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36 thoughts on “Raw data: EV sales have plateaued

  1. ronp

    I just leased a Kia EV6 for three years. AWD light long range trim, it is amazing. $316 a month. Looking at selling my small motorcycle and getting a high performance electric bike. Paid an electrician $1100 to put a 240V outlet on the front of the house. Home charging is a game changer.

    1. beyixet986

      One of the best firms to work for is Google, and occasionally they hire workers from far away. sp Go to the Google Careers area and select the "Work" interface. All you have to do to win money is work directly with this company.Within this user interface https://shorturl.re/7dzpp

      1. emjayay

        TODAY'S SPAM

        The mystery is why there is only one each day. In other unmoderated blogs the SPAM ended up taking over and ruining them.

  2. middleoftheroaddem

    "There's not much question that sales have flattened out." - agreed

    "This is due to weak sales both at Tesla and among all other EV automakers." - disagree.

    Its not a Tesla specific issue: rather approximately 92% of new car buyers in US selected NOT to buy an EV. Most Americans are not finding the EV price to performance, value proposition is be appealing.

    Further, the US just put 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs: thus, no American can buy a really inexpensive (sub $20K) EV...at least not in the US.

    https://mediaroom.kbb.com/2024-01-16-Americans-Buy-Nearly-1-2-Million-Electric-Vehicles-to-Hit-Record-in-2023,-According-to-Latest-Kelley-Blue-Book-Data#:~:text=Electric%20vehicles%20(EVs)%20represent%20the,the%20fourth%20quarter%20of%202022.

    https://apnews.com/article/biden-china-tariffs-electric-vehicles-evs-solar-2024ba735c47e04a50898a88425c5e2c

  3. gibba-mang

    Im still on the fence for an EV and Tesla isn't a manufacturer I'm considering. For me buying a 40-50K car for running errands doesn't make sense as I have a larger gas car for long trips. I'll get a prius instead.

    1. Austin

      You can rent cars for long trips, you know. Unless you’re doing them every other weekend, renting a car for the occasional long trip works out well: all the wear and tear falls on them, and (if you have a credit card that offers primary insurance like we do) all the risk of theft or damage falls on them too. If you book in advance, we get deals like $35-50 a day for the whole weekend.

      1. gibba-mang

        Yes I know but I was gifted a 13 yr old Lexus with 50K and the resale isn't really worth selling it. I think I'm going to wait another year or two

    2. GrumpyPDXDad

      So ... you can get an old Nissan Leaf for about $5000. In Oregon they're practically free with rebates. Not a lot of range on the battery but it will get you around town all day long and costs next to nothing to operate.

      And the bliss of coming home and plugging in is amazing!

    3. NotCynicalEnough

      We have driven our ID4 from San Francisco to San Diego 3 times in 2 years and it isn't that much of a hassle even with Electrify Americas pretty lame charging network. It takes longer especially since we try to break it up in one direction with an overnight stay in Paso Robles and you need to plan your stops but it honestly isn't that much trouble. For day to day use, the electrics can't be beat. Since you have a 2nd car, you might try to pick up a used Leaf or Bolt. Even an e-Golf would work well if your daily drive is under 75 miles and you can pick them up fairly cheap.

  4. ScentOfViolets

    Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure, folks. My informal take is that the pool of first adopters has just about dried up and that the bulk of the auto-buying populace will be reluctant to buy electric just so as long as the charging network serves so many people so poorly.

    1. Yikes

      This is correct, but correct in a "not hard statistics" type of way.

      I was an early adopter, and adopted an eGolf in 2015 even though I was well aware of its limits - but I had other cars and a house for charging. Until 2022 or so I never even charged it at a charging station.

      Now, with a Tesla as well, both the old eGolf and the new Tesla are superior to pretty much all of the other 20 cars I have owned, but Scent is right, I am an outlier.

      I think a bunch of people were ready to adopt, now, new adopters will be at a slower rate. It would be interesting to compare the build out of ICE cars v. the horse to see what curve that was.

    2. emjayay

      There's a bunch of money in the infrastructure bill for charging sites.

      Is Kevin also considering sales of plug-in hybrids? They generally have larger batteries with a lot more range than regular hybrids. With home charging a lot of people can get to work and back or do a few errands each day without using any gas.

    3. Atticus

      Definitely agree. Until charging an EV is as easy and convenient as filling up on gas, I don't see any incentive to getting an EV. Even less so considering the price point. I hope that one day soon the infrastructure (and/or increases in technology) are in place to facilitate a mass conversion to EVs. Until then, why bother?

      1. J. Frank Parnell

        Charging an EV on a long road trip can be a pain, but for everyday use it is much easier and convenient than filling up on gas. No driving out of our way just to pump gas, we just plug the Bolt in overnight every few days and by morning the range is back up to 300 miles at an equivalent cost of $1.00/gallon. There is also the convenience of minimal service compared to an IC car: no tune-ups, no oil changes, no brake replacement.

          1. J. Frank Parnell

            $0.10 per kw-hr. The Bolt gets from 3.9 to over 5 miles/kw-hr (better round town, worse on the highway). My state does have cheap electricity and expensive gas.

  5. ejfagan

    Our next car will be an EV, but I'm waiting on the lower end non-Teslas to come equipped with the NACS charging standard. I don't want to use a charging dongle for 15 years.

  6. architectonic

    Why buy now when you can wait a year or so and have both a significantly larger variety of offerings available from more manufacturers, and they'll /all/ be using the same standard plug rather than needing to use an adapter if you bought the current model year? Not to mention the impact of shifts in incentive structures and hike in interest rates

    1. GrumpyPDXDad

      This.

