Are we on the brink of an electric car revolution?

[clv101]

China are utterly dominant in the global EV market - check the motivation of anyone downplaying the role of EVs in the future.

Amazing data here: https://x.com/EdConwaySky/status/1790433248348192996

[Ralphw2]

EU to raise import teriffs on Chinese made EVs from 10% up to a max of 48% depending on the brand, starting in July. Even chinese made Teslas will be affected. Not clear if UK will also impose these tariffs, they will have a very large impact on the demand for EVs, especially at the budget end of the market where the Chinese companies excel.

[Eclipse]

Yes - Tesla's in a bad way and now the tarif wars start.
IRA killed globalisation - and started the race to "De-risking" from Chinese supply and protectionism.
(Gosh - I sound like a Neo-lib talking like that - I'm Social Liberal I swear!)
The weird and slightly disappointing thing about IRA?
It's not enough to get the USA producing their own solar cells. Solar panels - yes - but not the silicon cells from the ground up.
Now that would be energy independence - which was kind of the whole point of the thing to me?

[kenneal - lagger]

My ambition is for a Citroen Ami once we get a big enough solar array. Under £10k!!

Engineering and environment wise, the way forward must be for smaller slower lighter cars but our wonderful economists and politicians won't push for anything that hinders growth. So bigger and faster and heavier it will be until the whole system crashes!

[Default0ptions]

My ambition is for a Citroen Ami once we get a big enough solar array. Under £10k!!

Engineering and environment wise, the way forward must be for smaller slower lighter cars but our wonderful economists and politicians won't push for anything that hinders growth. So bigger and faster and heavier it will be until the whole system crashes!

Agreed. But what is this ‘growth’ you speak of?

[BritDownUnder]

I hear that China is putting retaliatory sanctions on EU pork imports for the EV tariff increase.

At the moment you can get all the Chinese EVs you want in Australia. I will avoid them if possible due to cybersecurity issues but BYD are putting out a new pickup truck next year that maybe work a look. Let's hope the Japanese can keep up.

[kenneal - lagger]

Agreed. But what is this ‘growth’ you speak of?

I speak of every mainstream economist's wet dream of perpetual economic growth in our finite environment.

[Default0ptions]

:-)

This will never go mainstream until it’s far too late.

I think you’re probably pretty well prepared.

It never hurts to grow more food!

[Potemkin Villager]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/ar ... -suv-in-us

Win some lose some!

" Ford has written off $1.9bn as it cancelled plans for an all-electric large SUV in the US, opting to produce a hybrid version instead in the latest sign of western carmakers struggling to make profitable electric cars.

The US carmaker said on Wednesday that it would not be able to reach a profit on the electric SUV within a year, its measure of whether a new car is viable, citing the stiff competition from Chinese manufacturers."

[clv101]

US car companies lost market share to Japan first, then a few decades later to Korea (and to a lesser extent Malaysia), now a few decades on the Chinese are looking to repeat the trick. The US companies need to ask themselves why they keep making rubbish cars.

[Ralphw2]

UK EV sales in August were a record 23% of the market. Too many models chasing the market led to heavy discounting to or below petrol car prices, as manufacturers were desperate to meet the mandated 22% of the market share to avoid government penalties on the way to 100% in 2030/5.

Update

It looks like the 23% figure is a fraudulent one by the legacy car manufacturers to avoid government penalties of £15,000 per car for failing to meet the target of 22% EV sales. Large numbers of EVs are being pre registered as sold, then offered online as second hand at huge discounts over the list price, as much as 30%.

These discounts now make many UK EVs cheaper than their ice equivalents.

Tesla and the Chinese ev companies selling direct to customers are not doing this, they don't need to as they are 100% EV sales already, and can make profits at much lower relative prices anyway. It explains why the EU is putting large import tariffs on Chinese EVs and why UK is ignoring the fraud.

[Ralphw2]

Tesla has abandoned plans for it's long awaited budget "model 2", presumably because they cannot compete with cheap Chinese models which dominate in that market sector.

I do not know the sales numbers for. Their insane cyber truck model, but they are certainly not very high. Tesla is making poor decisions recently, not sure how much that is the direct responsibility of Musk.

[clv101]

And yet stock price is up 22% on the back of a 2% increase in vehicle sales revenue and a 6% decrease in operating expenses.

[BritDownUnder]

Musk's worst move was to move to production to China. I think the Cybertruck is a silly distraction. They would have been better to go into trucks in a big way. I have never heard of the Model 2 but Chinese brands are getting quite prevalent in Australia. Getting spare parts has proven a bit of a challenge though and warranties are not worth the paper they are written on apparently.

I don't know why Ford are not making more F-150 Lightnings as they would sell well in Australia but it probably depends on their profit margins on each make.

Still happy with my Kona EV. It soaked up a lot of solar from my system one day.

[Ralphw2]

The Ford F150 ev have been a huge flop in the US. USians that buy pickups are just not prepared to make the compromises needed to live with an electric pickup, and it just does not make enough noise or pollution to show that they are real men. There are tens of thousands of the EVs sitting unsold on dealers forecourts