EVs- If We Build Them They Will Come. Any Day Now.
Ford Mustang Mach E SUV
Running Out of Juice: Unsold Electric Cars Are Piling Up on Dealer Lots
ALANA MASTRANGELO
Unsold electric cars are piling up on dealer lots as the auto industry cranks out more electric vehicles (EVs) than there are buyers in an attempt to compete with Tesla. Luxury brands in particular are struggling with high inventories of EVs that no one wants to buy.The growing discrepancy between electric car supply and demand suggests that while consumers may be showing more interest in EVs, they are still concerned about buying one due to their price or charging concerns, according to a report by Axios.
Jonathan Gregory, senior manager of economic and industry insights at Cox Automotive, likened the situation to the 1989 film, Field of Dreams, which coined the famous phrase, “If you build it, he will come.”
Perhaps our common military grounding places a higher value on logistics than the average citizen, whoever that is. Without belaboring all the points of why the things aren’t flying off the stealership floor, it seems the DEI powers-that-be are discovering EVs are really a niche market adequately filled by Elon Musk’s Tesla line. That and anyone who makes a Mustang minivan must burn in hell.
Category: Schadenfreude
If they really want to sell EVs, they need to lower the prices. Like a lot.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Clown-in-Chief and his minions decide to come up with more taxpayer money to subsidize EVs.
Probably will in the next year or two. Norway just discovered a phosphate supply roughly equal to the reserves of the entire world. Even with increased demand it will satisfy the world demand for agriculture, solar panels and EV batteries for another 50 years.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/great-news-eu-hails-discovery-of-massive-phosphate-rock-deposit-in-norway/
Maybe within the next decade or two. I don’t see the enviro-whackos just letting them start digging. I predict it’ll be tied up in the courts for a generation.
Not to mention that phosphate is only one of the many substances needed to make EV batteries and Solar panels.
Tesla and BYD cut their prices THIS year. Record sales for both.
Record sales:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-q2-deliveries-easily-top-estimates-as-price-cuts-take-effect-163826255.html
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/whats-behind-chinas-failed-truce-ev-price-war-2023-07-10/
I’m not sure how that’s responsive to my comment.
Tesla is having record sales. Good on them. They’ve made it from 2% market share in North America all the way to what 3%? Maybe 4%?
Good news for the company to be sure and respectable growth, but hardly signs that EV’s have gained widespread acceptance.
Which has exactly zero to do with a phosphate find in Norway.
Yup. And many of the rare earth elements are found in conflict zones in Africa and extracted by slave labour under conditions that cause horrific damage to the environment.
Democrats sure do love slavery….🤔
Climate Change is a false religion.
Their prophets are false, their holy books are false, their end times is not near.
It’s all “woke” BS like the proleteriat workers’ paradise was:
A selection of new vehicles with a list price of less than $20K whether ICE or EV would be a nice start.
You can barely buy a side by side for $20k. If you want a car its gonna be a Kia or Hyundai.
MSRP on the base model Ford depicted is north of $40K, not unreasonable for an upscale SUV. Trouble is finding a market for the thing.
I have no idea where you are going to find an “upscale” SUV for 40K. A Navigator starts at $80K. If you find one for $40K let me know, I’ll take ten. You might, maybe be able to find a a base model Tahoe for $55K, out the door it’s going to be close to $70K though.
Has anybody priced a new Waggoner lately?
Regardless of brand, where is the money coming from. Combine with house payments, utilities, kids and their activities. The list goes on.
How many different ways are there to cook Mac n cheese or top ramen.
Two things:
Fossil fuels for transportation.
Nuclear power for the electrical grid.
And for true “clean” and “renewable”….Hydro.
I have no problems with EV’s, they can be practical in certain usages. It’s a tool, like any other, works great when used correctly. However… all the “green energy” and “save the planet” lies and bullshit need to stop. There is no green energy. Every form of energy pollutes in some fashion. To say anything else is a blatant lie.
Testify!
EV as soon as you can get a bucket of electrons brought to you. OR if the grid can handle it. OR they don’t look like some treckkies deepest wet dream. Also never make the shifter a knob. Or even a button.
No problem:
I saw a Mustang EV with the built in sound effects to make it seem like a beast. Thing sounded like it was gargling a gallon of dick sauce.
If an EV sounds like anything at all, it’d be more like on The Jetsons (I jest, but it don’t miss the dippiness target by much):
The EV1 was still in production when I worked for GM. It seemed decent (I never worked on or drove one), but outside of city driving it was impractical, and even GM nixed the program and crushed most of the cars. After leaving the Cadillac dealership for a Crown Forklift dealer, and electric trucks were already the standard in most indoor facilities. I was trained and usually dispatched to diagnose, repair, and service electric trucks, from powered pallet jacks to turret stock pickers. High volume facilities like Walmart Distribution Centers and such have banks of batteries on rollers continuously charging and equipment operating around the clock with minimal downtime.
