What if the attempt to push people into EVs was actually meant to be a push to get people out of vehicles, generally – by pricing them out of new vehicles, generally? It is a reasonable conclusion based upon the effects of the EV push.
New vehicles cost more than they ever have. You probably have heard already about the average “transaction price” – what most people pay for a new vehicle – having sailed past $50,000. Not just the electric ones – but because of them.
Why?
In the first place, because the cost of EVs – the actual costs – had to be partially offloaded onto the cost of other vehicles, to make EVs seem less costly than they actually are and to reduce the costs of EVs, in terms of losses to the vehicle manufacturers. As an example, Ford has admitted that it cost the company at least $20,000 to “sell” each F-150 Lightning. The actual cost is probably higher and it is probably true that buyers of other, non-electric Fords paid for some of that.
This is a general effect that has pushed up the cost of all new vehicles. Yes, there has been inflation. Yes, there were supply chain disruptions during “COVID” that pushed up the prices of both new and used vehicles (the latter on account of increased demand for them due to the decreased supply of new vehicles). But “COVID” has been over for several years (excluding the ongoing derangement in the heads of the lingering remnant of “maskers”) and there are no longer any supply chain disruptions to explain why the cost of new (and used) vehicles remains high – and waxes higher.
So, why?
Well, because the regulations that pushed EVs into mass production also pushed hybrid drivetrains and inappropriately small, heavily turbocharged engines into mass production. Ten years ago, hybrids were a niche product made chiefly to appeal to people who chiefly wanted a very high-mileage car. There were just a few hybrids on the market and none of them were luxury-brand or performance models.
Why? Because it’s silly – if the putative purpose is saving money. Because one does not save money by paying more – a great deal more – for a vehicle (plus the higher insurance costs – don’t forget that) to “save” money by spending a little less on gas.
More finely, it is a particular species of curious inanity to assert that people who buy expensive vehicles are motivated by “gas mileage.” It is a species of inanity on par with the assertion that people who buy three-ton EVs that get to 60 MPH in 3 seconds that cost $75,000 buy them because they are wanting to do their bit to prevent the “climate” from “changing.” Maybe they want to be be seen as doing that. But if they actually did believe it, they’d be taking the bus or riding a bicycle. Or maybe driving a Prius.
Just as the “elites” would not be flying in private jets to Davos, to be picked up at the also-private airport by limos that aren’t electric, either.
Well, you may have noticed that hybrid drivetrains are now standard equipment in probably half of all new vehicles and most luxury-performance vehicles, such as many BMW, Mercedes, Lexus and Audi models.
Why is that?
Is it reasonable to believe there is market demand in the luxury vehicle segment for hybrid drivetrains? How about for inappropriately small (and heavily turbocharged) engines in vehicles that used to always come standard with V6 engines?
For example, mid-sized (and well over 4,000 pound) crossovers such as the 2026 Toyota Highlander I am currently test driving? This model used to always come with a 3.5 liter V6. It also used to cost around $35k – as recently as 2022. Today, it comes with a much smaller 2.4 liter four, augmented by a turbo – and it costs $43k to start. Yes, part of that increase can be blamed upon inflation; i.e., the waning buying power of the dollar, which causes the prices of things to seemingly increase by dint of the fact that it takes more dollars to buy the same things.
But the ’26 Highlander isn’t exactly the same thing – as is true of many new model year vehicles that aren’t otherwise different from prior model year examples, except insofar as they have smaller – and turbocharged – engines now. Some are also equipped with hybrid drivetrains. As a case in point, the current Honda Accord comes only with your “choice” of a 1.5 liter four cylinder engine or a 2.0 liter four cylinder engine, the latter augmented by a hybrid set-up.
Its base price is $28,395.
Go back ten years and the Accord came standard with a 2.4 liter four that did not need a turbo to make about the same power as the current 1.5 liter turbocharged four and could be had with a V6 for about the same as the price as the current Accord with the 1.5 liter turbo’d four.
There are many other such examples.
The thread running through it all is that vehicles – generally – have gotten much more expensive since the EV push began. Just five years ago, there were still a number of new vehicles available for less than $20k. There are no such vehicles available today. It is likely that, within another five years, it will be impossible to buy a new vehicle for less than $30k (and quite possibly it will take more than that) and that plus the rising cost of necessities – including gas – is likely to drive the majority of people, who are not affluent, out of the new car market.
