‘People just don’t want battery electric cars’: 25yo exposes brutal EV truth

The industry would have you believe it is going gangbusters – but according to Caleb Bond, there’s a whole lot more to the EV story.

OPINION

Electric vehicle targets are in tatters.

Remember just a few years ago when Labor, prior to winning the 2022 federal election, calculated its net zero targets on the basis that EVs would make up 89 per cent of new car sales by 2030?

The federal transport department later revised that down to 27 per cent.

And yet the industry would have you believe it is going gangbusters.

Energy researcher Rho Motion recently released its analysis of EV sales for 2024 – the incredible headline being that global sales increased by 25 per cent from 2023.

And that really would be incredible. Actually, it is incredible, because it’s a tricky distortion of reality.

Much of that growth was driven by a 40 per cent increase in Chinese sales – China being where most EVs are made and where manufacturers are given significant government incentives and subsidies.

They’re dirt cheap so people are buying them. That is hardly a surprise.

But the China Passenger Car Association has now predicted that, after being the biggest global exporter of cars for two years, there will be “zero growth” in EV exports this year.

And the breakdown of the sales figures in China tell the real story.

See, the alleged growth of EV sales claimed by Rho Motion isn’t just for battery electric vehicles – what you would typically call an EV. They’ve also thrown in plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), which still have combustion engines, but with the ability to charge a battery at the wall.

Caleb Bond, 25, says EV sales have actually slumped. Picture: Instagram

And funnily enough, the data doesn’t break down the sales of full EVs compared to PHEVs – except for China, where its 40 per cent growth in “electric vehicle” sales was actually made up of a 19 per cent rise in battery-only cars and a massive 81 per cent jump in PHEVs.

So it’s not proper electric vehicles that are popular. It’s hybrids.

People just don’t want battery electric cars. They’re not opposed to using electric technology to make their cars more efficient, hence the popularity of hybrids, but for a multitude of reasons they prefer the security and familiarity of an internal combustion engine.

I don’t think that will change.

And the rise in hybrid sales has precious little to do with concern for the environment.

It’s driven by fuel efficiency, which ultimately means more money in your pocket. Unless you’re buying a car for fun, most people are driven (pardon the pun) by practicalities – cost chief among them.

Numbers emerging around the world show that most people who want an EV have already bought one and others are only encouraged to do so if the government heavily subsidises their purchase.

Despite that alleged 25 per cent growth in global sales, the European EV market declined by three per cent last year.

That was largely caused by Germany, where sales slumped by nearly 30 per cent after subsidies ended.

German buyers were, until last year, given as much as €4500 ($A7500) by the government for purchasing an EV. Manufacturers were entitled to a €2250 ($A3750) subsidy.

Lo and behold, EV sales fell through the floor once that incentive disappeared.

Rho Motion data manager Charles Lester said it was “clear that Government carrots and sticks are working”.

'If people don’t want to buy your product without being paid to do so, then maybe your product isn’t that great'. Picture: iStock

“In North America, the nine per cent growth can mostly be attributed to consumer subsidies and over in the UK, the zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate has highly incentivised manufacturers to push their low emission cars,” Mr Lester said.

“Meanwhile the removal of subsidies in Germany had a devastating impact on the whole European market – if the US follows suit, we may see the same there.”

In other words, unless you pay people to buy electric cars, they’re not really interested in them.

The UK’s ZEV mandate essentially forces people to buy EVs because car companies are only allowed to sell a certain quota of petrol or diesel cars before they’re slugged a massive fine on each car.

British car yards were last year delaying the delivery of cars people had already bought in order to avoid the fines.

It ought not be the job of the government to decide which cars we are allowed to drive.

Electric vehicles not being able to stand on their own four wheels is their own problem – not the government’s.

If people don’t want to buy your product without being paid to do so, then maybe your product isn’t that great.

Originally published as ‘People just don’t want battery electric cars’: 25yo exposes brutal EV truth