Good idea fairy here: if manufacturers want us to get serious about EVs, they should design industry standard interchangeable batteries and place 24/7 battery swapping stations (kind of like the automated propane tank exchanges) at every dealership and lease them to gas stations and other businesses. Charge a small fee (ideally less than a comparable amount of gasoline) for the battery exchanges. Then drop the price of EVs to better compete with similarly featured IC vehicles.
I’m almost entirely cordless when it comes to power tools. I like the convenience and the fact that I can swap a battery out in a few seconds. But then, I have multiple batteries of various sizes for each tool I own. Relying on a single semi-permanent battery is a non-starter for me for anything besides a smartphone. Battery life starts to suffer after a certain number of charging cycles, and while I can keep my 18-year-old truck with 300k+ miles on the road, I don’t see a Mustang Mach-E getting that lifespan without a very expensive battery replacement or two. My phone usually gets cracked well before the battery life has diminished and paying $400 or so every 2-3 years is kind of a way of life nowadays. Asking me to pay $50k+ for a battery-dependent car with a 300-mile range is unthinkable.
Most Americans drive around in Trucks and SUVs. The market for cars is smaller. EV’s simply don’t fit into the lifestyle of Americans much like high speed rail.
I do like your idea of the battery rental scheme. Much like a grill tank exchange type deal. Pull in, swap out the battery in ten minutes and be gone. It would cost billions to engineer it and many more to implement but it would be much more convenient. Also when the batteries went TU, the supplier would replace them and it wouldn’t cost so much to replace. Currently Tesla batteries only last ten years or about 400K miles but they are expensive when replaced.
“It would cost billions to engineer it and many more to implement but it would be much more convenient. Also when the batteries went TU, the supplier would replace them and it wouldn’t cost so much to replace.”
My thoughts exactly. While it might cost billions to implement, the entire industry could band together to absorb costs and share battery technology. Manufacturers could continue to improve the efficiency and performance of their brands’ drivetrains, and perhaps even implement different performance and power levels for batteries. Much like I can use a budget 1.5Ah 20v Max or the largest 15Ah FlexVolt battery on most of my DeWalt tools. There’d be restrictions based on vehicle size, and exchanges would have to account for the battery size/type. If I’m on a budget and just need to get to work until payday, let me swap my big truck battery for a smaller one and get a credit. When I’m ready to put the extended range and power battery back in, I pay the difference (or use the credit).
My biggest concern is with the battery life, which is where a rental/exchange type deal would be ideal. As for swapping them out, automation seems to be the wave of the future. Heck, Tesla and other manufacturers have “self-driving” cars, so why not program in battery swapping and even go so far as to build stations that scan your vehicle to determine suitable batteries, scan your old battery, install, and charge you the applicable amount.
I know it’s apples to oranges to some extent, as fork trucks only drive so fast and batteries don’t have to be quite as secure as they do in a passenger vehicle travelling 70mph, but a forklift battery weighs as much as 4000 pounds. Over 20 years ago even the tiniest operator was expected to be able to roll out the depleted battery and roll in a fresh one in a matter of minutes. I’m sure someone somewhere can eventually make this concept work. Certainly not me, but someone.
I’m pretty sure swapping out a 4 or 5 amp hour cordless drill battery that weighs less than a pound is quite a different prospect than changing a 200,000 amp hour battery that weighs 1500 lbs…even if the batteries weren’t built in as part of the frame (which most of them are) it would be quicker to just charge them.
Re lower prices: Most electric vehicle manufacturers are losing money on every car they sell as is. They’re hoping that as the market grows, manufacturing costs will come down, but it’s a pipe dream. The more batteries are made, the more demand there is for the raw materials used to make them, of which there is a finite production capability.
Unless there’s some sort of breakthrough and they figure out how to make super efficient batteries out of cheap and readily available materials, costs are going to do nothing but continue to rise. The only way the sale prices can be lowered is by increasing the subsidies, which isn’t making them cheaper, it’s just redistributing the costs to someone else.
Every single thing you wrote there is wrong.
In 2022
Tesla made $10K per vehicle sold with a company wide 17% pre tax margin. Tesla expects much less in 2023 due to price cuts.VW reported a margin on EVs of 6%, they expect this to rise to 12% by 2030.BMW reported 9%.Stellantis (3rd largest maker of EVs in West, Dodge/ Fiat ETC) reported a margin of 11.4% vs company of 13.6%.BYD, the largest maker of EVs in the entire world reported a margin of 17.9%.
https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-global-ev-production-in-2022-by-brand/
If you understood how economies of scale work you would understand why some auto companies are losing money on their EVs, just like with practically any new product.
