THE MORNING RANT: Periodic Roundup of the EV Follies – 01/10/2025

EV Market Share Stalls at Just 8% of U.S. Vehicle Sales in 2024

EVs have maxed out at a market share of just 8% of the US light vehicle market, and that’s with huge federal incentives. The federal incentives are likely to be going away under the Trump administration.

About 15.9 million cars and light trucks were sold in the United States in 2024, of which 14.6 million were not electric vehicles. The 1.3 million EVs sold in 2024 amounted to an 8% market share. About half of those were Teslas. A significant number of the non-Tesla sales were to various fleets, especially governmental fleets, and not consumer purchases.

In the prior year, 2023, total vehicle sales were a little lower, at 15.5 million. The 1.2 million EVs sold in 2023 amounted to an identical 8% of the US light vehicle market.

There are innumerable examples of how the legacy media is nothing more than dishonest propaganda outfits. We all know this. But still, it is absolutely wearying to me that I cannot read any weather report without getting climate propaganda, nor can I read a report on auto sales without getting dishonest EV propaganda. The New York Times’ report about total 2024 auto sales had this incredibly dishonest headline, “E.V. Demand Leads Automakers to a Strong 2024 Finish.” (I will not provide a link for this level of dishonesty.)

100,000 more EVs were sold in 2024 than in 2023 (and 400,000 more gasoline-powered vehicles were sold) as manufacturers not named Tesla placed massive discounts on their glut of otherwise unsellable EVs to make them go away. Those non-Tesla EV manufacturers also took a financial bath on each unit they sold. But despite the fire sale of excess EVs, their total market share remained at a ceiling of 8% after nearly a decade of “the EV transition.”

After all the years of propaganda and government incentives, EVs have been emphatically rejected by American car buyers, as attested to by the 92% of vehicle purchases in 2024 that had internal combustion (“ICE”) engines.

Dear China: Your Terms Are Acceptable

“China to choke West’s supply of electric car battery parts; Beijing considers export restrictions as it prepares for the threat of a US trade war” [The Telegraph – 01/03/2025]

China is set to restrict exports of key electric car battery parts as Beijing gears up for a trade war with the US under Donald Trump. Technology used to process lithium and gallium – critical minerals used in electronics and batteries – is to be subject to tighter export rules under new proposals.

Oh no! Anyway…

There is plenty of lithium in the United States. Let’s see if all the environmentally-smug EV drivers will advocate for bringing lithium mining and brining home to the states.

The Persistent EV-Slavery Nexus

“Slavery” is word that appears with alarming frequency in discussions about electric vehicles. Whether it is China’s labor practices, or small children digging for minerals in strip mines, EV fans have come to accept that slave labor in foreign lands is something they’re willing to accept in order to drive a virtuous vehicle.

Well, you can take a Chinese company out of China, but apparently you can’t take the Chinese labor practices out of the company…

“Workers found in ‘slavery-like conditions’ at BYD construction site [in Brazil]” [AutoBlog – 12/28/2024]

Brazilian authorities have halted construction of a BYD electric vehicle factory in Brazil’s Bahia state after rescuing 163 Chinese workers from what they described as “slavery-like conditions.”

The Labor Prosecutor’s Office reported that workers were subjected to dire living conditions, had their passports confiscated and 60% of their wages withheld.

On Friday, Brazilian authorities suspended the issuance of temporary work visas for BYD. In their report, the Labor Prosecutor’s Office said that workers were being brought to Brazil irregularly and were victims of human trafficking.

BYD, which is a Chinese company, is the world’s largest manufacturer of EVs, even outselling Tesla. It has a huge cost advantage over western companies that don’t have such, ahem, “flexible” and cost-efficient labor strategies.

I follow several EV fanboy sites, and they routinely point to BYD as an EV success story, with its dominant market share in China, and it’s growing market presence in Europe and South America. I will counter by pointing to BYD as an affront to humanity and to civilized labor standards.

But cheering on BYD and praising its success is somehow seen as enlightened by the EV crowd.

“The moral of the story is that … rural America might not be ready for EVs”

A gentleman contributed a post at Facebook’s Cybertruck Owners Only site about driving his Cybertruck 400 miles to his in-laws’ place in West Virginia, but once he got there, he realized that the 110-volt outlet that he would have to use for charging would take more than 6 days to get his Tesla charged up. With only 100 miles of range left on his Tesla, he couldn’t make it to the nearest supercharger in Charleston.

Then I arrived at my in-laws, and my father-in-law had a 14-50 plug that he used ready for me to charge the CT. I plugged it in, and the truck wouldn’t accept the charge. I was worried, as the battery had less than 100 miles left, and the closest Supercharger was in Charleston. Then I go to Google to figure out why. The CT must have #8 wire between the breaker and the outlet, but the outlet was wired with #10. So I switched to 110. Using 110v only got me 1-2 miles per hour, so to get to a full charge would take over 6 days. That means I’m trapped at the in-laws until I figure this out. Plus, I need to be at 100% to make it to the first Supercharger when we make the trek back home on Saturday. YIKES! SHIT!

