Author Topic: Tesla, GM, Ford Hit the Brakes on Electric Vehicle Production as They Come to Painful Realization  (Read 2058 times)

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Offline Wingnut

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Automakers have had a shocking realization: Americans are not getting a charge out of the electric vehicles companies are producing.

Tesla is now putting its expansion plans in neutral, CEO Elon Musk announced Wednesday, according to Reuters.

Musk said he was worried interest rates might make vehicles cost more than people could afford, and until the murky picture of Bidenomics settles, Tesla was not going to zoom into high gear with its plans for a factory in Mexico.

“People hesitate to buy a new car if there’s uncertainty in the economy,” he said during a post-earnings call. “I don’t want to be going into top speed into uncertainty.”

“If interest rates remain high … it’s that much harder for people to buy the car. They simply can’t afford it,” Musk said.

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He is not alone in being cautious. On Tuesday, GM said slow demand meant it was pushing back by a year a plan to have a Michigan plant produce electric pickup trucks.

“We’re looking at EV demand and the trendline for EVs is stabilizing. It is not rising as fast as originally forecasted,” GM spokesman Kevin Kelly said, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Last week, Ford announced it was cutting one shift at a plant making electric F-150 pickup trucks — resulting in about 700 lost jobs — after indicating in July it was moving more money into other types of vehicles customers might actually buy.

https://thefederalistpapers.org/opinion/tesla-gm-ford-hit-brakes-electric-vehicle-production-come-painful-realization?fbclid=IwAR1UIbohCFcVC1OCPMKpjnz_iT435oGTUJ6nxz4ornG9A5EJCdYlDRaFpmc
You don’t become cooler with age but you do care progressively less about being cool, which is the only true way to actually be cool.

Offline sneakypete

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Mass produced electric vehicles have always been the wet dream of airheads.

The first clue is name ONE positive thing that is manufactured that costs nobody nothing because it is so cheap to operate and lasts so long.

It's a pipe dream,and you don't even get to  smoke the pipe.

The auto manufactures have known this from the beginning,but were forced to produce a small number by our illustrious leaders,who mostly know as much about automobiles as they do space shuttles. Maybe even less.

As for the illustrious leaders,they have known all along it wasn't going to work,and that was the big reason they pushed it. Their REAL goal is to have everyone living in cities in "Khrushchev Apartment Blocks" close enough to where they are assigned to work that they can walk,bicycle,or ride the bus to work and back home every day.

There would,of course,be  luxury sedans and sports cars produced in VERY limited numbers for our Masters to enjoy  driving down the empty highways on their way to their weekend ski resorts,etc,etc,etc.

After all,anyone that thinks the rules that will apply to thee and me will apply to them is a fool that  might not even be smart enough for a remote labor camp.
Anyone who isn't paranoid in 2021 just isn't thinking clearly!

Offline libertybele

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EV's are just not practical, nor affordable.

Online catfish1957

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Been saying this from day 1.  Good consumers talk among themselves, and the thought of paying 10-15$K for a replacement battery, that might die due to human error use, or a surge, or for whatever reason.....   

Then add the fact having a EV creates a fire hazard in your garage, and might burn down your house?

Or get caught in a blizzard with a dead battery?

Even the envirowhacko nut jobs don't want that kind of unexpected expense and heartache.
I display the Confederate Battle Flag in honor of my great great great grandfathers who spilled blood at Wilson's Creek and Shiloh.  5 others served in the WBTS with honor too.

Online catfish1957

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And an anecdotal add.....

When I get a chance, I always ask EV owners I see out about the 3 or more issues I mentioned above.  Out of the 9 or 10, half didn't know, a couple said ..."I don't care, I am helping the environment, and the balance didn't care.

Envirowhackos are like sheep, smiling before they go to the Mutton Shop, 
I display the Confederate Battle Flag in honor of my great great great grandfathers who spilled blood at Wilson's Creek and Shiloh.  5 others served in the WBTS with honor too.

Offline The_Reader_David

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The universal adoption of electric vehicles is an urbanite delusion.  If you live in a city where tailpipe emissions are a major contributor to air  pollution, where the population density is such that EV manufacturers will be happy to put in lots of charging stations, and were you don't drive terribly far on a regular basis so range limitations are not a problem, they're great (or will be if the can figure out how to stop the batteries from spontaneously combusting).  Out here in the Great Plains, in the inter-mountain West, or pretty much anywhere else outside a big city, they are simply impractical (though we've got enough land that you could always park them far from any buildings against the possibility of them catching fire.)
And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know what this was all about.

Offline sneakypete

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Been saying this from day 1.  Good consumers talk among themselves, and the thought of paying 10-15$K for a replacement battery, that might die due to human error use, or a surge, or for whatever reason.....   

Then add the fact having a EV creates a fire hazard in your garage, and might burn down your house?

Or get caught in a blizzard with a dead battery?

Even the envirowhacko nut jobs don't want that kind of unexpected expense and heartache.

@catfish1957

Not to mention that  when  you go to trade your EV in for a new whatever 4 or 5 years down the road,you will learn it has a trade-in value equal to it's weight in scrap metal.

WTH is going to buy a used electric  car or truck?
Anyone who isn't paranoid in 2021 just isn't thinking clearly!

Offline DB

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EV's are great, if you can afford a real car too... EVs are great to drive around town and commute to work. Especially if work has a free charger. Awful if you want to take a trip that significantly exceeds their range. Add cold weather and things get even worse.

Offline Hoodat

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So once again, Conservatives were right.
If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.     -Dwight Eisenhower-

"The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government."     -Ayn Rand-

Online catfish1957

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EV's are great, if you can afford a real car too... EVs are great to drive around town and commute to work. Especially if work has a free charger. Awful if you want to take a trip that significantly exceeds their range. Add cold weather and things get even worse.

Do you 100% trust its storage in your garage?  Even if I was remotely interested that would be a deal breaker.
I display the Confederate Battle Flag in honor of my great great great grandfathers who spilled blood at Wilson's Creek and Shiloh.  5 others served in the WBTS with honor too.

Offline Fishrrman

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There's also the problem of insuring EV's.

Insurance companies are going to start raising premiums on them (if they've not done so already) -- and ultimately, may refuse to insure them at all.

I'm wondering if we could see a point where an insurance company would decline to pay after a house fire, claiming the parking of an EV in the garage constituted a fire hazard created by the homeowner?

Offline DB

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Offline mountaineer

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The abnormal is not the normal just because it is prevalent.
Roger Kimball, in a talk at Hillsdale College, 1/29/25

Online catfish1957

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Bo Snerdley
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Study: cost of ‘fueling’ an electric vehicle is equivalent to $17.33 per gallon

And based on a btu by btu basis, very likely means there are likely corelateable 3X-4X amount of CO2 emissions being generated at the power plants .  I saw a study, and wished I bookmarked it, that conservatively at one time said it was double.
I display the Confederate Battle Flag in honor of my great great great grandfathers who spilled blood at Wilson's Creek and Shiloh.  5 others served in the WBTS with honor too.