Is America’s EV revolution stalling?
livemint.comtheir automobiles. So long, it seems, as they don’t run on batteries. According to a poll published in July by the Pew Research Centre, less than two-fifths of Americans would consider buying an electric vehicle (EV).
Despite continually expanding charging networks and there being ever more EV models to choose from, that is a slightly lower share than the year before. Those words are backed up by relative inaction. In the third quarter of 2023 battery-powered vehicles made up 8% of all car sales.
So far this year fewer than 1m EVs (not counting hybrids) were sold in America, a little more than half the number in less car-mad Europe (see chart). Chinese drivers bought almost four times as many. Between July and September General Motors (GM) shifted a piddling 20,000 in its home market, compared with more than 600,000 fossil-fuelled vehicles.
Fully 92 days’ worth of EVs languish on dealership forecourts, compared with 54 days of gas-guzzler inventory. Outside California, Florida and Texas, which together account for over half of American EV registrations, electric cars mostly remain a curiosity. Disappointing demand is now prompting American carmakers to reassess some of their ambitious electrification plans.
In October Ford said it would delay $12bn of EV investments. The same month GM put off by a year a $4bn plan to convert an existing factory to one for electric pickups. The Detroit giant also ditched its EV-production targets, including the goal of churning out 100,000 EVs in the second half of this year, without setting new ones.
Read more on livemint.com
