The EV Delusion Crumbles: Major Automakers Are Out!

  And sure enough although we're still in the take off stage, the EV souffle is already deflating. 

  Except for their low range, high insurance cost, low resale value and high repair cost EV are great cars.They of course cost too much but if all you need is a small second car to do some urban shopping on a Saturday afternoon, their are almost perfect.

  On thing we are starting to understand though is that in spite of all the hype they are not green. Far from it. Too bad, so many people were feeling so good doing their part saving the planet (while doing absolutely nothing but what they would have done otherwise!) Well, we'll have to think about something else, then...

Source: Insider Newsletter Issue 191

FLIP FLOP

It’s almost like there’s something wrong with the idea of EVs. I can’t put my finger on it. Maybe it’s the fact that when you trot down to your neighbourhood EV dealer, stopping for a soy latte and some tofu, you’re buying an expensive iPhone on wheels (and we all know what the resale value of a 5 or 10-year old iPhone is like).

You tell yourself you’re excited to be saving the planet as you power the bad boy up with some vegan electricity subsidised by the pronoun compliant guvmint, but now those subsidies are now being pulled (governments are bankrupt — surprise), and your vegan electricity is being imported from Indonesian coal mines and it’s costing a lot more than your old planet killing V8 supercharged testosterone-boosting muscle car and you’re pissed. Or maybe it’s the cost? Or maybe most people just don’t appreciate being forced to switch their car because the alphabet people say so?

It could be any of these things, but you know what? If you ask me, it’s quite simple. It is this very simple metric by which so much of human behaviour can be deduced. When it comes to buying isht, what folks want is a high quality item at a reasonable price and one that is more competitive than alternatives. The fact is that when it comes to their wallet nobody gives a pig’s arse about saving the planet. And THAT, my friends, is where the EV fraud stumbles, trips, and then jarringly smashes its face into a brick wall of reality.

And this brings us to our beer-drinking, bratwurst-eating friends — some of the best designers and manufacturers of cars ever. The Germans, specifically, Audi, who are doing a massive U-turn on electric vehicles. DROPPING their earlier goal of producing only electric vehicles by 2026. And they’re not the only ones.

Audi puts big EV push on the back burner

CEO Gernot Döllner told Bloomberg. “In the end, we decided to spread it out to not overwhelm the team and the dealerships.

Hahaha! That’s what he actually said to Bloomberg, but you know what he’d say to his mates down at the local beer hall? He’d tell them what an insider in the European automotive industry told us over a year ago — that there is bugger all demand for these stupid things and that many of the European auto manufacturers were going to land up being stuck with unwanted inventory… and some would probably “not make it through.”

Speaking of “others.” Mercedes Benz are also doing the same. They are bailing on EVs and instead are ramping up production of ICEs.

Mercedes-Benz delays electrification goal, beefs up combustion engine line-up

The company now expects sales of electrified vehicles, including hybrids, to account for up to 50% of the total by 2030 – five years later than its forecast from 2021, when it aimed to hit the 50% milestone by 2025 with mostly all-electric cars.

And perhaps most curious of the bunch: Apple. After 16 years of teasing entry into the EV market, Apple just bailed on their long-awaited electric car.

After 16 Years, Apple Abandons Work On Electric Car

One other thing worth mentioning is that Apple sits on a gobsmacking $162 billion in cash. And even with all that cash, they decided to pass on the “EV revolution.”

What to make of all this? As we like to say around here, everyone is a greenie until it hits their pocket. It seems to me that maybe, just maybe, Audi, Mercedes, and Apple have figured out that EVs are not the silver bullet they were promised to be.

And speaking of Apple, guess what they’re focusing on instead…

Many employees from the Special Projects Group (SPG), responsible for the car, will transition to the artificial intelligence division led by executive John Giannandrea. Their focus will shift to generative AI projects, aligning with the company’s evolving priorities.