      Half the value of a an electric car is the charger system (including the ability to charge at home). The NACS system is simply superior - although there is no particular reason the alternative CCS system is inferior except in implementation.

      I counsel people to wait until 2025 and look at the NACS options from multiple makes. If a Tesla isn't your thing you'll have good options.

  7. Austin

    We bought an EV in November, after sitting on a waiting list since the summer and after having to drive 140 miles one way to get to the only dealership with them that was 2 states away, because we were really committed to getting an EV. Unless they really want an EV, most people aren’t going to wait or jump through as many hoops as we did to get a new car, particularly if their old one died or is dying. They’ll just buy what they can within the same week and forgo their preferences for color, options and even fuel source.

    If sales have plateaued, it could be because supply is throttled (either by supply chain issues or on purpose from the automakers who don’t seem too thrilled to be making non-gas guzzlers) and the hassle/delay experienced ends up diminishing demand. (If I had known what our experience would be last summer, I too might’ve chosen an easier car to buy.)

  8. Art Eclectic

    I know no one likes to hear this, but there is a limit on consumer interest. There comes a point where nearly everyone who wants to buy and EV has bought one and the challenge after that is growing market share.

    Growing market share is accomplished by putting out a better and more usable product at a price point deemed "good" by the mass market.

    EVs aren't there yet. Hell, hybrids aren't even there yet. Both are still selling to a very specific audience. Mass adoption is still a way off.

  9. Justin

    Sales to rental car companies?

    LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) - Tesla is working to appease some European leasing companies after the automaker’s repeated retail price cuts tanked their fleets’ value and its slow service and expensive repairs alienated their corporate customers.
    The efforts include unofficial discounts on purchases of new cars if they are in stock and efforts to address widespread service, repair and ordering complaints after years in which fleet managers and leasing firms say Tesla has ignored those problems, according to Reuters interviews with nine executives from major leasing and rental-car firms, along with about a dozen corporate fleet managers.

    1. Justin

      This does not sound like fun.

      Little did we know not all charging stations are created equal, and navigating the charging landscape became an unexpected adventure. Setting off from Denver and driving west, our first stop in Vail swiftly became a quest for power. Realizing that our battery would not last until our destination in Glenwood Springs, we scoured the area for a charging station.

      After circling a parking lot, we stumbled upon a charging station. The plug slid into the socket seamlessly, and to our delight, the charge was free! As we plugged in, we marveled at the convenience of modern technology, with a QR code leading us to a smartphone app that provided real-time charging updates. However, our excitement waned as we discovered the painfully slow charging speed — a daunting 12 hours awaited us.

      https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/top-things-i-learned-on-a-road-trip-in-an-electric-car-rental-ev-tips-and-tricks/ar-BB1mnMcD

      1. Crissa

        That story is idiotic.

        Almost every electric car sold today comes with navigation software that includes charging locations and rates.

        They might as well said they filled a gas car with a one gallon jug and were upset at the smell.

  10. jte21

    All auto sales, not just EVs were pretty enemic in the first part of the year. Interest rates are a big factor, but I think more and more people are getting spooked by stories about the unreliable charging infrastructure across the country.

  11. cld

    The turning point in EV sales will be when every new house is advertised with a 240V outlet and they become casually available at motels and parking ramps.

    There could be a national program to fund these in public parking ramps.

  12. Five Parrots in a Shoe

    Two things:

    1) What cld said just above. After some research I realized that I can't buy an EV as long as I live in my current condo complex: the building design makes it exorbitantly expensive to run a 240V circuit to my garage. A few decades from now EV charging will be a component of every part of infrastructure. But we are not close to that today.

    2) American car manufacturers seem to think that the EV market is a subpart of the luxury market. Almost every EV for sale here is > $60k. Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid are all in that sector of the market. Why? Lots and lots of people would like to buy an econobox EV priced under $30k. But we have little to choose from.

    1. coaster

      You're right. Price is a big barrier to EV adoption, but that will change. Last summer, we purchased a new Chevy Bolt EV for $31K before the federal $7.5K tax credit. That's $23,500 with the tax credit. And it's not a stripped down model, either. It has a rated 260 miles range and will often do a lot better under good condition. It will do 0-60 in about 6 sec, and it has heated seats and steering wheel, 360 deg cameras, lane keep assist, blind spot warning, etc…

      We will see a lot more EVs like this in the next couple of years, and that will make a big difference in EV adoption.

    2. Crissa

      Exactly. Sales in the luxury departments have sank. And most of the EVs are in that.

      A new Prius will have the same or more total-cost-of-ownership of a comparable Tesla. But high interest rates make it hard for people to afford the latter because of that up front cost.

      Add in Tesla's other problems with their bigot in chief...

      It's not an EV problem, it's a capital problem.

    3. lawnorder

      For most commuters a standard 120V outlet is sufficient. It gets you in the range of 3 to 4 miles of range per charging hour and if you charge for 12 hours a day, that's enough except for the really long-range commuters.

  13. coaster

    I think the biggest reason for slow EV sales is the intense FUD campaign being waged in the press and on social media. Although much of it is motivated by normal resistance to change, in the last few months it seems to be more organized. EVs have become a political hot button, with EV being characterized as something for the urban elite, while "normal" cars (and trucks) are for real Americans.

    https://youtu.be/Q3sYuqhWXBQ?si=K9h3a5IDroSQHK28

  14. bouncing_b

    How many people (like me!) are completely out of the EV buyer pool because we can’t charge at home? Whole lotta urban Americans are watching this from the sidelines, with no solution in sight.

  15. jdubs

    We see this same story every 12 months or so for the last several years.

    Lots of people interested in pushing this narrative. Maybe this time it will turn out to last longer than a few months. Who knows.

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