At the end of November – in mangled Pig Latin, I might add – I told you about pressure POTATUS was receiving from car dealers to back off the electric vehicle mandates. Across the board, and with every car-maker, they were having trouble unloading what they already had, less mind what was forecast to be coming at them when the auto manufacturers finally changed over.

Where sales had been looking promising early in the game and into the summer of 2022, the bottom has subsequently fallen out of the market. The inventory build-up on dealer lots, be it due to interest rates, lay-offs, pricing or whatever, was starting to running into months as opposed to weeks. No one has the latitude to have that sort of money tied up particularly when it is looking as if the chances of clearing it out are pretty grim.

Despite new electric vehicle market share and sales hitting a record in the U.S. this year, EV growth is starting to slow and fall short of the auto industry’s lofty ambitions to transition away from combustion engines.

…Despite these positives, this doesn’t come close to the 90% year over year growth the EV industry enjoyed last summer. EVs had huge sales growth at the time, even with models averaging more than $65,000, according to Cox Automotive data. Demand was high, inventories were low, and automakers were bullish on sales prospects.

…Although there is interest in EVs, Richard Bazzy, who owns three Ford dealerships in suburban Pittsburgh, said many customers tell his sales staff that they’re just not ready yet to make the transition to battery power given the pricing, even with federal tax credits. Customers also fear the electric range isn’t long enough to travel where they want to go. This is true especially for those with harsh winters, where range can deplete more quickly. He also said they’re concerned about too few charging stations.

“Interest is there because it’s intriguing,” Bazzy said. “But it just doesn’t overcome the concerns.”

As such, the sales pace slowed to 50% year over year by June 2023, and last month, it dropped to 35% year over year.

Some automakers are reevaluating their costly EV strategies as the year comes to a close.

Hard as it might be to believe, another ‘ding’ analysts are considering might be hitting EVs is the falling prices. Elon Musk’s aggressively cut prices on some of his entry-level Teslas this year, and that’s put pressure on the D-3 to do the same with their offerings. You’d think that would be a big “Yay! More affordable!” in a period of high interest rates and iffy job stability, but the thing is, people still look at resale value. If you’re buying a brand-new vehicle that might well be sold 6 months down the road for less than what you paid for it?

What does that do for your car (and wallet) in the long run? Even at the reduced prices, the vehicles are still dear enough to purchase that it’s a legitimate consideration in what is remains a specialized market.

Prices of used electric vehicles are down roughly 30% year over year, according to market research studies using data from September and October.

The cheaper prices might bode well for buyers, but they raise concerns that low resale values could hurt EV adoption among mainstream consumers. The falling prices also add fuel to a debate over whether EV demand is faltering.

″The mainstream appeal of these cars is still not there,” said Karl Brauer, executive analyst for iSeeCars, a search engine for used cars. “They’re still too expensive, and they’ve got too many limitations in terms of how you use them.”

An Edmunds Used Vehicle report says:

Used EV values feel the aftershock from price cuts on new EVs: With electric vehicle demand slowing and dealers struggling to move new EVs off lots, the near-immediate impact on used values should be unsettling to anyone who has recently bought an EV, new or used. Such large, overarching price adjustments are rare, even when there’s increased competition with traditional gas-engine vehicles or redesigns that usher in selldowns of outgoing models. The difference here is the price cuts aren’t just for one or two new models; new EVs across the board are collecting dust, requiring OEM discounts in addition to the already hefty tax credits to move into buyers’ hands. Beyond pricing issues for new EVs, the low resale values for used EVs could become a major deterrent to new EV purchases and EV adoption more broadly.

It’s not a good situation to be in. What dealers have to do to move them is working against them.

It’s not only the US feeling the lack of love for EVs, either. The European union has had to cave to reality in their Green Dreaming, and back off the proposed tariffs they had planned, because EV sales are nowhere near where they’d projected they’d be at this point. And there is no indication they are going to get there any time soon.

POOF! goes that Green-pie-in-the-sky revenue stream, before it even began.

Brussels delays electric car tariffs as UK EV sales slump
Postponement of new trade rules comes amid a collapse in private buyer demand for EVs

Brussels is set to push back planned post-Brexit tariffs on electric cars by three years in a boost for vehicle manufacturers on both sides of the Channel.