This is congruent with an agenda that has been in play for at least the past 50 years to get the majority out from behind the wheel.
It sounds a b it much, I realize. But look around. Notice what is happening and why. It is not happening by random chance.
It is deliberate.
And it is working.
. . .
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[…] https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2026/03/09/the-real-purpose-of-the-ev-push/ […]
Making vehicles more expensive to push the little guy out of being able to afford new cars is just one part of the agenda here.
I’ve said for several years that EVs are intended to be the stepping-stone to ending ownership and use of cars. In addition to the cost, you have to consider the hassle. The nanny tech, tracking ability, and external control in newer cars are features, not bugs, for the elites, comrade. We’ve had stories about Elon Musk shutting down certain owners’ ability to use Teslas after those owners were critical of him or the company.
Piling on new fees and taxes, as well as new restrictions and heavy-handed enforcement of vehicle laws, will making operating vehicles on the road now ever more expensive.
But here’s what few in the US realize: in Europe the net-zero carbon agenda envisions ending sales of new private vehicles including EVs by 2050 and limiting use of those vehicles that remain. Even EVs are not zero-carbon—that’s the rationale. This end-game has barely been mentioned, but is starting to come out into the open.
So when Eric says EVs are intended to push people out of vehicles altogether, he’s right and you should take it seriously.
This intention has been in the works for decades.
in the 70’s there was a mantra repeated over and over again in the media; “we must end Americas love affair with the automobile”.
Much time and effort was put into this goal and the crazy thing is they achieved it and made us pay for it.
I saw a gorgeous S63 AMG Mercedes convertible yesterday at Publix, I will say that a premium car like this is truly special. You won’t see the attention to details and the high quality materials in a KIA, but looking inside what do I see in the dash but a huge plug ugly iPad looking thing, like a parasite caught from a nearby Tesla. How could they ruin such a beautiful machine?
My last new car as a 2014 Cayenne Diesel but m y 2002 Tahoe is still going strong with 337,000 miles. No connected nonsense but the obsolete analog Onstar (antenna removed in 2004) I fully expect both of these vehicles to last long enough to be outlawed. (like I give a crap)
It’s about a lot more than just getting people out of private cars. That’s just a tip of a much larger iceberg.
The other day I read a blog post on Substack, from an Australian who now has to contend with some of the comments to his articles displaying a notice along the lines of:
“This comment may not be suitable for some readers. To continue, please verify your age.”
Substack is an American platform which started off as a ‘defender of freedom of speech’. Like Elon’s Twitter, right? /s
Apparently just like Elon with Brazil, it didn’t take them long to fold over to the Australian government’s ban on social media access for under 16-year olds. Even though it is arguable whether Substack even qualifies as ‘social media’ and even though nobody knows just why some comments may be ‘objectionable’.
For now, these blocks can be bypassed using a VPN, but for how long? The EU is about to implement similar laws and others will follow. Britain’s government has already stated they’d like to ban private VPN altogether.
I’ve no doubt the ultimate aim is to stop the plebs from even accessing the Internet without a digital ID, so anything and everything they may want to look at will be logged and potentially locked away.
Which will then ‘need’ to be linked to your digital wallet with a government-issued programmable currency. To provide ‘convenience’, you see, for your Amazon Prime purchases.
On that particular note, a large pilot project is under way in India right now – apparently up to 800 million people get ‘free’ cash to buy food, but only for certain foodstuffs, which must be bought from government-approved stores, and the money itself has an expiration date!
No saving for the Pajeets!
When you’re living in a 15-minute city, buying food using your digital ‘universal basic income’, having it delivered by Amazon drones and/or Elon’s robots, accessing the – fully censored and therefore SAAAAFE – Internet only if your social credit is sufficiently high, you’ll be a lot more interested in whether your ‘vaccinations’ are up to date rather than what car you may afford to buy.
Because the answer to that last one will be really, really easy.
