EVs: Fewer dogs eating the dog food

Those of us living the "Burlingame bubble" or even the "Bay Area bubble" could be forgiven for thinking electric vehicles are taking over the market.  Our Gavinor and legislature certainly want us to believe that and to get in the e-line by 2035.  So how's it going elsewhere in the U.S.?  Not so good as the WSJ is reporting in "Automakers Have Big Hopes for EVs; Buyers Aren't Cooperating" where it notes:

The auto industry’s push to boost sales of EVs is running into a cold, hard reality: Buyers’ interest in these models is proving shallower than expected.  While EV sales continue to grow—rising 51% this year through September—the rate has slowed from a year earlier and unsold inventory is starting to pile up for some brands.

Some car companies, such as Ford and Toyota, are tempering their expectations for EVs and shifting more resources into hybrids, which have been drawing consumers at a faster clip.  The first wave of buyers willing to pay a premium for a battery-powered car has already made the purchase, dealers and executives say, and automakers are now dealing with a more hesitant group, just as a barrage of new EV models are expected to hit dealerships in the coming years. 

“The curve isn’t accelerating as quickly as I think a lot of people expected,” said John Lawler, Ford Motor’s chief financial officer at a conference in September, on the EV adoption rate. “We’re seeing it flatten a bit.”

Journal columnist Andy Kessler has some further insight:

Ford said it loses $32,000 for every electric car it sells. High labor costs are the culprit. Yet now Ford is negotiating with striking United Auto Workers, joined by Mr. Biden on the picket line, who want to raise labor costs by 40%.

And he notes about the September jobs report (+336,000) that:

Another 73,000 government jobs were added—giving away green pork from the Inflation Reduction Act means more bureaucrats.

You gotta love the term "green pork"--clearly something that will make you sick.  I finally got to spend five days with a Tesla Model 3 courtesy of Hertz, and I was less than impressed.  In a mix of city and highway driving with the air conditioning on (this was in Texas), the range indicator was way off--I mean by about 100%.  At some points I drove x miles and the range declined by 2x!  There was a regular charger at my hotel, but an overnight charge was a joke adding about 30 miles to the charge.  Finding a supercharger was only medium easy even in Tesla's hometown and all-in, I don't think I saved any money vs. cheap Texas gas prices.

As the WSJ article notes, plug-in hybrids are the car of choice these days elsewhere in the country.  Anyone care to bet that whoever is governor around 2030-3 backs off on the all-electric requirement?

Comments

[Phinancier]

From the Telegraph in the U.K.

Electric cars risk becoming uninsurable

Difficulty pricing battery repairs forcing insurers to refuse cover

[Joe]

The WSJ is digging into the details on the cost of repairing and insuring EVs--and it ain't good. Snippets follow:

Why Repairing Your EV Is So Expensive

For EVs, repairs following a collision can cost thousands of dollars more than their gas-powered counterparts, because the fixes tend to require more replacement parts, the vehicles are more complicated and fewer people do such repairs. While those issues may ease over time, first-time electric owners may be startled by the higher costs and longer wait times.

Last year, repairing an EV after a crash cost an average $6,587 compared with $4,215 for all vehicles, according to CCC Intelligent Solutions, a company that processes insurance claims for auto repairs in the U.S.

Higher repair costs are also helping to drive up insurance premiums for electric owners, who pay on average $357 a month for coverage compared with $248 for gas vehicle owners, according to insurance comparison website Insurify.

“People are used to hearing that EVs have fewer parts than a combustion vehicle, but that is not the case in collision repair,” said Marc Fredman, chief strategy officer for CCC Intelligent Solutions.

Last year, on average, an EV repair required roughly double the replacement parts compared with a conventional vehicle, according to CCC Intelligent Solutions. The way many electric models’ parts are bolted or welded in the vehicles often means the components cannot be repaired and have to be replaced, Fredman said.

When these vehicles do get into a crash, repairs can be more complex for many reasons. The bodies can be more complicated to disassemble, and the repairs tend to require more steps and precautions, Fredman said.

Vehicles containing lithium-ion batteries also require special storage consideration because of the risk of fire when they are damaged, said Scott Benavidez, chairman of the trade group Automotive Service Association and owner of a collision repair business in New Mexico. Those precautions add both time and cost to the repair process, he added.

The vehicle bodies themselves can result in higher parts and labor costs because EVs tend to use more exotic materials than traditional steel, collision-repair specialists said. Some of these materials, like aluminum, require specialized tools and storage facilities, narrowing the number of shops that can perform the work, they said.

“Those shops will charge more because they’re taking on the risk of working on them and retrofitting their shop,” Benavidez said.

It takes 25% longer to get an EV into a body shop than a traditional vehicle, according to data from CCC Intelligent Solutions. Those repairs tend to take roughly 57 days compared with 45 days for non-EVs, the data showed.

[Peter Garrison]

Burlingame to Santa Barbara $30 in gas for two.

[Paloma Ave]

I drove from Burlingame to San Diego on one tank of gasoline.

[Phinancier]

I have read about Tesla disabling cars from their national supercharger network if they have been in an accident. They are worried about the integrity of the battery and the connectors and wiring so NO JUICE FOR YOU.

[resident]

Want a slightly used Tesla at a good price? Hertz is selling 1/3 of their electric cars which is about 20,000 cars because…..wait for it….people don’t want to rent them and they are expensive to operate.