The problem with this argument is that sales of EVs continue to increase. Sales of EVs, in the US, in 2024 are well ahead of what were sold per month in 2023. It is true that the rate of increase in the number of EVs sold per year is slowing (instead of 25% more EVs being sold than the previous year it is only 10% more) but that is far different than the market being "dried up."
The
early-adopter market has dried up. Now they have to convince the mainstream. It's a much harder sell. That's why the sales rate is slowing.
And that is all this is, a rather poor antidote.
I've noticed how when I share an
anecdote that doesn't fit your narrative, you minimize it. Here you call it "poor" for no other reason than it shows why people are hesitant to buy EVs. Odd.
This is about like a person with a gas vehicle deciding they don't want to pay the high gas prices in the city but instead go to Costco, which is 20 minutes out of the way.
It is absolutely nothing like that. You're literally just making things up. When you say silly things like this, I have to wonder if you've ever put gas in a car at all or if you're blissfully ignorant of the fact that gas stations are ubiquitous, on nearly every corner of every major street in even the smallest of towns. Seriously. Can you cite one real-life instance where someone chose to drive 20 minutes out of their way
just to get gas at a Costco? I sure can't.
In the anecdote I shared (which actually happened just a few weeks ago, by the way), my BIL could charge
for free (if he found a functional charger on his network) or he could pay $0.40-$0.50/kWh. There is nothing analogous with that about a gas vehicle. With a 65kWh battery, he was likely looking at a difference of $20-$30. He was wiling to be inconvenienced to save that money.
OTOH, I don't care how many loyalty points you have with Costco. Even if you save $0.20/gallon (which is being VERY generous), at best you're going to save $2.80 if you fill up a 14-gallon tank. Most logical, rational people aren't going to drive 20 minutes out of their way and wait 30 minutes once they get there to "save" less than three bucks.
Or, they have T-Mobile and get a discount for Shell and the closest Shell station is 20 minutes away. They get there just after Costco closes, or the Shell station has an issue with their Internet connection and so won't give the discount, and they end up having wasted all that time.
Do these things actually happen to people? I mean, you make it sound like some arduous process to fill a car with gas. Seriously, have you ever driven a gas vehicle and filled it with fuel? The entire process from start to finish takes no more than 5 minutes. It's exceedingly rare, even in Pittsburgh on a busy Friday night, to have to wait for a pump to free up to get gas. And while some people might choose to wait in line to save a buck or two because they have loyalty points or a club membership, that's hardly the same thing as finding a "free" charger, which is nowhere near as readily available as a gas pump.
So they go to a Sam's Club 15 minutes away and can get gas but have to wait in a 30 minute line before they can fuel.
Again, where does this actually happen? I've been to a lot of Sam's Clubs where I've gotten gas many times, and I have
never waited any more than 5 minutes for a free pump. Usually I don't have to wait at all.
The key point was your BIL wanting to get a discount on his "fuel" and not checking to make sure the place is open (Costco is closed) or whatever -- and yes, there are apps that can make it easy to see if a particular charging station is working (Plugshare being the main one, though likely the app of the company -- which he needed to have to use his credits -- would have reported the station was out of service; more than what the Shell app will do if they have a station offline).
Right. Because the apps are always 100% accurate and up-to-date. Sure they are.
Yes, he had a car that uses old technology and "fast charges" so slowly that it isn't even manufactured anymore. Current EVs sold would have charged in half that time, or even faster.
"Current" EVs? His car is less than 2 years old. He was on a waiting list to get that car for over a year. C'mon. Do you expect everyone to buy a new EV every other year to keep up with technological advances so they can have what you deem a "current" EV? I think most objective people would call a 2022 vehicle a "current" vehicle.
Which merely states that many automakers had planned on EV sales continuing to grow at the previous rates, rather than slowing down. The article you linked even stated as much, "While electric vehicle sales overall are still on the rise, the growth rate has slowed considerably, and automakers are still adjusting their production cadences to this
change in demand." But just to give some perspective to that 81 day average, the worst selling cars are largely gas cars and, if we remove the luxury cars (such as the Maserati, the Lincoln, the Land Rover, etc); you end up with the Dodge Hornet at 428 days; the Jeep Grand Wagoner at 428 days; the Mini Hardtop at 355 days; the Jeep Grand Wagoneer L at 354 days; etc.
Nope. Sorry. If we're going to use averages, you don't get to arbitrarily pull out the data points that don't fit your narrative.
Also, you know there are just more gas cars than EVs, right? So naturally it would follow that any worst-selling cars list would contain more gas vehicles than EVs, because there are more of them to begin with. ALWAYS check your denominator (if you want to avoid being lied to with data).
Now, I'll agree that significant work still needs to be done to increase charging stations and that will slow EV growth, until adequate charging growth has occurred. Elon, maybe intentionally, really hurt that by laying off almost all of Tesla's Supercharging team, which seems to have prevented other car manufacturers (other than Ford and Rivian, that were just approved prior to the team being fired) from using Tesla's charging network; as well as significantly crippling the build out of new Supercharger locations.
But you just told me a few months ago that all my problems for taking a long trip in an EV from PA to FL would be solved by Tesla opening up their network. Now that's not going to happen. It sounds like the EV market in general is incredibly volatile and unpredictable, unlike the much more established ICE market, which is another reason people are hesitant to make the switch.
Will batteries even win out in the long run for emission-free vehicles, or will something better come along?
At the same time, we are off topic as this has nothing to do with any alleged EV "Mandate" that is or isn't supported by the VP.
It's not "alleged". It's very real. You can read all about the concern US dealerships have about it
here. The current Biden administration has "pumped the brakes", but only temporarily. And yes, the dealerships are referring to this as a "mandate" because that's exactly what it is.
It's also not off-topic. It's discussing the very real concerns people have with such a "mandate".