Hi Eric, et al,
Not only do they hate the little people but the “elites” really wish the useless eaters to just die…..the prevalence of eugenics in those circles seems obvious to me. And a shitload of the followers of these folks, especially those rabid Zionists, see the goyim as stock animals….man, it’s hard for me to believe how these folks condemn the NSDAP, given the similar underpinnings. Oh well, at least Iran has done some real damage and no foreign entity will ever again trust the U.S. and Israel….it will take a while but Zionism is toast.
Be very careful what you wish for, if they’re pushed out of Israel, where do you think they will end up? (Hint, New York news are obnoxious, pushy, and influential…)
Article on the new Chevy bolt. Consider the source before taking too much at their word.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/03/new-battery-new-motor-but-the-2027-chevrolet-bolt-keeps-its-charm/
You’ll pay top dollar for a POS car that nannies and spies on you.
No V-6s or V-8s for you plebe. You’ll buy overly complex and unreliable turbo 4s, hybrids or electric powertrains and like it.
I hate modern cars and have decided to keep my old, paid-for cars on the road, no matter the cost.
It’s not just car companies deciding to ignore customers.
Hollywood shoves anti-white, globohomo agitprop down everyone’s gullets and calls it entertainment. Even though box office receipts, corporate profits and streaming numbers continue to decline, Hollywood just turns up the offensiveness to 11.
To make it even more galling, they blame it on the fans!
there’s nothing unreliable about toyota’s hybrid powertrain.
i’d pick the Grand Highlander hybrid XLE (not the MAX since I avoid turbos) did I want a new vehicle.
More of the enshitification of everything. The idea of a market where a supplier builds something to meet customer expectation, at decent quality for a fair price is long gone.
The economy is planned from top to bottom with a veneer of choice to keep the rubes distracted. It’s actually worse than the Soviet Union’s planned economy because the products they managed to cobble together were at least intended for the rabble, cheap as shit but functional Yugos and Trebants that could be maintained with a screwdriver, a Crescent wrench and some duct tape.
Our market is more like ancient Eygpt except the slaves don’t realize it because there are no literal chains. That may come but they aren’t necessary unless the masses wake up and start to push back. Why bother with handcuffs and jail cells when your prisoners willingly accept their sentence?
Bingo.
But we call it “market capitalism,” so that’s what everyone blames.
Free market capitalism, my fat hairy butt.
Eric, you are absolutely correct, they do hate “the little people” having mobility. But there is absolutely nothing new about it, they hated Henry ford for pumping out cheap functional model T Fords for the working class, and for paying his employees enough to buy his cars.
Cars were fine as advantages for the royalty and nobility, Rolls Royce and Pierce Arrow to name a few were fine, expensive things for the “important” people. But as soon as working people and teenage boys started having cars, the “public safety” types started their crusades against everything automotive.
Which is why it is so very important to remember and remind that driving is a right, that a constitutional republic of limited powers cannot grant privileges, and that your car, truck, motorcycle, and plane are your cavalry horse and limber puller and offered explicit protection by the second amendment.
Strike at the root, dont mess with the branches.
Wait a minute Ernie, hold up.
Your car is your Cavalry horse. Quite true.
That makes it an Arm. And as an Arm, we have a 2A right to keep & bear it.
I’d love to see that one at SCOTUS.
Yes, that is precisely what I meant, and calling your right to drive a “privilege” and using that grant of “privilege” to allow roadblocks, warrantless surveillance, warrantless searches, and mandating insurance, seat belts, and helmets, is outside their legitimate powers. You could still have a license system so long as it is strictly a skill based qualification.
And yes, I’d like to see it brought up in front of the nine gowned clowns too.
Cars have always been unique because they can either be appliances or objects of desire. The appliance people don’t look at cars as anything other than a conveyance. They might take “the numbers” under consideration (fuel economy, how many passengers can fit, cargo carrying, etc), or maybe they just look at the price and value. I’m not exactly sure, I’m not one of those people. But my father became one of those people, after owning several very cool cars (including two Corvairs and two 1970s Chargers), in the 1980s he settled for a Dodge Colt, then a series of Omnis, K-Kars, and finally minivans. Don’t know if it was age or the letdown of Detroit Iron in the 1970s, but suddenly cars became appliances to him. They weren’t sexy, they weren’t interesting. Transportation became big boxes with lots of cargo room (despite the fact that they didn’t need all that space) and cheap. And as exciting as a trip to the dentist on a Wednesday morning.
