Part of the fossil industry’s full court press to hold off the transition is a massive propaganda campaign against EVs.
We have been inundated with breathless headlines like the Wall Street Journal’s recent “EVs Losing Momentum” , where I learned that EV sales in November were “only” up 42 percent from the previous year.
The campaign has, weirdly, been very intense in the precisely those areas where the most jobs depend on a healthy auto industry and a successful transition to the EV future.
The question is urgent because for more than a decade, GM has sold more cars in China than in the US. A recent Detroit Free Press story shows that 2023 was the first year since 2009 that the company sold more cars in the US. It’s relevant that prospective buyers in China an overwhelming (69 percent) expect to purchase EV or hybrid vehicles. The same survey showed that a global tipping point has been reached with a 52 percent majority of buyers internationally expecting to purchase an electric or hybrid.
It seems shortsighted to be sabotaging an industry that is so important to the future, but not without precedent. It’s worth reviewing the trailer above for 2006’s “Who Killed the Electric Car” and considering where GM would be today if it had kept investing in the technology that it pioneered in the 90s.
In comparison, Toyota introduced the Prius hybrid in the 90s as a niche-marketed attempt at a practical, low emission vehicle, and stuck with it long enough to create the most successful hybrid vehicle, and one of the best selling cars of any type over the last 20 years.
Meanwhile, BMW has announced that, at least for them, a tipping point has been crossed in the EV transition, where they feel most of their future growth will be in the EV space.
BMW has crossed the “tipping point” as the automaker shifts from gas-powered vehicles to EVs. According to BMW’s CFO, from here on out, most of its growth will come from electric vehicles.
After nearly doubling (+74%) EV sales last year with over 375,000 electric models sold, BMW doesn’t see the growth slowing.
In the fourth quarter, BMW saw demand pick up with 129,316 EVs handed over, up 47.7% year-over-year (YOY). With that, BMW’s EVs accounted for 15% of total sales last year, hitting its target.
BMW brand EVs were in high demand, with over 330,500 models delivered last year. The BMW iX1 and BMW i4 were the top sales drivers. Meanwhile, with the launch of the i5 last year, BMW now has an all-electric option in each of its main segments.
The fully electric BMW i4 M50 remained the top-selling BMW M car for the second straight year.
Jochen Goller, BMW board member, said the brand expects “to sell more than half a million fully-electric vehicles in 2024.”
The automaker announced a $711 million (€650 million) investment earlier this month to prepare its main factory in Munich to go all-electric by the end of 2027. It will be BMW’s first existing plant in its production network to be converted for all-electric models.
“The tipping point for combustion engines was last year,” BMW’s CFO Walter Mertl explained to the media Monday.
According to the financial leader, BMW’s order books are well-filled as it aims to sell 500,000 EVs this year.
Yesterday I watched an HBO program titled “The Swamp” which every voter should view. Watch it up to the part where we learn that Newt Gingrich modified congress to make it more accessible to lobbyists, and less accessible to voters. BTW, a Republican congress may be to blame but the Dems did not change it back.
Is it that EVs are selling at lower growth rates than last year because of FF propaganda or is that the lower growth rates are allowing FF interests a covenient line to push in their propaganda? I’d say it’s the latter.
42% growth is good, of course, but it’s clearly down from last year – and that’s certainly not the S-curve track that is so often pitched as inevitable here. The wiser course for the EV industry as a whole would be to figure out why sales aren’t growing as expected and adjust accordingly.
Sales in China remain strong, so why is that? Perhaps because they have a broad slelection of affordable EVs, while we keep pumping out ridiculously expensive models that just end up backing up on dealer lots? Is it because even our best attempts at legislation hamstring EV credits for the average U.S. consumer?
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/global-ev-market-growth-slow-this-year-lower-subsidies-report-2024-01-08/
https://news.yahoo.com/chinese-company-releasing-ultra-cheap-104500309.html
First I note that this “slowing growth” applies only to the US market (which is, granted, pretty big).
I wonder how much of this is related to a common attribute of technology adoption curves: The Chasm.
https://i0.wp.com/www.business-to-you.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Technology-Adoption-Life-Cycle-Crossing-the-Chasm.png
I follow a prominent Car Dealer consultant on one of my boards and he posts every negative article there is on EVs. It’s kind of sad. Car Dealer employees especially are scared for their livelihood.
It’s not just the U.S. auto companies causing problems…look at the dealerships themselves. They make less money because ofess maintenance. Many salespeople are incredibly ignorant about them. See my blogs on this and more at
http://www.thehurricaneschwartz.com
EVs are self-destructing all by themselves. Dealers can’t sell them. They’re piling up on dealer lots. I fully expect US auto makers to go bankrupt pushing this disaster.