After investing billions into a green energy agenda mimicking President Joe Biden’s federal rules, American automakers are quickly learning that Americans are not buying electric vehicles (EVs) at the rates they expected.
A comprehensive report in the Detroit Free Press details how the latest data reveals that while the Biden administration is pushing hard for automakers to turn out EVs, car companies are unable to sell the models.
Data from Edmunds.com shows that in September 2022, for example, EVs sat on dealership lots for just 21 days before they were sold. Today, EVs are sitting on dealership lots for 65 days.
Automakers, as Breitbart News reported, are well aware of the issue. Tesla, General Motors (GM), Mercedes-Benz, and Ford have all started slow-walking their rapid EV production plans.
WATCH: Elite Pete Buttigieg GRILLED over Unaffordable Cost of EVs
In September, most notably, Ford announced it would be pausing construction of a $3.5 billion EV battery plant in Marshall, Michigan. Ford drew fierce backlash from locals and lawmakers because the plant would have the automaker collaborate with China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. (CATL), linked heavily to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
GM CEO Mary Barra told investors in October that the automaker is abandoning its goals to produce 400,000 EVs from 2022 through mid-2024. Similarly, GM will delay retooling its plant in Orion Township, Michigan, to build EV pickup trucks.
Meanwhile, Tesla has seen a dip in net income, which came in at $1.85 billion in the third quarter. At the same time in 2022, net income for the electric automaker was $3.29 billion. As a result, Tesla is planning to delay its production plant set for Mexico.
At Mercedes-Benz, EVs are so hard to sell that the automaker is having to effectively put them on clearance at enormously discounted prices to get them off dealership lots, according to Business Insider:
Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz — which is having to discount its EVs by several thousand dollars just to get them in customers’ hands — isn’t mincing words about the state of the EV market. [Emphasis added]
“This is a pretty brutal space,” CFO Harald Wilhelm said on an analyst call. “I can hardly imagine the current status quo is fully sustainable for everybody.” [Emphasis added]
But Mercedes isn’t the only one; almost all current EV product is going for under sticker price these days, and on top of that, some EVs are seeing manufacturer’s incentives of nearly 10%. [Emphasis added]
WATCH: Tesla Driver Stranded on Christmas Eve After Battery Refused to Charge
Even with massive taxpayer-funded subsidies spearheaded by the Biden administration, EVs remain a costly expense for America’s working and middle class, which rely on their vehicles immensely.
The average EV, in October, cost nearly $60,000 without the Biden tax credits — more than $10,000 above the average industry price, according to figures published in the Detroit Free Press.
In addition to high prices, EVs have enjoyed a stream of bad public perception for some time between the long hours of charging the vehicles, the lack of charging stations across the United States, and the fact that the biggest proponents of green energy policies continue to drive gas-powered cars themselves.
Most recently, Biden’s Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm took off on an EV tour across multiple states over a four-day period to bring attention to the efficiency of the vehicles. The trip ended in chaos when the police were called as Granholm’s team blocked a charging station to reserve it for the secretary because there were not enough stations available at the time.
Republicans on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee have since opened an investigation into the matter.
Then, there is the risk of EVs catching fire. Local firefighters in Colorado have said they still do not know how best to put out a fire involving an EV because the vehicle uses lithium-ion batteries.
“We have fire agencies that are using tarps to cover cars to help try and smother them, but it’s not very effective,” local firefighter official Doug Saba told CBS Colorado in August:
They’re trying water, but you need to have copious amounts of water, 20,000 gallons. Even then, once you put it out, it can rekindle and restart 24, 72 hours or a week later. Our tactics as firefighters right now is get the the [sic] vehicle out of the house, get it out of our neighborhood and we will investigate it in an open field. [Emphasis added]
WATCH: Tesla Engulfed in Flames After Battery “Spontaneously Caught Fire”
Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District via StoryfulMany American auto workers have been sounding the alarm on Biden’s rapid transition to EVs for quite some time. Production of EVs takes far less manpower and reliance on China for critical components of EV batteries.
Thus, auto workers see their jobs going out the door.
“I think EVs are going to wipe us out,” 28-year-old Whitney Walch, who works at Stellantis’s Portland Parts Distribution Center in Beaverton, Oregon, told E&E News recently. “… [EVs] don’t need spark plugs, what else, oil filters, we sell a lot of those. If we don’t have all those parts, I feel like we don’t have a lot to do.”
Another auto worker said that “it’s almost inevitable” that his job will be eliminated if the Biden administration gets its way on EVs.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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