Nearly 4,000 Car Dealerships Beg Biden to Pull the Plug on ‘Unrealistic’ EV Mandates
The climate cultists who have implemented EV mandates clearly forgot that “sticker shock” is a real thing for most people.
Electric vehicles are piling up on dealership lots across the country, as Americans are finding them too expensive to buy, run, and maintain…thanks to “Bidenomics.”
EV inventories have increased by 506% from a year ago, with EVs sitting on lots for longer, according to CarGurus’ October report, released this month. EVs sit on the market an average 82 days versus 64 days for gas-powered vehicles, it said. In response to slowing demand, automakers like Ford and GM are cutting production.
EVs are still too expensive for most people, even with government incentives, surveys say.
“While consumers still have plenty of concerns surrounding an EV’s battery range, price remains the higher priority when purchasing an EV,” said Julia Martinez, an energy & auto analyst at business intelligence company Morning Consult, in a report.
Car dealerships are begging Biden for help, as they want him to use his pen and phone to undo the ridiculous EV mandates that have popped up across the nation…thanks to green energy pseudoscience and climate cultists.
Nearly 4,000 car dealerships signed an open letter to President Biden urging him to delay the timeline for proposed emissions standards that would force two-thirds of new vehicles sold by 2032 to be electric.
The opposition, which includes 3,882 individual dealers from all 50 states that collectively call themselves EV Voice of the Customer, sounded an alarm that auto manufacturers have also been ringing: consumers aren’t ready to go electric.
“Already, electric vehicles are stacking up on our lots, which is our best indicator of customer demand in the marketplace,” the groups stated in the letter on Tuesday. “Mr. President, no government agency, no think tank, and no polling firm knows more about the automobile customer than us”.
The price differential between gas and electric vehicles is significant.
Joe Mehling, the executive manager of Dave White Chevrolet in Sylvania, has been in the business for decades and said it’s changing, but not in a way he necessarily likes. He said he wasn’t a part of the letter to Biden but still agrees with the dealerships.
“I think we’re moving too fast,” he said. “I think we’re jumping in with both feet on something that maybe the public isn’t ready for.”
Mehling said the dealership had to make many changes to prepare for electric vehicles.
“We’re in a position now where we’re well ahead of where the consumer demand is,” he said, meaning many people aren’t buying them, possibly because some consumers can’t afford them.
So, how much more are electric vehicles? The 2024 Chevy Blazer is sold in both electric and gas-powered versions.
Mehling said at his location, they sell the electric version for $61,000 and the gas-powered equivalent with the same equipment for $51,000.
The climate cultists who have implemented these policies clearly forgot that “sticker shock” is a real thing for most people.
The price of these vehicles could also rise in response to the use of non-Chinese “locally sourced” materials required to make the lithium-ion batteries used in EVs, partly in response to China’s recent manipulation of the graphite supply.
Western lithium and graphite miners have started charging the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain higher prices for their material, meeting demand for environmentally-friendly and consistent supply that is not linked to China.
In presentations and interviews at this week’s Benchmark critical minerals conference in Los Angeles, industry executives, consultants and investors touted the premium pricing model as a way to help prod development of non-Chinese supply, a goal of Washington, Brussels and other Western governments.
The surcharges mirror a plan from the rare earths industry as Beijing exerts control of the critical minerals market and some EV backers worry that weaker environmental standards among some Chinese miners could tarnish the industry’s clean energy credentials.
China refines more than 90% of the world’s graphite and last month said it will require export permits for the metal, the largest component of an EV battery.
Consumers may also be wary of the reliability of EVs, as demonstrated in this clip.
While they trying for force EV as the new wave…. Google's Battery Electric" bus lost power on a hill in San Francisco and rolled backward crashing into numerous vehicles pic.twitter.com/UCvRDx01AS
— SHO’NUFF (@IAMSHO_NUFF) November 6, 2023
Finally, the maintenance costs and the practical impact of charging time are part of the considerations that purchasers are making, as noted in this CNBC discussion.
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Comments
I’m frankly a little more worried about the all too real and pending federal kill switch that is being mandated on all vehicles after 2026. And who knows what other creepy invasive surveillance technology is on the way.
Or already here.
Black market entrepreneurs will figure out a way to disable it..
The price of EV’s is one thing, but the lost manufacturing capacity (along with chip “shortages”) have driven normal ICE vehicles through the roof. To wit, I looked at basic pickups from Chevy, and the smaller Colorado starts at $47K and the Silverado at $58.5K.
And no negotiations, with minimal rebates. Who can afford this on a vehicle that depreciates the second you drive off the lot? And don’t even get me started on older SUVs; the prices have exploded.
Hang onto anything you have for dear life, unless you like $800 payments for 120 months….
