Electric Vehicles – Almost One Year’s Telling Stories

It’s been the quietest year of several for electric vehicles.  Are they settling down, or just reacting to changing governmental policies?  How predominant, if at all, will they be late this decade and beyond?

To set the tone for 2025, we saw “Tesla Annual Sales Slip for First Time as Competition Grows” (Jack Ewing, The New York Times, January 2^nd).  They “fell slightly in 2024” for “the first annual decline in the company’s history, as rivals in China, Europe and the United States introduced dozens of competing electric models.”  Total Tesla deliveries were off about 1% to 1.789 million, and, as of press time, “still accounts for nearly half of all electric cars sold in” America. 

The next was even gloomier, as Ivan Penn asked if “Electric Vehicles Died a Century Ago.  Could That Happen Again?” (The New York Times, May 26^th).  The author’s reasons for concerns were that “The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress are working to undercut the growth of electric vehicles, impose a new tax on them and swing federal policy sharply in favor of oil and gasoline.”  He mentioned that “the oil industry has enjoyed numerous tax breaks,” but electric cars, starting with their now-discontinued buyer subsidies, have as well.  He focused on EV’s being less “macho,” but there has been much more than that to why “electric cars may be                                                                         in trouble, at least in the United States.”

“The EVs We’ve Lost” (Wired.com, July 19^th) told us that “shifts in economic policy and manufacturing have led major automakers to cancel upcoming electric vehicle launches in the US.”  Whatever it is, consulting company AlixPartners “dropped its 2030 sales predictions for battery-electric and hybrid card by a whopping 46 percent compared to last year’s projections.”  With that, the following, many of which have been absorbing money for several years, will not be produced: Ford Three-Row EV SUV, Honda Five and Seven-Seat EV SUV, Mercedes-Benz MB.EA-Large Platform, Nissan and Infiniti EV Sedans, Volvo All-EV Lineup, Maserati MC20 Folgore, Apple Car, and Fisker Pear.  These are still in progress, but believed delayed: Buick EV, Ferrari EV 2, Lamborghini Lanzador, Lamborghini Urus, Porsche 718 EV, and Tesla Model 2.  That’s a lot.

Something healthy, and good for electric car buyers, is that we are seeing “Used E.V. Sales Take Off as Prices Plummet” (Jack Ewing, The New York Times, September 13).  In contrast to delivery numbers above, “sales of used electric vehicles rose 40 percent in July from a year earlier, according to Cox Automotive, a research firm.”  Those too, though, were subsidized, with customers “rushing to take advantage of a $4,000 tax credit that can be applied to used electric vehicles that sell for $25,000 or less.”  Used sales prices will be a good indicator of how highly EVs are desired by people who don’t already have one, which is perhaps obvious but reveals valuable information about the extent of their market.

As September rolled to a close, we got the judgment that “Electric Vehicles Face a ‘Pretty Dreadful Year’ in the U.S.” (Neal E. Boudette, The New York Times, September 29^th).  The author, backed up by analysts, expected that the end of various federal tax credits that month would cause sales figures “to plummet in the last three months of the year and then remain sluggish for some time,” as that and other industry developments show “a stark turnaround from the heady days a few years ago when many automakers believed electric vehicles were poised to take off.”  Additional manufacturer cancellations named here included Honda’s electric Acura, Stellantis’s “battery-powered” Ram pickup, and importing of Nissan’s Japanese Ariya electric SUV.

It was time for another writeup on “How Much It Costs to Drive an E.V. and a Gas Car in Every State,” and, courtesy of Francesca Paris and the October 8^th New York Times, we got one.  It, however, considered only fuel cost, so anyone serious about this issue will need to assemble and properly interpret data on depreciation and other expenses.  This study, though, found that charging or filling up for 100 miles ran averages of $5.26 for home electricity, $6.15 for hybrids, $12.80 for “standard” gas cars, and $15.62 for “fast charging.”  Factors mentioned for possible individual consideration were “cheaper electricity rates at night or for E.V.’s,” home charging when power comes from solar panels, regional electricity-cost differences favoring some west-of-the-Mississippi states, different gasoline prices, and differing fast-charging rates.  The states with the cheapest, relative to gas, home-charging prices were all in the West, with the most expensive five all in New England.  When gas was compared with fast charging, the most favorable to EVs were Florida and four in the Pacific, while the worst were scattered: Arkansas, Wyoming, the District of Columbia, Vermont, and Maine.  It is noteworthy that New England, which culturally is one of the areas most favorable to electric cars, has the most expensive electricity, and the mountain states of the West are opposite in both ways.

What overall?  Even without the subsidy losses, electric vehicles, in the United States, were not poised to become the norm.  They seem solid as a minority preference, but that’s all we, automakers, legislators, and presidential hopefuls should expect.  They have more gyrations to go through before we know just how large a share they will command, but it won’t be a majority.  On that the data, tangled though it may seem, can agree.