23 Comments

I like the article but don't understand the chart. What does APAC, EMEA, and AMER stand for? Does the stacked bar apply to the primary or secondary y-axis? Does EV Growth line apply to primary or secondary axis? Overall the stacked bar shows consistent EV growth. So why is the Global EV Growth showing such a drastic decline? Something doesn't make sense with the EV Growth Year-on-Year rate. In the end, death certificates for businesses are issued at the bank. If Ford keeps losing money, it will not end well.

Expand full comment
author

APAC is Asia Pacific. EMEA is Europe, Mideast Africa. AMER is Americas.

Expand full comment

It seems obvious that the automakers were drawn in by the egregious subsidies offered by the IRA. Taxpayer dollars that will surely be divided up amongst the executives while the stockholders take the losses! Mark my words, “Follow the Money”! Unbridled corruption, no accountability!

Expand full comment

Well written. Full of data. I read everything you publish. There appears to be enough historical data to start estimating where the "S" shaped adoption curve will level out for BEV. Looks somewhere between 12% and 15% of new car sales.

Expand full comment
author

The S curve sounds right to me. As I noted in the piece, it's interesting to see Morningstar going from very bullish a year ago to now saying that early "adopters now seemingly exhausted, EVs are struggling to maintain ongoing sales momentum..."

Expand full comment

Where is the Ford Board of Directors? Unbelievable lack of accountability to all management. Pink slip all these people who have made all these poor decisions.

Expand full comment
author

Agree.

Expand full comment

congrats Robert. You were early and right on this theme.

Expand full comment

Next up……Uncle Bailout! (For the good of the country of course)

Expand full comment

More money from Bernie & Joe's Free Shit Tree!

Expand full comment

Ford is losing $58,000 per EV and that is with federal and state EV subsidies for each sale. On top of that, we are subsidizing the wind and solar generation and construction and the buildout of the charging infrastructure. And yet, the green idiots still claim prices are coming down for all of the above. How can prices come down when everyone is losing money even with the subsidies?

Expand full comment
author

Your point on prices is correct. And now to protect their home-grown EVs, the US and EU are putting tariffs on Chinese EVs. One other point, which I didn't make in my article: At $58k loss per vehicle, FoMoCo's losses are greater than their selling price. At Maxwell Ford in Austin, all of the Mustang Mach-Es they have on the lot are selling for less than $58k!

Expand full comment

Many of us have been saying EVs weren’t ready for prime time for years but know nothing politicians, supposedly smart business leaders chasing government subsidies, academics chasing funding for pro EV articles and puff pieces, NGOs funded by foolish billionaires, and media propagandists all took the boat to EV Fantasy Island (TM). Of course, Fantasy Island was make believe just like the fantasy of replacing all ICE engines with EVs and Net Zero any time in the soon (and certainly not by 2050).

Expand full comment

Well done. Tough times for carmakers under CAFE will continue, and IRA is only making malinvestment in EVs worse.

Expand full comment

If Joe Biden is “good” at apologizing, why doesn’t he apologize to the American people for not having first created an affordable, reliable and “at scale” electric grid (only possible with nuclear energy) that would make the conversion to eV transition possiblr?

Expand full comment

Always clear and succinct.

Expand full comment
author

Thanks.

Expand full comment

Nice article, Robert. Should I buy an EV in order to get some of my taxes that got spent on rebates back? Does it work that way?

Expand full comment

Why not, if you live where it’s always 70 degrees and you have all the free time in the world to sit around and twiddle your thumbs while a likely non-working EV charger might charge your car in the next hour or two.

Expand full comment

Don't forget a fireproof garage so you can charge at home...

Expand full comment

Well, fine guys. Shoot down my idea to get some of my tax money back. My economic plan to spend $70,000 and bring more inconvenience and fire danger into my life to get $0.01 of my taxes back seems to be a bad idea.

I did set a lithium battery on fire in my garage once. I was rewiring the neighbor kid’s electric boat, got the wires crossed and the thing just burst into flames. Thankfully the thing was small and I managed to fling it into the driveway. It burned for a long time. Can’t imagine what a battery 10,000 times the size would do.

Expand full comment

Great article, showing the reality behind the hype for EV's.

Expand full comment