Electric Vehicle Industry in Crisis

Up to 2021, many world leaders (with a conspicuous lack of science knowledge) were saying that electric vehicles would soon revolutionize transport. What a difference a couple of years makes. State-led industrial strategies never work well.

Now Renault is abandoning plans to list its EV business Ampere separately. Volvo is winding down its Polestar electric sports car facility. Volkswagen is cutting production of two of its EV models. Ford is scaling back its EV plans in Michigan.

Demand for EVs is falling because the vehicles cost a lot more than anyone expected, and what market there is will probably be captured by the Chinese because they can make vehicles more cheaply than us.

Hertz, which rents cars in the US, is disposing of the 20,000 EVs it bought recently and replacing them with petrol models due to lack of demand. Most of the government agencies which wanted EVs already have them, but unsurprisingly private individuals are less keen. People on modest incomes, which make up the majority of the driving population, cannot afford them, and they can do without the hassle and stress caused by limited range and waiting in a queue for your turn in the charging queue.

According to the people I speak to, EVs share these characteristics:-

1.Their range has been massively exaggerated
2.Their safety has been massively exaggerated
3.Their running cost has been massively underrated
4.Their repair costs are hidden
5.Their purchase price is exorbitant
6.Their depreciation is catastrophic
7.Their charging infrastructure is insufficient

My own take on the situation is that EVs use enormous amounts of non-renewable minerals, and that if we really wish to tackle environmental problems like pollution and resource depletion, we should be making our petrol and diesel cars last as long as they possibly can. EVs are an environmental catastrophe. Their batteries can't even be recycled. Three guesses where dead batteries are going to end up.

Data from Howdens gives typical insurance premiums as follows:

Petrol car £676; electric car £1344.

Insurers say that EV drivers claim more often and for larger sums, largely because of the higher repair costs. There is also the temptation to write off the vehicle if the battery is damaged; we have all seen reports of electric cars (and some buses) self-combusting when the battery has been compromised by some minor accident or by a fault in manufacture. A new battery for an EV saloon typically costs between £5,000 and £10,000. That's serious money.



ND/ habitat21

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