Teslas are better than some other EVs for long distance driving, so long as you stick to interstates and your destination is a city with superchargers, but there is no EV that is a realistic option for long drives to remote areas. The Facebook poster ends with this comment, “The moral of the story is that many parts of the USA, especially rural America, might not be ready for EVs”

New Postal EV is Running Waaay Behind Schedule; Trump May Kill It

In 2022, the US Postal Service accepted a proposed new delivery truck from Oshkosh Defense, and entered into a contract for 50,000 new “NGDVs” (Next Generation Delivery Vehicles), of which 10,000 were to be EVs so as to satisfy existing government regulations in support of the climate hoax. But that still wasn’t good enough for the Biden administration, who despite the postal service’s objections to the infeasibility of electric postal vehicles, coerced the Post Office into agreeing to electrifying half of the fleet.

Unsurprisingly, the postal EVs are a debacle, running over budget and way behind schedule. The first units were to have been delivered in 2023, but by the end of 2024 a whopping 93 had been built.

“New Postal Service EVs Way Behind Schedule, Cancellation Rumored” [The Truth About Cars – 12/13/2024]

The USPS later said it would increase its allotment of all-electric vehicles to 50 percent on its initial order (now delayed) to appease the Biden administration and was given another $3 billion (via the so-called Inflation Reduction Act totaling $430 billion) to further expand the total number of vehicles that could be ordered. The first deliveries were expected in 2023. But that too turned out to be a problem and the per unit price continued to increase.

Even with the above delays taken into account, Oshkosh was supposed to have manufactured 3,000 vehicles by now. According to The Washington Post, it has only managed to build 93 — mimicking the molasses-slow pace of the federal government’s similarly expensive initiative to field more EV charging stations across the country.

Mail delivery is so hopelessly broken right now that I can’t imagine how bad it will be if the carriers have to use an unreliable vehicle that has limited range, cannot be quickly refueled, and won’t operate in cold weather.

The good news is that Donald Trump might put this ugly duckling out of its misery. Reuters is reporting that “Donald Trump's transition team is considering canceling the U.S. Postal Service's contracts to electrify its delivery fleet, as part of a broader suite of executive orders targeting electric vehicles…”

Porsche Puts EV Plans in Reverse

Porsche’s flagship EV, the Taycan, is suffering a massive sales collapse. Meanwhile, its aged ICE lineup, including products being terminated, is enjoying a sales boom.

So Porsche is now having to roll out internal combustion versions of its much-hyped, next generation of cars that were originally promised to be all-electric.

“Porsche Walks Back EVs – People Still Want Gas Cars” [Auto Blog – 01/05/2025]

The first step is admitting there’s a problem, and Porsche did exactly that in July. The automaker walked back its previous goals of an 80 percent EV fleet by 2030 and the situation has only worsened since. Taycan sales have dropped off 50 percent year-over-year in the first nine months of 2024, with only around 14,000 units sold as of September.

Faltering Taycan sales are only half the equation. The [718 models] are now in their final production years as gas-powered sports cars before transitioning to all-electric models after 2025. The mid-engine duo has sold 10 percent more units worldwide than last year.

Porsche’s R&D boss is quoted as saying, “The new Cayenne is fully electric, but we’ll have the ICE version [produced] in parallel. It’s the same for Panamera.” Wait, what? The new Cayenne and Panamera will be “fully electric” except for the majority of sales that will be ICE?

Oh well, the consumers have voted with their dollars, and auto manufacturers are beginning to realize that they must be mass-market manufacturers of ICE cars if they wish to remain in business.

When Will Ford Resume Production of its Electric Pickup?

Back in late October, Ford announced that it was suspending production of its unpopular F150 Conflagration Lightning electric pickup from mid-November 2024 until January 6, 2025.

The Lightning was supposed to be Ford’s flagship EV, but it has been a catastrophic flop, since it struggles to do the basic functions expected of pickup trucks, such as towing heavy loads, driving in cold weather, and driving long distances in remote areas. A real pickup truck can do all of these simultaneously. Pickup truck buyers quickly figured out that the Lightning is a novelty vehicle, and unfortunately for Ford, there is not a very large market for expensive novelty trucks.

January 6, the date that F150 Lightning production was supposed to resume, has come and gone, and I cannot find any news stories or press releases about a resumption of Lightning production at the Rouge plant in Dearborn.

If any of you in the industry have any updates on what Ford is doing regarding a resumption of Lightning production, please let me know at the email address listed below.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

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