You’re probably right, I’m no expert on the market and I’m only repeating things I’ve seen other places.
I know that I can’t afford an EV regardless of how the prices may have come down recently. They’re still too overpriced for me. Of course I can’t afford a new car of any type so of course I can’t afford to add an extra 10 or 20 grand to the price tag for an EV.
Maybe the prices will eventually reach near parity with ICE vehicles but I doubt it. Time will tell.
In the meantime, I’m sticking with my gas guzzlers. Until they come up with an EV truck that can tow 12,000 lbs 300 miles on a charge, they’re not for me at any price.
To fm2176,
I am amazed to finally see someone else talk about exchanging electric car batteries like propane cylinders!
That gets around range limitations and slow charging times.
The batteries need to be standardized and modular.
Just unplug the old one, lower it onto a lift, pull the old one away and lift the new one into position.
Off you go in 10 minutes with a fully charged battery.
The old one is placed on a fast charging bank at the gas station.
It seems like such a simple idea and allows unlimited range.
https://cleantechnica.com/2023/04/27/us-electric-vehicle-sales-up-66-in-1st-quarter/
There are a bunch of reasons for this.
Sales of EV’s are up are 66% this year, EV’s are at their highest percentage of sales in the US market, more than double 2019. Inventories are piling up because
1.Production has soared to try to keep pace with demand, then the Fed locked down capital with high interest rates to curb inflation.
2.Older people tend to buy ICE vehicles and are more likely to pay in cash so they are buying the ICE vehicles.
Formerly there was a waiting period of a year to buy a Tesla. There will be a consistent mismatch as there are with all new products. When you think about it in scale, a 52 DOS vs a 92 DOS of EV’s means that there are eight times as many ICE vehicles in inventory as there are EV’s.
There is a new market for used EV’s though. Car burglar gangs.
They have taken a liking to older Teslas because of them being super quiet and very fast. They can glide through the neighborhood at 2am stealing the stuff from your unlocked cars, without waking people up and then split long before the cops get there by monitoring the scanner. I imagine it won’t be long before we hear of a police chase where the batteries die in the midst.
Being an old phoagie, I’ll buy a gas vehicle… and don’t like my ride not working if it’s too hot, too cold or I don’t have the right plug.
“That and anyone who makes a Mustang minivan must burn in hell.”
I was always upset this beauty never took off…
WHAT in the name of Saint Bondo of Backwoods Arkansas is that?
It came from the ’70s…
There was a corvette version too. C3 version, approximately mid to late 70s.
Well, I would buy one, but I’m saving all my money to buy a pet Mastodon. Oh, wait, global warming melted the glaciers and killed them all. I dont deny global warming, the end of the great ice age is pretty convincing evidence. The idea that it is man is ridiculous to anyone who can think critically and understands 5th grade science.
Never give up hope….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_of_the_woolly_mammoth
He is going to need a mighty large saddle and girth strap to ride that mammoth. Not to mention the stairway mounting block.
How practical would it be to buy an EV (at a HEAVY discount), gut the batteries, and swap in a crate ICE?
I guess there would have to be a whole transmission and drive train swap in as well.
Still…..practical? Or not?
Just thinking semi-theoretical.
OKAY THEN, say so many of today’s people go electric with their cars, less gas and diesel is consumed, so what will Government do to make up for the lost fuel tax revenue? I’m betting we’ll see proposals for more taxes on electricity consumption which will be used for more control over people.
Yup, tax-per-mile driven has been bandied about.
I read somewhere, the tax per mile, was in the last “budget”. Buried about page 500 or so.
I don’t recall if the last “budget” passed, but we seem to have more than enough money for Ukraine. Obviously, we have enough money that the tax per mile idea shoul be shelved for most. Apply the tax per mile on a pro rated version on hybrids and EVs. Hybrids pay x amount while EVs pay xxx amount.
That is exactly what these Progs plan to do. It is impractical to tax the amount of electricity used on home chargers. Your EV will be required to send your mileage to the IRS or some other gov’t agency for taxing.
If you build it, Phil Monkress will steal it.
Much like how he stole Honor, Heritgae and Service through his fake NAVY SEAL, Native American and Law Enforcement claims.
I think it’s a crime to have to pay more for a car than my parents had to pay for our house in 1967.
They got it for $17,500 at 5% interest for 30 years. Monthly payments were $145.
I just read that back and started sobbing uncontrollably..
My parents built a good sized 4 bedroom home for $24k on a 10 year FHA note in 1972. It sold for $295k in 2003.
KoBatltz BAD!
This is what happens when the enviro-tards try to foist their Green agenda onto a public that isn’t having it.
Those warehousing costs sure add up, too!
That’s not a Mustang….THIS is a Mustang..
China is #1 in EV production and sales…. but why are so many (over 10k) sitting in a field?