The European Commission will reportedly approve a plan to delay new tariffs that would add 10pc to the cost of many electric cars from January.

News of the delay came as industry figures showed that sales of electric vehicles in the UK fell by the most ever in a month in November after Rishi Sunak’s climbdown on banning petrol models.

Sales of electric vehicles (EVs) plummeted by 17pc in November, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

When people in the UK realized they’d gotten a reprieve and weren’t being forced to buy EVs after all, well…they didn’t.

That should tell the powers that be something, but I’m an optimist. It’s enough that that the EU scaled back plans to soak the consumer further, without adding to the general misery already established dictating every facet of citizens’ lives.

The driving range is still a big factor – people don’t trust the numbers or how much conditions can change the numbers.

…All EVs carry window stickers stating how far they should go on a full charge. Yet these range estimates—overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency and touted in carmakers’ ads—can be wrong in either direction: either overstating or understating the distance that can be driven, sometimes by 25% or more.

One of the reasons most often stated by American consumers who expressed skepticism about EVs is the lack of charging facilities and the practicality of it all. I ran across a hugely interesting note pertaining to home charging as far as the Germans go.

Now, y’all’ve been with me as I’ve repeatedly shredded the Teutonic bullies up one side and down the other for condemning their people to the cold and dark with climate cult mandated madness. You may recall one of my posts in which I wrote about Germans mandating everyone transition their houses to heat pumps (the UK, CA and New England states are all big on this, too)…

…A new bill dictates that, from next year, every newly installed heating system must be 65 per cent powered by renewables. But the bill triggered panic when some details were revealed last month, with homeowners fearing they would be forced to rip out their boilers and replace them with expensive heat pumps.

The heat pump dictate is pernicious. In the first place, electricity prices had gone through the roof in Germany already when rates jumped another 45% the night before they shut down the reactors! Now they’ve decreed that not only must systems being replaced use heat pumps – no more gas, coal or oil furnaces…

…with the suicidal insanity of climate fanatics, even as they shut down the cleanest, most reliable electrical generation they had – every last nuclear plant – in favor of expensive, unreliable “renewables” with dirty coal fired back-up.

Where’s all the juice supposed to come from for all these new hook-ups and drains on an already over-burdened system?

Well, they’ve got a conservation fix for the lack of reliable power, now that they’ve forced their citizens into an all-electric life.

EV chargers, heat pumps may be curtailed in Germany as of 2024

Yeah, you read that right. The German government will simply shut down YOUR vehicle charging and YOUR heat when they feel they need to save some trons cuz a dunkleflaute killed wind generation…or something. Maybe you didn’t vote the right way – it could work that way, too…eventually.

Don’t think it couldn’t.

Germany’s residential grid operators will be empowered to restrict the flow of power to heat pumps and electric vehicle (EV) chargers from 2024 in order to preserve the stability of the grid, which is suffering from chronic underinvestment.

…In Germany, the network regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur, is now taking steps to throttle the electricity delivered to EVs and heat pumps to alleviate pressure on the grid.

…Müller is walking a tightrope: keeping the lights on while integrating 500,000 new heat pumps every year and 15 million EVs by 2030. But he also has new powers to do this, thanks to a recent ruling by the EU court of justice which boosted its independance.

Going forward, the country’s 880 local grid operators won’t be able to block new heat pumps or wall-chargers for EVs in their service areas.

In exchange, they get to throttle the devices when power demand threatens “acute damage or overloading of the network”.

Right now the regulation states the power companies have to allow a trickle charge that will give homeowners a 50 mi radius on a battery charge if they’re included in one of these shutdowns. Hey, that’s neat. But what if you have to make it to the airport in Frankfort, like our Ebola does, after working all night and were trying to charge up in between?

Tough Fahrvergnügies for you, Hans.

So…would you really want to buy that EV if you had your druthers?

Probably not.

When people have the option, the sales figures don’t lie.

Something is really going to have to change for that shift to happen, and all the incentives and government giveaways in the world haven’t managed it so far.