The SUV is the boomer minivan. Bland, boring, no difference in brands or features. Just the same old appliance that everyone else is driving. Put a pink ball on the antenna so that you can recognize it in the parking lots full of the same thing. Dress up the “charcoal on black” paint scheme with political bumper stickers, just like your kid’s artwork on the ‘fridge.
In this appliance filled world, the penultimate appliance is an EV. It even runs on electricity, just like a television. Televisions used to be interesting and novel. Today they’re cheap appliances, filled with spyware and subscription fees. The people who think about TVs get the “99 inch” sets at Costco for $1500 and still get the spyware and subscription fees. The rest of us get “55 inch” sets for $299 and feel like we’re getting ripped off.
Government types want everyone to be driving an appliance, if at all. In fact the more bland a vehicle can be, the better. All the more easy to get you into a “safe” vehicle and tame down that desire for “reckless driving” like going too fast on the highway. They themselves might be “car people” but if they are it’s all the more reason to get you into an appliance. Like Jay Leno has often said, EVs will save the antiques and gassers for the car shows. If you really want, you can have your Orange Barchetta, you can even play around with swapping out parts… but don’t dare daily drive it, or the hammer will come down hard. And don’t expect a new Barchetta to show up on the dealer lots, because that’s not transportation. That’s entertainment.
It has become obvious to me the past few years that the REAL agenda being pushed is NOT “Stopping cliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimate change” or “Increasing fuel mileage”, but pricing the masses out of driving an automobile period, especially after the sociopaths at the WEF called for outright banning private ownership of an automobile.
In Oregon, its governor (who’s effectively ruled like a queen the past few years) Tina Kotek and the Democrat supermajority legislature in the state passed all sorts of new and increased taxes a few months ago under guise of funding the state’s transportation department despite overwhelming opposition to them to the point that Oregonians from across the political spectrum signed a petition to put the taxes up for a vote on the November ballot. But Kotek and many Democrat legislators are running for re-election this year, and they KNOW the taxes THEY wanted to SHOVE down Oregonians’ throats are VERY UNPOPULAR so they wanted to move the referendum to the May primary election.
Taking a step back, one can observe that the ‘greenhouse gas’ and ‘climate change’ narratives were used to justify a broad range of interventions. Way back in 1967, the book Report From Iron Mountain detailed how ‘green’ policies could be infinitely adapted to exert broad social control. And bingo — Earth Day was inaugurated in 1970!
Coincidence? I reckon not!
Control is the theme here. Now it’s getting built out. Telematics track every newer vehicle. Vehicle-to-vehicle communication, ostensibly for saaaaaafety, will tighten the control net.
Ultimately, the most efficient looting of the serfs requires corporate-owned fleets, such that every mobile adult is obliged to make either lease or one-time use payments for life — in the same manner that ‘doctors’ ominously pronounce, ‘You will be on this medication for life.’
Ubiquitous chips and communications, which enabled phenomena such as the internet, could have liberated us. Fifty years ago, we couldn’t type messages on public bulletin boards like EP Autos, visible to others worldwide. But now these technological advances — Flock cameras today; central bank digital currencies tomorrow — are used to enslave us.
Has this ever been anything other than a prison planet?
Making things worse, Obama’s “cash for clunkers” mandating crushing the vehicles traded in made sure that lower income people would not have “beaters” available.
Since the mid-60s GovCo has allowed the Enviro-Commies to dictate every aspect of our lives in the name of “Environmentalism”. The acolytes of Marxism, that Jewish Political Ideology, ruin everything they touch.
We’re now left with a pile of donkey dung. And it’s blamed on the general population for not being supportive enough of our own destruction.
Well, to answer the question, yes absolutely they are trying to price people out of cars. None of this follows the Henry Ford business model of lowering the price of a Model T from $850 in 1913 to under $260 in 1927.
It would be one thing if EVs and small turbos were available to the masses for cheap — say, $10-15k. But they aren’t.
This is part and parcel of the “K-shaped” economy, where the top 20% or so with annual incomes over $200k can easily afford a $60,000 EV just to make a political and moral statement, while the other 80% is trying to keep a 200,000 mile minivan running.
