To listen to the Biden administration, the situation with electric vehicles is going swimmingly. People love them. Government subsidies make them more affordable. As a bonus, you get the pride and satisfaction of knowing that you're doing your part to rescue Mother Earth from carbon emissions or whatever. But according to a recent survey from McKinsey and Co. conducted this month, people remain unconvinced, particularly in the United States. They polled EV owners in nine countries and found that 46% of American owners of EVs want to switch back to gas-powered cars with internal combustion engines. There were lower levels of dissatisfaction in some other nations, but nearly half of American owners are experiencing regret.
From the Washington Times:
Nearly half of American owners of electric cars want to switch back to traditional cars powered by internal combustion engines, according to a consumer survey released by McKinsey and Co. earlier this month.The consulting firm surveyed consumers in multiple countries: the U.S., China, Germany, Norway, Australia, France, Italy, Japan and Brazil. Between all of those countries, 29% of electric car owners want to return to driving internal combustion cars, with 46% of surveyed American electric car owners wanting to do so.
This surprised the consulting firm, cutting against received wisdom about people’s switch to electric.
The survey asked owners about the primary reason leading them to want to switch back. The responses were the same ones we've been hearing about ever since the EV mandates began rolling out. The largest percentage cited a lack of charging infrastructure. Nearly as many said that the vehicles are too expensive to purchase and maintain. Others said that planning long trips was too difficult or that they were unable to recharge their vehicles at home.
Current economic conditions both in the United States and abroad are also impacting people's decisions when it comes to whether or not to purchase an EV. Everything is too expensive for many people these days, including vehicles and electric utility costs. (Not to mention food and everything else.) Driving up their costs further just for the privilege of having an EV simply isn't an option. A significant percentage of the drivers who were surveyed said that they planned to "downgrade" to a less expensive vehicle when making their next purchase regardless of which type of car they currently own.
As already noted, the outlook isn't nearly as gloomy in other countries. According to one estimate, the global market for EVs is predicted to rise to roughly 30 million sales annually by 2027. But that increase will not be driven by the United States. Demand in America has flattened and may even begin to recede in the near future. Enthusiasm among our globalist friends overseas always tends to be higher and they have bought into the entire climate change alarmism paradigm more uniformly.
The exception in that forecast and a potential bright spot for EV fans comes to us from Ford. They set a record for EV sales in the first half of 2024, largely based on a surge in sales of electric pickup trucks and their E-Transit vans. That's the good news. The bad news is that they are still losing a vast amount of money on each EV they sell. Also, even while setting a record, Ford is still only ranked second in the United States in EV sales. Tesla outsells them each year by a seven-to-one margin. Yet that's still a small portion of the total marketplace. Tesla's customers tend to be at the upper end of the earning spectrum and the vehicles are considered luxury cars. The outlook is different for people who need to save every dollar they can when deciding on their next vehicle.
