Slow-selling EVs are the auto industry’s new headache

The U.S. electric vehicle market is growing, but not fast enough during the latest quarter to prevent unsold EVs from stacking up at some automakers’ dealerships or to allow Tesla to avoid new price cuts, according to analysts and industry data.

Rising inventories and price-cutting could represent only a short-term pause in EV market growth. But they could be signals that boosting U.S. EV sales above the current 7% market share level will be more costly and difficult than expected, even with federal and state subsidies. Automakers North America have billions of dollars in EV-related investments riding on how the next several quarters play out. If production of EVs continues to outpace demand, automakers will have to choose between slashing prices and profit margins, or slowing assembly lines.

EV’s have a niche as a status symbol for now. Once their many drawbacks become more widely known they will be avoided based solely on their impracticallity.

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Auto Unions Balk at Biden’s Plans To Force Americans Into Electric Vehicles

In a rare show of solidarity, American automakers and the unions representing their employees are begging the Biden administration to back off on its aggressive efforts to force Americans into electric vehicles in the name of combating climate change.

Leaders of the United Auto Workers union asked President Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency to water down a proposal to make upcoming emissions standards for internal combustion engines much stricter by 2027. The new standards would effectively require that two-thirds of all vehicles sold in the United States be electric by 2032.


Brown-John: Electric vehicles may come at substantial cost

… Another concern pertains to Ontario’s electrical grid which at the moment does not have sufficient capacity to service thousands of EV chargers. Don’t forget we’re also shifting away from natural gas to produce electricity.

The Ford government has been adding natural gas generators as a stop-gap measure to meet immediate needs. But this could preclude Ontario from accessing federal government carbon reduction incentives intended to reduce carbon emissions.

So, the obvious question is how in the long run does Ontario generate sufficient electricity to service thousands of EV chargers?

A good article illustrating the Cloudcuckooland inhabited by Trudeau and the like.

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Tow No! The Ford F-150 Lightning Struggled in Our Towing Test

Before you hitch an Airstream to your electric truck and set out to circumnavigate the country, you need to understand this: With the largest available battery pack, a fully charged 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck has less energy onboard than a regular F-150 with four gallons of gas in its tank.

Consider how far a combustion-powered F-150 would tow at max capacity on four gallons of regular unleaded. Thirty five miles? Maybe 40 if you drive slowly?


The video below was the first to let the world know of the very limited capacity of the Lightning as a daily driver work truck.

h/t Mauser

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Canada’s billions to Stellantis and Volkswagen make for a bad joke

There’s an old joke about corporatocracy that goes something like this: “Canada is a handful of companies in a trench coat.” If that one doesn’t have you howling in your seat, there’s an addendum: “That we subsidize.” Is it funny yet?

The latest iteration of the joke pertains to multinational automakers Volkswagen and Stellantis. In recent weeks, the latter threatened to pack up shop on its EV battery plant in Windsor, Ont. – and halted construction to drive home the point. That after the federal government and Ontario promised more than $13-billion in capital and tax credits to Volkswagen for a larger factory. As a result, both levels of government scrambled to strike a deal with Stellantis, which was revealed last week to be worth $15-billion.

We are lead by grifters & morons.

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GOLDSTEIN: Trudeau, Ford roll the dice on electric vehicles with our cash

With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford throwing our money at Volkswagen Group and Stellantis-LGES to build electric vehicle battery plants in Ontario, it’s probably a bad time to mention Volkswagen is cutting back on the production of EV vehicles in Germany, due to “strong customer reluctance in the electric vehicle sector.”

Only stupid people and grifters are on board with EV’s.

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How long does it really take to save money on an electric car? Experts warn it can take up to a decade to break even – as EV drivers say they regret investing

The US is in the middle of an electric car revolution. This week, Tesla announced a record surge in sales in the second quarter of the year – delivering 446,140 cars worldwide in the three months leading up to June, outdoing its own prediction of 445,000.

Business has been bolstered in the US by federal tax credits for electric vehicles that have made them more accessible than ever for Americans.

Electric cars are much more expensive to buy, but usually cheaper to run – as maintenance and fuel costs can fall substantially with an eco car.

