Bummer: BBC Losing It Over Collapsing EV Market

Essentially, those who wanted an EV got them, and will keep them for a long time (though many are giving them up and going back to fossil fueled vehicles) leaving a small number who will be first time buyers at this point

BBC Comes to Terms With Collapsing EV Market

The BBC is confronting the possibility that the once promising surge in sales of EVs is going flat. Naturally, this is starting to cause a panic because all those pesky climate targets enshrined in law aren’t going to be met. Range anxiety and costs are the two most serious obstacles.

Only cheap EVs will plug the gap but the tidal wave of lower-cost Chinese imports will wreck domestic manufacturers, and the only solution to that on the table is tariffs. Here’s the story:

Buoyant electric car sales are a must if we’re to hit our climate targets. But EV sales in the West are down and if governments want them to recover it may have to be at the expense of their own economies.

By 2035, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says there will need to be 790 million EVs if we’re to hit Net Zero by the middle of the century.

That implies growth in sales of 27% every single year.

China’s largest EV manufacturer BYD has been vying with Tesla for the number-one spot. BYD also saw a slowdown between January and March.

And EV sales in Europe fell more than 10% year-on-year in the final quarter of last year – although in the U.K. total sales are running up on last year.

I just have to wonder, how many at the BBC and IEA are driving EVs themselves?

In the U.K., analysts say strong EV sales in recent years were fuelled by company car purchases, thanks to generous tax breaks.

But the household market is proving a tougher nut to crack, with people saying they are mostly put off by the high cost. The average price of a new EV in the US is over $60,000 (£47,433). Prices are similarly high in Europe and the U.K.

If I wanted to spend $60K I’d be getting a high end vehicle like an Audi or Alpha Romeo. Or, not quite that much, the top end Honda Passport. I’m quite happy with my Civic EXL. I’ll consider the hybrid version or an HRV (maybe have the hybrid version by next year?) when my lease is up next April, provided the residual and money factor makes sense.

Anyhow, what the BBC wants Western governments to consider is allowing China to dump their cheap, substandard EVs into the markets, even at the expense of Western workers. The Beebs isn’t quite at the point in advising governments to force this on consumers.

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