The “K-shaped” economy is characterized by sheer arrogance and hubris of the people on the top. It’s not that they don’t give a fuck about you, it’s worse — they are obsessed with you, they fear you, they are filled with contempt for you, they hate you, they define their own “virtue” by not being you, and they want to do everything they can to “punish” you.
If you extrapolate this principle to EVERYTHING the “elite” does — from pushing chicks with dicks to starting wars for Israel opposed by 80% of the public — it will make a lot more sense.
Just listen to the rhetoric of the intelligentsia, they’ll tell you exactly how much they hate white people, small town America, the car culture, the gun culture, the “heteronormative patriarchy,” motherhood, monogamy, marriage, etc.
Well-said, X –
I could not have said it better.
Ditto.
Yep, you got it. Their thing is hate, they even hate themselves.
While a large part of what you said is correct, it may surprise many here that in fact a large proportion of those Americans who make $200K or thereabouts are not really feeling all that wealthy.
Reasons for that are varied, but the cost of living in large cities ain’t exactly cheap, inflation is high for everyone and hey, there’s also that need to ‘keep up with the Joneses’!
Plus, financial illiteracy is a major one, too, which directly results in buying everything on credit, so they may ‘look’ to be well off, but in reality are but a slave to the banks.
Which is just how the real ‘elites’ like it.
Having said that, I’m certainly not making any excuses for the upper middle class. After all, too many of them tend to be rabidly liberal and happily vote for more of the same.
Actually they’re fine with motherhood, so long as it’s single-motherhood, aka why we have a $1.7 trillion welfare state.
Way back in the September 1970 “Science & Mechanics” had an article entitled “Detroit’s New Mini Engines” that wrote about the engines going into Pintos and Vegas, by the weirdest coincidence they are now the same size as is sold in most new cars. The Pintos engine might outlast the new small engines but the Vegas……
At least 55 years ago those little engines could do a decent enough job as a Pinto or Vega didn’t way 4000 pounds. Today I doubt that the power train will last as long as the payments will.
Perhaps GovCo believes that it’s better for the economy that you have cars that are worn out in 6 or 7 years rather than still run OK at 25 years old like my cars do. Unfortunately I have little desire to buy anything newer than maybe 2010 so
I keep repairing what I have instead.
Yah. Maybe 2015, for F-150’s & Silverfishes [Ha! Spellcheck cracks me up, Silverado’s] they all have A.S.S. after that.
Who the flying-monkeys wants an A.S.S. on their pickup?
All the “good deals” I see online are for pickups with A.S.S., or death wobble F-250’s with weak springs that wanna drop a valve onto your piston. …Nevermind, Dodge/RAM lunge at stop, etc…
Crapification, it’s all over the place.
The reason for ev one word control
Even in the EV dystopia of Norway, where people have been forced to buy EVs if they want a new car (and the docile population seems to have complied willingly), the government is not satisfied. Now they want to remove a fourth of the car traffic (because cliiimate, of course).
No matter what people do, it’s never good enough, which is just another sign that Eric is right – the goal is indeed “to get the majority out from behind the wheel”. What happens in Norway today may very well happen in the US tomorrow.
Hi Stufo:
From the article “It’s not just about getting cars with gasoline and diesel engines off the road, but the Norwegian Environment Agency also believes that electric car use must be massively reduced.” …. “Specifically, they will cut more than 1/4 of all car use.”
Do they think the elderly are going to walk and ride bicycles everywhere in the Winter or have a desire to get on the bus or train with the “Diversity ” imports?
The article further states that “During the same period, Statistics Norway believes that Norway will gain almost 600,000 more inhabitants.”
I wonder where these people will be coming from and why the average person would even want them in their country but apparently questions such as that are not allowed to be asked anymore.
$50,000 average price for a new car? Not me, I dont think I’ve spent $50K combined in car purchases going back to…1991? wow I am old.
Most expensive vehicle for us, when we had two boys at home, a used mini-van for $14K. My latest conveyance was less than $7,000 and is still a decent ride with no major problem 6 years later.
In my circle, I cant remember anyone buying a brand new, hot off the lot car or truck.
Same, Andy –
I bought my current (2002) Nissan Frontier used in 2008 or so for $7,500. Today, that amount of money might buy you a very tired ten-year-old Camry with 150,000 miles.