EV sales continue to rise, but the last year of headlines falsely stating otherwise would leave you thinking they haven’t. After about full year of these lies, it would be nice for journalists to stop pushing this false narrative that they could find the truth behind by simply looking up a single number for once.
Here’s what’s actually happening: Over the course of the last year or so, sales of battery electric vehicles, while continuing to grow, have posted lower year-over-year percentage growth rates than they had in previous years.
Elon Musk has repeatedly said EV sales worldwide are slowing as an excuse for why Tesla sales are slowing, rather than blaming his poor leadership. Repeat a lie often enough and it enters the public consciousness
Sales slowing is only one variable in the “growth” equation. Specifically, are sales of gas vehicles slowing more than sales of electric cars? Yes.
People are replacing vehicles at some standard rate, but growth of EVs is dependent on what percentage of new vehicle sales are gas versus electric. As long as people aren’t moving back to gas cars en masse, the growth of the segment can continue to rise, even if sales overall are slowing.
The statistics I can find suggests EVs make up between 5% and 15% of new cars sales in the US. For comparison, in China the majority of new cars are EVs.
https://www.chicagofed.org/publications/economic-perspectives/2022/5
This is likely due to the difference in market segments, electric vehicles in North America occupy the high-end segment, which prices out most consumers whereas the Chinese market prices for the majority of consumers by using agressive government subsidies.
Some have speculated that this is so they can price out the compition as these subsidies are unsustainable, but I’m frankly not qualified to examine it.
This is likely due to the difference in market segments, electric vehicles in North America occupy the high-end segment
This seems accurate, US car manufacturers are exactly where they want to be with a captive market where the average new car price is up to $50,000
Some have speculated that this is so they can price out the competition as these subsidies are unsustainable
It looks like they have an exemption from the 10% sales tax, plus up to $2600 rebate for trade-ins.
For comparison, the Cash For Clunkers under Obama was up to $4,500.
This is likely due to the difference in market segments, electric vehicles in North America occupy the high-end segment
Is it laziness, or a corruption of our media and news outlets?
Laziness on who’s part?
The automakers don’t like EVs because they have much better margins on pickups and SUVs. Dealers don’t like EVs because they require less maintenance, which cuts future revenue. The politicians don’t like EVs because their campaigns are financed by the big auto companies and dealership owners.