Try Ford, I got a discount and running boards ( yes, they are an option now) on an F-150 with Eco-Boost and 4WD for $54k out the door
$54K for a truck is insane.
And the Eco-Boost engines are complete crap.
My previous Eco Boost in my 2011 F-150 got 211,000 trouble free miles before the transmission cooler started leaking
My 2015 Expedition runs fine, thank you, with no problems related to the V-6 Ecoboost. You must not maintain your vehicles properly.
What about us folks close to (or already in) retirement? Do you honestly think the average family has $54k in a cookie jar? Or can afford a vehicle loan for that much? Everyone (besides you) doesn’t make $200k a year with no expenses. At half that salary a $20k car used to be a big purchase. Not everyone is as irresponsible as the Federal government when it comes to debt. But I guess the whole “What, me worry?” crowd figures someone will come along at the right time and write off their debts, just like Brandon keeps promising re student loans.
I’m unclear as why a politician can mandate people to sell or buy a product.
Oh. Wait. Obamacare….
Thank you John Roberts!!
We need to do for the “interstate commerce” clause what the current court has done for the 2nd Amendment.
Democrats, you mean.
A friend of mine has a relative who is a top salesman at the dealership where he works. The salesman says the only reason they have EVs on the showroom floor is that the manufacturer (Mercedes-Benz) requires the dealership to carry them. His customers want nothing to do with EVs and they have only sold a very few thanks to the government subsidies.
Which means we taxpayers are footing the bill for a few rich people to enjoy EVs.
What is wrong with this picture?
What is wrong with this picture?
Government. That it’s in the picture, at all.
Democrats, you mean.
The same thing wrong as dentists, doctors, and lawyers driving around in overpriced Naziwagens they have on lease. The income tax laws favor leasing expensive cars, so the common man has to make up the tax loss.
We leased through our company for that very reason. Business expense = tax deduction.
Hi, Grizzly! Lemme clue you in. *Nobody* is making up the tax loss. We just increase the National Debt.
I’m going to have my garage replaced next year. I thought it would be a nice idea to have the new garage “recharge ready” for the future, not because I have or want an electric car, but it would be a potential resale point. The garage guy said he could do that, but first I need to upgrade my home’s electrical system. I’d need to go from 100 amp service to 200 amp service, then have a sub panel added to the garage for a 50 amp 240 volt service connection. All in, he said, that might be $5000 to $10,000. He also mentioned that several local “more liberal” suburbs required (by building code) charging stations in new and replaced garages. Guess what is not going in my new garage?
Most new houses have 200 amp service. If you have 100A service, you must have a pretty old place. The garage guy is wrong. You might want to upgrade to 200A, and not just for an EV, but for general use. For example, an electric dryer uses 30 amps and so does an electric oven. Add a space heater or two, and you’re coming close to the limit if you run everything all at once.
An EV doesn’t need anything more than a 240v 30A electric dryer circuit. As for “charging stations,” they are the high-tech equivalent of the “clear coat” job that the crooked car salesman tried to sell someone in the “Fargo” movie. People buy those things because they don’t know anything about EVs, and someone has suckered them into one.
So have your garage guy run 240v 30A out there. If you don’t upgrade your 100A, just make sure not to run a bunch of other stuff in your house at the same time, which will probably be overnight given how people actually recharge their EVs.
If you don’t want to wallow in imaginary victimhood but actually want to make it work, do what I just told you. I own an EV and a big-ass pickup truck, and I know what I’m talking about.
By the way, if I were buying a house, I’d find out if it has 200A service and negotiate lower if I had to upgrade it to the modern standard. I would do this even if I didn’t have an EV. When was your house built? They don’t put 100A service in new homes anymore.
My place has gas heat and water heating. Electric cooking and dryer. I have a 125A service and the place was built in 2000. 100A? Thst siundsxlikecan old house.
sounds like an
The average clothes dryer uses 12 amps (not 30). The circuit breaker might be 30 to provide for the initial rush until the coil is heated (a few seconds). If you don’t have an electric vehicle (or some other outrageous appliance), you’ll never know that you have 100 amp service.
Not true. The average dryer plugs into a 240v 30A circuit. Those are rated at 7,200 watts, but hold 20% in reserve, and use 5,700 watts. You can lie all you want, but I’ll just laugh.
But things work okay as it is. Right?
We spent $3k on brakes, shocks and stabilizer bar for our ’03 Park Ave Ultra – with the intent to keep it for the rest of our lives. It’s quiet, comfortable, and with the turbo very quick. The day after picking it up from the shop, a deer had the nerve to dash out of the woods and collide with the right front crumpling the hood, grille and headlight.
Insurance paid $2200 to have the damage repaired and sent us to an approved shop, who after waiting 3 months for the appointment, cancelled because they couldn’t get parts. Ultra parts are rare I’m told and GM parts do not show them interchangeable with the base Park Ave.
