Maybe we should hurry hurry hurry and write them a bigger government check?
General Motors is abandoning a self-imposed target to build 400,000 electric vehicles by mid-2024, the latest sign that automakers are concerned about the viability of the market for battery-powered cars. . . .
The move on EVs is a surprise one for a company that has bet its future on the technology, anticipating that it will eventually phase out sales of gasoline-powered vehicles next decade. It comes as rivals, including Tesla and Ford Motor, have also raised red flags about consumer demand for EVs and buyers’ willingness to pay a premium for them over traditional models.
In July, Ford Motor pushed back its EV-output target by one year. . . .
“High interest rates are derailing the ambitions of climate regulators and automakers to accelerate the shift to electric vehicles, underscored Wednesday by the scrapping of a GM-Honda partnership and a warning from a battery maker.
Electric vehicle sales are still growing strongly, but that demand is not keeping up with the expectations of carmakers and other companies that have invested billions of dollars in the EV space. Expectations for persistently higher interest rates has led companies to alter plans as they eye 2024 warily.”
“Electric vehicle (EV) sales volumes set another record in Q3, as total sales of battery-powered vehicles jumped past 300,000 for the first time in the U.S. market. Year-to-date EV sales through September reached just over 873,000, putting the market firmly on track to surpass 1 million for the first time ever. The milestone will likely be achieved in November”
so EV sales are up from last year, just not the explosive growth there has been in the past few years. growth of sales has slowed.
Pet theory:
The current UAW strike cannot be properly understood EXCEPT in context.
The context is the auto-labor cuts that are on the horizon with EVs.
A commonly repeated estimate is that, with fewer parts under the hood, EVs require 30% to 40% less labor than gasoline cars. It’s not that simple, though, and some researchers argue that the labor savings of electric vehicles have been greatly overstated.
There needs to be an end to this stupid idea that we will be forced to buy expensive cars we don’t want just to satisfy the climate cult’s various lies.
My cars that run on gas and my truck that runs on diesel are just fine.
It’s because of their pricing. No one wants an EV Blazer that starts at 56,000 bucks with the same interior as the base 3 cylinder turbo gas model that retails for 34,000 bucks.
If you’re going to price them in the entry level luxury class then they need to have entry level luxury refinement. That price wouldn’t be so bad if it had the interior quality of an Audi A3 that costs 20 grand less.
Could say the same about engines. I sold a 6.7L rebuilt Cummins to a customer a few months ago. That guy blew 17,000 dollars to put an engine in a truck that was a pile of ■■■■■
Or all the poor fools buying new generation Silverado 5.3s that are eating their camshafts in less than 20,000 miles. Every time I see one of those trucks I shake my head. Everyone knows GM’s lack of QC in the 5th generation small blocks that have a habit of grenading their valve assembly without warning. Yet they still buy those piles of garbage.
The Ecoboost from Ford has its own issues (namely the cam phasers lock themselves up around the 90-110,000 mile mark) but it’s way more reliable overall than the current small blocks. It’s sad. The LS went from the best V8 GM ever made to their worst engine since the LF9 in less than 10 years.
Most car buyers don’t care about those levels of acceleration.
It’s like how Toyota brags about the acceleration of the new Grand Highlander Plug-in hybrid. Yes it’s fast. But anyone looking to buy a 8 passenger SUV doesn’t care about its 0-60 time. They are purchased exclusively by soccer moms. Most of whom are addicted to their phone and eventually kill a family of 4 driving a sensible Corolla because their head was in their screen.
You want to take my tax dollars and take up
More space in parking lots and at truck stops around the country for your virtue signaling vehicles.
If businesses think there’s value in charging stations for ev’s let ‘em knock themselves out. Let the people rich enough to buy these things pay for them. Are the all the batteries or at least the raw materials coming from China…let the Chinese send hunter a check to build them.
