It seems as though at least one car manufacturer is thinking straight:
“It is regular users who are the ones who suffer” when government regulations try to shoehorn buyers and automakers into EVs, according to Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda. Speaking publicly as the head of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, Toyoda said, “People are finally seeing reality” as sales growth sputters. “I have continued to say what I see as reality… if regulations are created based on ideals,” instead of real-world conditions, “it is regular users who are the ones who suffer.”
All true, of course.
As an aside, I would love to see the sales figures for EVs that excludes those in California, because I’ll bet that state skews the whole thing. Why do I say that?
Anecdotally, the Son&Heir just got back from a business trip to SoCal, told me that regular gas there is currently costing $7 per gallon (!!) and that just about every Uber or Lyft driver now uses an EV.
The charging cost is far higher than anyone seems to realize either —
“Study: Cost of ‘fueling’ an electric vehicle is equivalent to $17.33 per gallon
(The Center Square) – The complete costs of “fueling” an electric vehicle for 10 years are $17.33 per equivalent gallon of gasoline, a new analysis from the Texas Public Policy Foundation says.
The study authors say the $1.21 cost-per-gallon equivalent of charging a car cited by EV advocates excludes the real costs born by taxpayers for subsidies, utility ratepayers for energy investments, and non-electric vehicle owners for mandate-and-environmental-credit-driven higher vehicle costs, which they say total $48,698 per EV. Those costs must be included when comparing fueling costs of EVs and traditional gas-powered vehicles, TPPF maintains.”
https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_a609f8aa-7443-11ee-83d3-df5b22909078.html
According to CNN ( A questionable source at best ) even their numbers show that EV sales which include plug in hybrids, account for 22.6 % of new vehicle sales in CA, followed by Washington at 17.7 %, Oregon at 16.2% Colorado at 14%, Mass 11.5% with 24 states in the central US at under 5%.
I’ve also seen a number of articles that indicate that sales growth of EV’s have flattened and dealer inventories of unsold vehicles are growing.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/20/cars/electric-cars-sales-gas-cars-dg/index.html
put those cars back on the golf course where they belong. As an aside, a golf course is of course a waste of a good rifle range.
JQ
What are the Californians going to do with all those E-cars when they can’t get electric power for the chargers?
Blame Trump.
Kim, unfortunately you’re probably right.
But ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶W̶h̶i̶t̶e̶ ̶S̶h̶a̶d̶o̶w̶ ̶ er, Gov Nero will fix things. *eye cross*
Hook their bicycles up to a hand- crank generator. That ought to give the Leftist virtue signalers all the exercise they weren’t getting for a half-day of automobiling every week.
> Anecdotally, the Son&Heir just got back from a business trip to SoCal, told me that regular gas there is currently costing $7 per gallon (!!) and that just about every Uber or Lyft driver now uses an EV.
Ouch. On a recent trip to England, that’s about what I paid for gas. I did the math on £1.60/L and it came out somewhere around $7/gallon. ISTR gas prices in the mid-’80s being closer to £1/L there vs. $1/gallon here, so the gap has definitely narrowed, and not in a good way.
Lots of battery-powered devices tooling around London…not just taxis, but all sorts of other vehicles. The “ULEZ” (ultra-low emissions zone) created by their idiot mayor probably has much to do with it…said zone is more or less everything inside the M25, AFAIK. OTOH, there are signs the people may have had enough, as damage to and defacement of the cameras that enforce the zone has become a thing.
The further away from London you got, battery-powered devices were still less common than diesel and gas vehicles.
You should have called me that Son&Heir was coming. (this week at least) I know where it’s available for $5.00 per gallon.
In the Netherlands EVs (and PEHs) currently account for about 35% of all car sales.
That’s with pretty little in the way of incentives (a discount on sales taxes is about all, and a temporary reduction in vehicle taxes that’s set to go away in 2 years).
Of course petrol here now costs over $10 per gallon and is estimated to go up another dollar by early next year at the least.
Yeah, but the whole of Holland is the size of Dallas. Getting around there is not even close to getting around Southern California.
And y’all ride bicycles anyway.
They over compensated when they brought back cigarette lighters in these glorified golf carts.
JQ
Gilbert, Arizona, a growing town in the east valley, has just unveiled the first electric fire truck in the state. Normally, they would have better sense than to buy a battery powered fire hazard, especially in a vehicle that notoriously leaks water wherever it goes, but they were probably spending federal “free” money and were distracted by the bright lights and shiny paint.