The $7,500 federal “incentive” dangled as an inducement to move the EV needle has expired. This means EV sales — if you want to use that word to describe a transaction involving the buyer, the seller, and you, the party who is taxed to “help” facilitate it — are likely to slide even farther below the waterline than they already were. This tends to happen when people are obliged to pay full price for a thing that is only tempting to them when it is heavily discounted — like those half-off dented cans of soup you sometimes see on sale at the supermarket.
Yes, there was an uptick in those “sales” over the past couple of months. It was like the Titanic’s stern section recovering buoyancy — briefly — just before the final plunge. For a moment, the people riding the stern thought things were ok.
In fact, they weren’t — and aren’t.
EV “sales” upticked over the past couple of months precisely because everyone knew the Bent Can Special was a short-term thing. Why not pick one up? Imagine how the sales stats of a vehicle (as opposed to a device) that lots of people actually want but can’t afford — such as a current half-ton truck, say — would suddenly uptick if the federal government announced it would give everyone who bought one an “incentive” to buy one in the form of a $7,500 tax refund. (RELATED: An Automotive Atrocity)
Of course, the government never does that. It only “incentivizes” that which is unwanted by most of us — who are also the ones “helping” to pay for the “incentives” awarded to the few who do. (RELATED: ‘Defrauding’ the United States)
Now that the “incentive” is gone, there is much less incentive to buy a dented can…
Now that the “incentive” is gone, there is much less incentive to buy a dented can; i.e., an EV that’s an inferior vehicle relative to others that don’t have to be constantly plugged in (while you wait) before they can be used as vehicles, and that cost thousands more than vehicles that do not have to be plugged in. (RELATED: When Cars Were Cars — And Cup Holders Held Cups)
In order to actually sell an EV to most people who are looking for a vehicle, as opposed to a vanity item, the EV would need to be a better deal; i.e., less expensive than the better alternative. But that has been made very difficult by perverse incentives, including the strange fixation on supercar 0-60 mph times. This being a kind of Tesla-worship in the form of Me Too! that has resulted in EVs that are just as heavy (the batteries) and expensive as Teslas, totally obliterating the case for them as financially sensible alternatives to vehicles that may not be able to get to 60 in 5 seconds or less but can go 400 miles or more on a full tank, take just a few minutes to fully refuel almost anywhere and cost thousands less.
Besides, the capability to accelerate to 60 mph in 5 seconds or less is more of a talking (or advertising) point than something people can regularly use — in an EV or any other vehicle. There are cops everywhere, and we all know every modern vehicle is built with a “cop” inside — in the form of technology that knows just how fast you’re going and how quickly you’re accelerating. It hasn’t been fully enabled yet, but it will be. And the cops are a constant predatory threat. It’s fine to have a high-performance car as a toy for occasional use — when you’re able to make use of its high performance. There is something absurd about putt-putting along in stop-and-go traffic in a high-performance vehicle.
With the “incentive” to buy electric vehicles gone, the incentive to try selling them is, too. Dodge just announced it won’t be trying to sell the highest-performance iteration of its “electrified” Charger, the Banshee, leaving just one iteration of this electric high-performance car — Dodge’s attempt to sell a Tesla — available, with total cancellation inevitable as the thing has been a sales disaster for Dodge.
“Stellantis continues to reassess its product strategy to align with consumer demand. Our plan ensures we offer customers a range of vehicles with flexible powertrain options that best meet their needs. With the great news announced in July that Stellantis is bringing back its iconic SRT performance division (Street and Racing Technology), it follows that we are also reviewing the plan for future SRT vehicles.”
The time has come for us to say sayonara …
Ford’s CEO, Jim Farley, publicly admitted the other day that the ending of the “incentives” is going to cut EV sales in half.
Farley on Tuesday said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if sales of EVs fell from a market share of around 10-12 percent this month, which is expected to be a record, to 5 percent after the incentive program ends. “I think it’s going to be a vibrant industry, but it’s going to be smaller, way smaller than we thought, especially with the policy change in the tailpipe emissions, plus the $7,500 consumer incentive going away.”
By “tailpipe emissions,” he means C02, which is a pollutant in the same way that water is a poison. It’s egregious (and just stupid in that it is contrary to any car company’s interests) to amen-chorus the despicable conflation of C02 with “emissions,” which most people automatically associate with pollution. The greens, who are the reds rebranded, are responsible for this rebranding, which they did to frame anything with an engine as a “polluting” vehicle — and who wants that? — while presenting EVs as “zero emissions,” which is as false as the conflation of C02 with pollution. (RELATED: Trump’s Electric Vehicle Rollback Helps Consumers, Won’t Hurt Climate)
Ford — and GM also — will now be using internal financial flim-flam to preserve the “incentive” Orange Man rescinded. They are going to use their financing arms to make the down payment — equivalent to the lost “incentive” — on their dealers’ entire inventory of EVs. (RELATED: No, Trump Isn’t Raising Your Electricity Bill)
“We worked with our GM dealers on an extended offer for customers to benefit from the tax credit for leases” of EVs, GM said in a statement reported by Reuters on Monday. “Ford said it was working to provide Ford EV customers with competitive lease payments on retail leases through Ford Credit until December 31.”
Similarly, it’s been reported that Hyundai is going to lop $10,000 off the price of its Ioniq6 EV and float the $7,500 “incentive” itself. That’s $17k off the dented can. No doubt “sales” will go up — for a while. Just like the Titanic’s stern.
Just before the inevitable plunge. It was sad to watch that happen in the movie; all those people clinging to life for a little while longer. But it’s wonderfully enjoyable to watch the EV ship go down. Not out of contempt for EVs but contempt for the way they’ve been pushed on us in a manner not unlike the drugs of Pfizer, et al were pushed on people. EVs, as such, are just another alternative, and there’s nothing objectionable about presenting alternatives to people, who are free to buy them or not.
The objectionable thing is the way alternatives to EVs were being pushed off the market via nonsense such as “tailpipe emissions” (sic) regulations that were designed to mislead people and to shove people into EVs, leaving no alternative to them.
Now that the “incentives” are gone, maybe someone will make an EV that’s a better alternative, one that may not get to 60 mph in 5 seconds or less but does cost less than an otherwise similar vehicle. Then it would not be necessary to bribe people into buying them.
Meanwhile, cue up that Celine Dion song.
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