Consumer Reports recently found that EVs from the 2021-2023 model years encountered nearly 80% more problems than did vehicles propelled by internal combustion engines.
"This story is really one of growing pains," claims Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing at Consumer Reports. "It's a story of just working out the bugs and the kinks of new technology."
But Larry Behrens of Power the Future points out that the technology is not young enough for that to be said about it.
"Joe Biden tried to push them when he was vice president, but this notion that they're trying to work out the bugs and the kinks is a notion that is absolutely false," he submits. "They're trying to pretend that this failing industry and this failing product that Joe Biden is pushing is workable for Americans, and the fact of the matter is it just isn't."
Last month, AFN reported that after a period of rapid growth, sales of all-electric models in the U.S. had plateaued to around 100,000 a month for the past year and a half.
Around the same time, Ford Motor Co. announced that due to slowing sales growth, it would scale back the size of its proposed electric vehicle battery factory size, cutting the number of planned jobs by about one third to 1,700 from 2,500. The annual battery cell output will drop from enough for 400,000 vehicles per year to about 230,000.
Car dealers say they cannot get rid of the vehicles because Americans are concerned about the price of EVs, the lack of charging stations, and long charging times. Meanwhile, the federal government is offering a "clean vehicle tax credit" for people who purchase an EV, and the Biden administration has been working to install more charging stations throughout the country.
"Electric vehicles are sitting on car dealership lots an average of over 100 days, which is more than double what their internal combustion cars are sitting on the lots for," Behrens reports. "Keep in mind this is in the economy that Joe Biden has created, where interest rates are through the roof. So, even in those conditions, internal combustion cars are the cars Americans want."
He concludes that Americans "just aren't buying it" EVs – "literally and figuratively."
