By Jo Nova
Joe Biden wants half of all cars to be EV’s by 2030 to stop the storms, but customers have other plans
Such is the dour mood in sales yards, it only took three weeks to get nearly 4,000 dealers across the USA to sign on. Their joint letter to Joe Biden informs him electric vehicles are piling up in their sale yards. And even though the prices have been cut and subsidies applied — it’s still not enough. They plead with him to slow down with the EV mandates.
Rich Democrats buy EV’s but the poor and middle class can’t afford them, the charging infrastructure is not there and the grids can’t cope. If the price of traditional cars is forced up artificially to effectively subsidize and “meet” the EV Diktat, presumably most customers just won’t buy new cars at all.
Right now in the EV vision, sales are supposed to be accelerating:
Car Dealers to Biden: EVs Aren’t Selling
The Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
Dealers have a 103-day supply of EVs compared to 56 days for all cars. It takes them on average 65 days to sell an EV, about twice as long as for gas-powered cars. EV sales are slowing though manufacturers have slashed prices and increased discounts. Consumers paid on average $50,683 for an EV in September, compared to $65,000 a year ago.
A new study from the University of California, Berkeley’s Energy Institute at Haas finds a “strong and enduring correlation between political ideology and U.S. EV adoption.” About half of EVs registered as of last year were to “the 10% most Democratic counties, and about one-third to the top 5%,” the study notes. This suggests “it may be harder than previously believed to reach high levels of U.S. EV adoption.”
From the car dealers:
A Letter to the President: Let our customers voices be heard!
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.
The Inflation Reduction Act offers $7,500 in credits to qualifying households, and it’s still not enough. The EV market share is still growing, but has dramatically slowed in the second half of 2023. Joe Biden wants half of all cars to be EV’s by 2030, but even though EV sales hit a record “high” in the US, the market share is still only 7.9% of new car sales.
h/t OldOzzie, Kim, Maurice.
Image by Anwarul Quddus Sikder