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‘We had no choice’: The inside story of how Doug Ford gave away billions of dollars to a Corporate welfare case in dodgy EV battery plant deal

‘We had no choice’: The inside story of how Doug Ford finally blinked and spent billions of dollars to save an EV battery plant in Ontario

Carlos Tavares, the canny top executive of auto giant Stellantis, says weeks of crisis talks to salvage a Windsor EV battery plant taught him one thing: Canada’s negotiators move way too slowly in a global green industrial race that’s accelerating at warp speed.

“It was difficult to get this agreement inked at the end of the day,” Tavares said in an exclusive interview with the Star from Portugal, “but it was rewarding.”

Rewarding, no question.

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‘Massively expensive’: Canadian Taxpayers Federation takes aim at $15B deal for Windsor battery plant

The $15-billion agreement to keep an electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in Windsor, Ont., is “massively expensive for taxpayers,” says the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

“These big corporations are getting buckets of cash courtesy of cost to taxpayers while the rest of us get tax hikes,” said Franco Terrazzano, federal director for the Ottawa-based federation.

“We have governments that are choosing to help multinational corporations over taxpayers.”

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Road trips lose power as charger outages leave northern Ontario EV drivers stranded

Non-Tesla EV drivers couldn’t go from Thunder Bay to Sault Ste. Marie much of June

Some electric vehicle drivers in northern Ontario say the charging network between Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie is failing those who don’t drive Teslas.

CCS and CHAdeMO fast chargers in Marathon, White River and Wawa were down for most of June; the Ivy location in White River has been out of service since mid-April.

Tesla chargers in the region were still working, according to reports on the forum PlugShare, where drivers update each other on charger status, but they are not currently compatible with non-Tesla vehicles.

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Trudeau To Give Up To $15-billion Of Your Dollars To Corporate Welfare Cases Stellantis & LG In Dubious Battery Deal

Stellantis, LG reach new EV battery plant deal for up to $15-billion in subsidies from Ottawa, Ontario

Stellantis NV and LG Energy Solution have reached a new deal with the federal and Ontario governments for up to $15-billion in subsidies for their electric-vehicle battery factory in Windsor, bringing to an end a months-long saga in which the companies halted construction on the project while they pushed for greater subsidies.

The agreement was announced by Stellantis late on Wednesday through a press release, the timing of which appeared to catch the governments off guard. It was subsequently confirmed by Ottawa in a statement issued by Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.

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Damaged electric cars ‘quarantined’ over fears they will explode

Electric cars that sustain minor bumps are being kept 15 meters apart in repair yards over fears they might explode, adding to insurance bills.

Government guidelines recommend electric vehicles with damaged batteries should be “quarantined” from other vehicles due to the risk of battery fires. Damaged batteries pose a risk of “thermal runaway” where the energy stored in the battery releases rapidly, creating temperatures of up to 400C.

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The electric car ‘revolution’ is a disaster before it’s begun

Politicians are forcing electric cars on a public that doesn’t want them

The electric car revolution is stalling, of that there can no longer be any doubt. It has left the big global carmakers floundering, uncertain of how to proceed in a race they reluctantly entered in the first place.

Electrification was initially met with fierce resistance. But once politicians held a gun to the heads of company bosses with a series of cliff-edge deadlines for phasing out the combustion engine, carmakers had little choice but to go all-in.

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Hey Frankie Champagne! How much did this tongue bath cost the tax payer?

Justin & Frankie Champagne

PARIS — At the Paris Air Show, under the piercing roars of fighter jet demos, Canada’s silver-haired, Canali-clad industry minister sells one executive after another on an unexpected pitch: Amid global disorder, boring is best for business.

“When everything is high risk, you go to Canada and it’s very stable and predictable. It’s very attractive,” said François-Philippe Champagne, a U.S.-educated corporate lawyer turned politician and now Ottawa salesman, zipping between air show meetings in a golf cart.

WTF? Frankie is being praised for being even more stupid with tax payer dollars than Americans.

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Canada is paying ‘an enormous price’ for the Volkswagen battery plant. Is it worth it?

Auto industry analysts say Canada paid a big price to bring Volkswagen’s first North American electric vehicle (EV) battery plant to St Thomas, Ont., but whether that money will deliver lasting benefit to the economy is a matter of debate.

On Wednesday, parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux released a report detailing his calculations.

Giroux said it would cost the public at least $16.3 billion to build the plant, $2.8 billion more than the federal government first announced in April because of the differences in U.S. and Canadian corporate tax rules. It’s expected production at the plant will start in 2027.

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