Above, German report an EV acceleration post Iran war.
MAGA determined to make China Great Again – as Iran war explodes gas prices – and EV sales, mostly from China – insuring that the US Auto industry falls hopelessly behind.
China must be pinching themselves at how well this is going, their primary rival committing economic suicide.
Great job, team.
Many established U.S. and European carmakers have been stumped by electric vehicles at seemingly every turn. First, Tesla’s meteoric rise caught them unawares. They responded by investing in new factories but are now pulling back after the U.S. government repealed tax credits and other subsidies for those cars.
“The term ‘unprecedented’ is always overused. But it is really everything coming together at once,” said Stuart Taylor, a former Ford Motor executive who is chief product officer at Envorso, which advises carmakers on software.
U.S. carmakers, in particular, face some difficult choices.
President Trump has given them a short-term gain by dismantling clean air regulations and fuel economy standards, making it easier to sell pickups and sport utility vehicles that are very profitable.
Should they use that relief to please Wall Street and make as much money as possible? Or should they keep investing in new technologies?
Auto experts say old-line companies risk becoming obsolete if they don’t learn how to make appealing, profitable electric vehicles, which most executives expect to eventually replace cars that run on gasoline despite the Trump’s administration efforts to promote fossil fuels. Improvements in electric vehicle technology mean that, within a few years, they will be cheaper to buy and will charge in 15 minutes or less.
One of the biggest problems established manufacturers have is that many of the electric models they sell have fared poorly against cars from Tesla and other newer companies.
“It’s not impossible that in 10 years we wake up and see that we actually don’t have a domestic industry in the sense of something that does significant research and development,” said Susan Helper, a professor at Case Western Reserve University who was chief economist at the Commerce Department under President Barack Obama.
“Maybe Ford and G.M. exist as nameplates but the powertrains and their cars are all Chinese,” said Ms. Helper, who also advised President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on electric vehicles.