Pirate's Cove

For all the talk from Biden and other Democrats, such as California gov Newsom, about making people buy EVs, there’s not a lot of interest in doing so. For all the manufacturers who are talking about how many EVs they’re going to be producing, consumers are not clamoring for them. Which is why the two biggest automakers, Toyota and Honda, the ones who make the best vehicles, the ones who pay the best attention to what consumers want, are not really involved with this whole EV push. They’re happy to make good, reliable, dependable, affordable, long lasting, great residual fossil fueled vehicles and hybrids

Does Anyone Even Want an Electric Car?

Whatever the technological promise or pitfalls of electric vehicles, the real challenge lies in getting consumers eager to buy them. And that’s proven to be at least as difficult as making batteries last and building out a comprehensive charging infrastructure. A new report from the big-time, grownup-pants Deloitte consulting firm indicates just how big an undertaking that is proving to be.

Deloitte’s “2022 Global Automotive Consumer Study” goes into granular detail about the buyer expectations that will drive the automotive market in the coming years. It’s all based on a survey of 26,000 consumers in 25 countries. Road & Track has been reliably informed one of those countries is the United States, which is still located in North America. The whole report is available at this link as a PDF.

Much of what Deloitte reports is unsurprising. People still vastly prefer personal vehicles over public transportation; are willing to embrace high technology as long as they don’t have to pay for it; still want to buy new vehicles in-person and not over the internet; and are fine with electric vehicles as long as they’re affordable and at least as good as those relying on internal combustion.

Of course, consumers also know EVs aren’t. When the least expensive one is a Mini at $31k with a range of 110 miles, that doesn’t fly. Not when they can get the top end Civic, the Touring model, for less. Same for Toyota and their Corolla. Especially not when so many are going into SUVs, including the subcompacts (like the HRV, CHR, Kona, Crosstrek, and others), which were the fastest growing segment of car sales prior to COVID. People were moving from compact cars to the subcompact SUVs, which are the same size.

The big insights come with the subject of intentionality. That is what consumers expect to buy next. In the U.S., fully 69 percent of consumers expect their next vehicle to be powered by internal combustion. Another 22 percent will go for some sort of hybrid. But still, amid all of this, only about five percent of Americans expect their next vehicle will be a fully-electric, battery-fueled machine.

Oops! The average price of an EV is $54000. You can get a fully loaded Accord or Camry hybrid for around $37K, and know it will last, and you won’t get range anxiety.

Governments are driving forward with aggressive plans for converting the vehicle fleet to alternative fuels. What prominently emerges from the Deloitte report is that ambitions are one thing, and reality is something else.

It is. Just because you build it doesn’t mean they will come. Further, forcing everyone into an EV is not the job of the American government. Not their business. Not their duty.

BTW, just for comparison, that photo above, which I’ve used plenty of times, is a BMW i3. MSRP starts at $45K (also looks to be cancelled for 2022 model year). I see an ad at the moment at Carvana for a 2018 with 32k miles for $23990. So, it dropped about 50% in this used car climate, while my 2018 Accord Sport with 26k miles is worth almost what I paid for it. Meaning that when it goes on a lot for sale it will sell for as much if not more than MSRP. EVs do not hold value, because few want them used.