The insurance company ghosted us when I called to have it totaled and cash out – canceling our claim without response. Glad that happened as it forced me to track down a parts car, buy it online and put on a transport for delivery, where I fixed it with help from the neighbor to swap the hood. It still needs painted – that clearcoat bronze is almost a match for the pearl white in sunlight – but we’re not into 2 tone. Hardest part was the fact finding – pouring over parts diagrams from GM and reading old discussion forums. GM said a base hood wouldn’t fit Ultra – but turns out they’re identical but for the badging. Base has a hood ornament hole, Ultra relocates the badge to the grille.
We intend to drive “Pearl” for the duration – and the ‘Parts Avenue’ is under cover up behind the shed, ready to donate any required vital parts to keep her running.
No way will we be forced into buying an EV – which I suspect the gov’t wants us to own not because they’re saving the environment, but to restrict our mobility – and leave the govs to enjoy the posh resorts and foreign vacations while us peons are stuck at home, charging our oversized Tonka trucks. It piques my suspicions that it’s the far left blue states adopting such strict EV laws – as if to prevent the ongoing mass exodus of tax payers to red states – “how will you move if you can’t get a moving truck – why not just stay and keep paying your taxes like a good Californian?”
Purchase mandates: pure Communism.
Maybe they should ask him to pull the plug on the un-constitutional mandates on the industry, in general. Just because they’re a violation of the constitutional powers.
Gee. When Trump (may golden escalators transport him) is back on the king’s throne, he will do that.
Back to reality: no one will ever reverse any of the unconstitutional stuff. Mark my words.
Don’t buy an EV for another 10 years if you can avoid it. The reason is that the current lithium-ion batteries have a liquid electrolyte that limits their energy density and range. Solid state is right around the corner (Toyota and the Taiwanese are working on it right now), and will solve the problems of range, safety, all-weather performance, and charging time.
The first ones will be ready late in this decade, and then will take time for manufacturing scale economies to kick in and reduce the cost. The market is going to cause ICEVs to go the way of horse-drawn wagons. In the meantime, the cost of the current generation batteries is dropping like a rock, and by the ’28 model year there will be no price difference between current-generation EVs and ICEVs.
There is no need for the mandates. I oppose them. The market will work its magic. To me, these are not political questions but solely engineering ones. Once solid state batteries are fully commercialized at acceptable costs, EVs will take over new light passenger vehicle sales, including pickup trucks.
The ICEV fleets will last for however long the vehicles last, but I don’t think you’ll see many ICEVs on the road in 40 years, and will have a hard time even finding a new one in 20 years.
I’d add that the current generation EVs are viable urban commuters. The issue there is the cost of the batteries, but those costs are falling very fast. The current sales lull will pass soon. Even though I wouldn’t buy one until solid-state appears, if I were living in an urban area and was in the market for a second car in the near future, I’d definitely be looking at an EV.
My city in NE Tennessee is loaded with Teslas. Then again, virtually everything is within 50 or miles. Even a run to a metropolitan area, errands, then back is well within range.
Lots of Teslas. Quite a few Hyundai and Kia electrics. Even a VW or two. Virtually no one is risking a Ford Mock E or a Lightning.
You don’t think we’ll see another BETA-Max vs VHS battle? With the inferior technology winning because of marketing / backing? “Think of all the jobs Lithium-Ion have created … in the fire department …”
LOL
I do not understand why in hell we should junk an efficient industry in favor of a …what? EV cars are in almost every way inferior to ICEV. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Hold my beer there, jimB. The big gating factors for EVs are battery cost, energy density, and charging time. The costs for the current generation of batteries are dropping very fast, and those EVs will be no more expensive than ICEVs by the ’28 model year. Solid-state batteries are next, and they will at least triple the range, cut the charging time to 10 minutes, perform in a much wider temperature range, last much longer, and be much less prone to catching on fire.
If the solid-state story pans out (and I think it will), you won’t be able to find a new ICEV after about 2040. This will have nothing to do with politics. It will be the equivalent of when candles and oil lamps were replaced by lightbulbs. I’ve been skeptical of battery “breakthroughs,” given by how much hype there’s been on that, but solid-state has serious backing from the real players.
Everyone’s been seriously mistaken to treat this as anything other than an engineering issue. They are cars not causes. Unless you’re in your 70s or older, you’re going to see it happen.
Those ;EVs are already causing brownouts in CA. Simple fact, we are not building new power plants that run of reliable energy nor transmission lines to carry the massive demand that EVs would create on a grid that is now barely adequate. As for the auto dealers, cars that sit on their lots unsold are usually floor planned and at today’s interest rates expensive to have sit unsold. They should stand up to the manufacturers and refuse to take all those surplus EVs that few want.