Here's a peculiar sentiment check that we're sure will have liberal voting soccer moms across the nation stunned: it looks as though the country simply isn't rushing out to buy electric vehicles.
At least that was the takeaway from a new Financial Times piece out this week which notes that the U.S. "still lags much of the developed world" in EV adoption.
No wonder those hurricanes coming up the Gulf Coast keep getting bigger! Quick, everybody to the Tesla dealership!
But seriously, the lack of demand is going to also be sure to stun the government, who has been offering tax breaks of up to $7,500 to try and incentivize people to go electric. Though the Inflation Reduction Act incentivizes EVs, imagine how surprised Democratic leaders will be to find out that they aren't the free market and can't plan a state run economy in its entirety.
Instead, FT reveals that "just two in every 10 Americans are “very likely” to buy an EV as their next car", even with the additional IRA subsidies. The number shifts to 1 in 10 Americans among Republicans.
Cost and charger availability are being cited as the two main reasons people aren't buying EVs. Behind them, price still remains a key factor.
And when it came to those who wanted to buy an EV, the IRA subsidy was only cited by 6 in 10 people even cited it as a reason, with only 3 in 10 calling it a "major reason" to buy an EV.
As FT concluded, "economics still trumps ideology".
But don't worry, the Biden administration won't take this as a lesson on why government control of the economy doesn't work - rather, we're certain they'll see it as a prompt to shell out more taxpayer purchasing power as "incentives" to fundamentally alter the course of the notoriously low-margin, capital intensive, auto business - and then blame Donald Trump when their plans don't work out.
Oilprice.com