Yes, because you apparently didn’t (and still don’t) think that EV sales momentum is slow (as exemplified by GM’s $1+ billion manufacturing turnaround decision).
And yesterday there was this news from Ford. Even “indefinite hiatus” doesn’t sound real growthy.
Jeep maker Stellantis delays another EV, plans to keep selling the gas version
And batteries as well.
But even before President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on imports, many of those projects were being canceled — leaving thousands of jobs and the shift to clean energy in doubt.
According to data from Atlas Public Policy, a policy research group, more projects were canceled in the first quarter of 2025 than in the previous two years combined. Those cancellations include a $1 billion factory in Georgia that would have made thermal barriers for batteries and a $1.2 billion lithium-ion battery factory in Arizona…
“The EV outlook was already looking pretty bearish before the election,” said Trevor Houser, a partner at Rhodium Group in energy and climate.
Actually numbers are iffy. Most of the “recidivism” statistics may not show what you think they do. If a person buys and EV, but then buys an ICE car, that’s counted. But most families are two-car families, and it’s quite common that they might have one of each, and might replace the ICE car after having purchased an EV. (For the record, that’s exactly what happened in my household, but people not looking below the surface line statistics would make that same mistake of interpretation.)
There is no doubt that some people leave EV’s due to circumstance (moving to a location with scant or unavailable charging, like an apartment) or preference (about 1%, according to surveys of EV owners), but numbers like “45%” are too absurd to believe.
Incidentally, the “other one” in our family is a hybrid, not a pure ICE automobile. So we went from 100% ICE to 75% EV with our two cars.
Last year there was a paper by Dua et al. The authors write:
We investigate the proportion of U.S. plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) owners who discontinued PEV ownership by disposing their PEV and buying a non-PEV on their next purchase, termed PEV discontinuance. Analyzing 8457 new car buyers’ who disposed of their PEVs, we find ∼35 % discontinuance.
Record high sales of EVs in the third quarter DRIVEN by the ending of federal tax credit.
BUT With record high EV sales in the USA in the 3rd quarter, and EVs representing more than 10% of sales for the first time (10.6%), one would think that fossil-fueled vehicle sales would be down while EV sales were strongly up. Unfortunately, that’s not how things played out.
In fact, fossil-fueled vehicle sales were the highest they had been in the 3rd quarter for years.