EVs have been such a “commercial flop” that manufacturers are now trying to flog them by any means necessary, says Caleb Bond.
Electric vehicles have been such a commercial flop that manufacturers are now trying to flog them by any means necessary.
EV deliveries dropped 10 per cent in June when they made up 8.3 per cent of all new cars sold in Australia – down from 8.8 per cent at the same time last year.
Last month, EV sales slumped to 5.9 per cent of the market.
That was despite many manufacturers cutting prices – some by more than $20,000 – in recent months.
Hence why cheap Chinese EV company BYD last month signed a global deal with Uber to supply at least 100,000 of its vehicles at heavily discounted prices to rideshare drivers.
It will start in Europe and Latin America and expand to western nations including Australia and New Zealand.
Chinese businesses are, as we know, intrinsically linked to the Chinese Communist Party and are often heavily subsidised by the government.
BYD is effectively engaging in a process called dumping, whereby one nation exports a production to another nation and sells it below the domestic sale price in an effort to flood the market and squeeze out competitors.
It is also an effective method of pushing product of which there is an oversupply and people would otherwise not buy.
And the reality – as borne out in the falling sales – is that people would not buy electric vehicles unless they were given an exceptional reason to do so.
Car makers are now rationing the sale of petrol vehicles in the UK because not enough people are buying EVs and if they sell too many internal combustion engine cars, they’ll be hit with heavy environmental penalties.
The boss of major British car dealer Vertu Motors, Robert Forrester, last week told The Telegraph that manufacturers were delaying the delivery of ordered cars until next year lest they exceed government-mandated quotas.
More EV disaster — Australian edition:
“Electric vehicles have been such a commercial flop that manufacturers are now trying to flog them by any means necessary.”https://t.co/KuHT4pdVNC pic.twitter.com/SrhWSP3qZO
— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) September 12, 2024