There were some dreary news dumps for the EV world this weekend. I had a good one that caught the gist of it all in the headlines yesterday, but I figured I’d expand on it with other, more specific information that came out around the same time.

You know – kind of gild the lily.

Sunday’s Wall Street Journal headline had that kinda confirmational “Well, yeah” feeling to it.

Automakers Have Big Hopes for EVs; Buyers Aren’t Cooperating
Sales growth has slowed in the U.S. as car companies are finding a limited pool of consumers willing to pay more for these models

So far, for all the bells, whistles, and government tricksy accounting, they’re not the hot potato the advocates keep telling us they are, and our Spidey senses do not deceive us. Lots of other folks are noticing the same thing.

…The auto industry’s push to boost sales of electric vehicles is running into a cold, hard reality: Buyers’ interest in these models is proving shallower than expected.

While EV sales continue to grow—rising 51% this year through September—the rate has slowed from a year earlier and unsold inventory is starting to pile up for some brands.

…The first wave of buyers willing to pay a premium for a battery-powered car has already made the purchase, dealers and executives say, and automakers are now dealing with a more hesitant group, just as a barrage of new EV models are expected to hit dealerships in the coming years.

“The curve isn’t accelerating as quickly as I think a lot of people expected,” said John Lawler, Ford Motor’s chief financial officer at a conference in September, on the EV adoption rate. “We’re seeing it flatten a bit.”

Not that Ford, in particular, isn’t trying like crazy to move those suckers off their lots…

Yep don’t waste the money on actually improving the product, just learn to talk sweet and advertise.. sound approach.. pic.twitter.com/hAEoprZfXq

— Barry Schiff (@KissIsTheKey) October 10, 2023

…but the company has a real problem on its hands at the moment with their EV production, especially where their electric Ford F-150 Lightning truck is concerned. Sales are so lackluster and orders so non-existent, that the company has had to “temporarily” cut a shift at the plant where the E truck is manufactured.

…The [UAW] official, who leads the union’s local chapter that represents workers at the truck factory, said in a letter dated Tuesday that the automaker was considering canceling the shift and indicated that it was looking to build more gas-engine trucks instead.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that our sales for the Lightning have tanked,”

the union leader wrote in the memo, which was viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

700 people are affected and Ford is going to try to rotate them through shifts.

Ford Motor (F.N) said on Friday it will temporarily cut one of three shifts at the Michigan plant that builds its electric F-150 lightning pickup truck, citing multiple constraints, including supply chain issues.

The No. 2 U.S. automaker said the cuts are unrelated to the United Auto Workers strike. Ford said the move takes effect Monday and would affect about 700 jobs. It said it will rotate the shift that is being cut, and did not say how long the production cut would last.

They just restarted production on that line in August. That bodes well, no?

Ford Motor said Tuesday the factory that builds its electric F-150 Lightning pickup has reopened after a six-week break for upgrades — and that recent price cuts on the EV have led to a significant increase in demand.

YAY, WE’RE SAVED!! euphoria with the price cuts didn’t last long.

Ford loses its asterisk on every single EV it produces and the Lightning is no exception. But holy smokes – at the retail prices they still have to charge for a supposed work truck that only gets about 100 miles of fully loaded or towing per charge, no working farmer or tradesman is going to fork over that kind of cash for a basically worthless “work” vehicle. Between downtime for charging and lack of range, what the heck? Who would even consider it?

From a practicality and bang-for-buck standpoint, it can’t begin to compete with an ICE or diesel pickup truck.

That’s without adding in the downside of an EV if you live somewhere the weather gets good and cold.

…Sales of the EV truck did indeed tank during the third quarter of the year, dropping by a fairly amazing 45.8%. The company halted production of the vehicle entirely during the summer, but later claimed it was ready to ramp back up and actually quadruple the number of units produced from this year’s 150,000 (which is probably will not meet) to an absurd 600,000 in 2024.

The tanking sales for Q3 came even after Ford had cut the base price of the F-150 L to around $50,000, reversing the March increase that had raised it to $60,000. Fully loaded, an F-150 Lightning costs the buyer more than $100k, pricing out all but the wealthiest virtue-signal seeking consumers.

Tesla had a down quarter in China – of course, China is having a good, solid downturn themselves. Tesla’s also falling prey to cheaper, homemade Chinese EVs thanks to the current economics there.

U.S. automaker Tesla sold 74,073 China-made electric vehicles (EVs) in September, a 10.9% decrease from a year earlier, showed data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) on Sunday.

Sales of China-made Model 3 and Model Y cars were down 12.0% from a month earlier.

Volkswagen’s EV division is facing some frightening times, for all the NetZero push in Europe. The UK has pushed back the transition to EVs and the Germans are fighting the EU over it. In the meantime, where VW had what looked to be gangbuster numbers for the quarter, when you go deeper? These “sales” were all cars that had already been ordered and they have almost no new orders coming in going forward. In otherwards, even in Europe, demands for their EVs has fallen off a cliff.

Europe’s largest automaker is struggling to keep up as the industry goes electric. Although Volkswagen’s EV sales climbed in September, new orders are failing to keep up.

Volkswagen sold 531,500 electric vehicles in the first nine months of the year, up 45% compared to last year (366,600).

…Despite the success in the third quarter, Volkswagen is still struggling to attract new EV orders.

“Our order intake is below our ambitious targets due to the lower-than-expected overall market trend,” Hildegard Wortmann, who oversees VW’s marketing and sales, explained.

According to a VW spokesperson, the growth in Q3 was fueled by a higher backlog, which has been waiting to be processed. Supply chain and logistics issues led to extended delivery times, which are now being worked out.

VW has been “slashing” prices as well, even going so far as to form a partnership with a Chinese company to produce a cheaper EV for the market, and still no joy. How long can they – and Ford, for instance – keep that up?

What it’s also signaling is that – no matter how they berate salesmen in car lots to gussy up the pitch or more and more government sugar money is thrown at it – the majority of consumers aren’t buying what they’re pushing and pushing hard.

“..What this means is that they’re not able to manufacture compelling vehicles at the right price to consumers…”

Besides, your average consumer feels like they don’t have time to deal with the hassle. Then they’ll see a local news report or read an article about the real hassle involved in traveling with an EV and it reinforces their resistance.

Like the torqued off fellow in this video says – after being forced to spend 14 out of 54 hours charging during a frustrating road trip – get the core fixed before you work on expanding the “charging” network and forcing a transition for everyone. Make sure simple things like the charging stations are operational. That if they require an app, that there’s cell service available – because if there’s not, the credit card processor puts a $50 hold per charge on your account until your actual charge clears.

Guy was frazzled and snortin’ fire. But he did a good deed by offering the warning.

Car manufacturers are going to be hard-pressed to make their market share targets for next year at this point. Consumers are not only getting wise to EV drawbacks/limitations, they are over the hype driving it.

While the UK rolled back its target of phasing out new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 to 2035, its ZEV mandate remains.

This requires automakers to have EVs make up an increasing share of sales.

The first target is 22% of new cars in 2024.

Here is how companies are doing 👇 pic.twitter.com/5NRn88XrrG

— Hannah Ritchie (@_HannahRitchie) October 11, 2023

They’re a pretty savvy bunch about the entire Green scheme being unmasked. People are tired of paying for it and winding up poorer.

Nobody’s falling for the shiny beeps and boops anymore.