing the supply of them. Because it does not care about the market.” -EP
Free markets tend to impose efficiency, honesty, order and self-determination upon society. Thus, the free market is anathema to governments, whose stock in trade is waste, lies, chaos and control.
There hasn’t been a free market in the US for decades if not over a century now.
“So, these idled – so to speak – EVs will have to be kept plugged in while they wait for buyers that might never come.” -EP
This is an interesting point. It would be enlightening to find out what the dealer protocol for this is. Do they have a lot boy constantly rotating the EV inventory through the on-site charging stations?
This is absolutely obnoxious:
‘Your next home will probably be able to charge your car. As electric vehicle sales soar, local governments require builders to include EVSE-ready infrastructure in their new builds.
‘Updated U.S. building codes are about to change drastically. Quartz reports that homes that typically feature one or two 240-volt plugs will now be ready to install Level 2 chargers. All homes will be required to be “EV ready”, with the ability to charge electric vehicles built into building blueprints.’ — Blink Charging
https://tinyurl.com/2sp2sydb
Blink Charging, of course, rakes in big bucks by bribing government to shove its products down unwilling homeowners’ throats.
This makes charging companies into the same kind of social parasites as the Insurance Mafia: entities whose sales are derived from compulsion, not consumer choice.
At least the Soviets gave you a crappy apartment for free. Here in Amerika, you have to pay for all the gov-mandated googaws and baubles — solar panels, EeeVee ready, etc. Then they charge you property tax on them forever more. It is to laugh, comrades. Or just burn the sucker down …
Hi Jim,
I vote for burn this sucker down, which might happen spontaneously as more EV’s get stored inside a homeowner’s garage 😆.
KB Home already drank the Kool Aid:
https://news.kbhome.com/press-releases/news-details/2022/KB-Home-Launches-First-Microgrid-Communities-in-California/default.aspx
There is no natural gas piping in the subdivision, let alone anything as heretical (and sinful!) as a “fireplace,” even one lit by gas logs, since there is no gas.
I wonder how long it will be until Califuckwithyou outlaws outdoor gas barbecue grills. Won’t affect me, unless they start issuing fines for operating a wood burning smoker. 🙂
There are suckers born every minute…
So any bets on what will happen to all this excess inventory?
Drop to the market clearing price?
Push them off on government and institutional fleets?
Move them to Carvana or auction sites?
There’s a retail store called Ollie’s. They buy up failed products for pennies and resell for a little mark-up. My parents love this store because they can get deals. I hate it because it is a monument to failed entrepreneurship (although ironically a successful one). Maybe Ollie’s could get a dealer license and take these vehicles off the dealer’s hands.
Hold on! I get my brake cleaner there. Cheapest in town. They are the only company selling regular old socks and towels too that aren’t 800 thread or whatever
There is also the fact that owning, maintaining, and driving an EV is a royal pain in the arse.
Even if you have $50,000 or more to blow on an EV, you have to find an available charging station and/or have a charging station installed in your home.
Now if you live in a well-off suburb of a super city with lots of charging stations, and own a house with a garage and an electrical service that can take an extra 220-volt “dryer plug,” you might be OK. But what if you don’t—and most people don’t.
And no matter what happens, you have to wait a while when your EV is charging—even for fast chargers. But don’t use the fast chargers too often, ‘cause they really wear out your batteries. And those batteries aren’t cheap. But it doesn’t matter, because an EV that’s 3 years old is obsolete, so you need to get a new one.
Taking a road trip? Plan for a lot of stops along the way to charge. Maybe you need to add a few extra days just to get there and back.
And what if it’s really cold out—or hot out? You lose half of what little range you’ve got. And unlike that nasty old gasoline or diesel-powered car that gives you heat for free from the otherwise wasted heat of the engine, your heat comes from the already shrunken battery. Heaven help you if you get stuck in a blizzard.
What about maintenance and repairs? Yeah, you don’t have oil changes and transmission fluid changes and all that stuff. But EVs aren’t maintenance free. And in some cases, they need more maintenance. Take tires. Because they’re so heavy and accelerate so quickly, they tend to wear out tires sooner. And EVs need special prescription tires; the cheap Wal-Mart ones won’t do.
If they need work, you have to take them to the EV stealer-ship, because they’re the only ones who can work on your EV without breaking it.
One of the nice things about being rich—or having any money at all—is the ability to avoid a lot of hassle and inconvenience in your life. So why pay for more hassle and inconvenience?
And if you’re not rich, then too bad for you. You’ll just summon an electric Uber if you’re lucky.