From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
h/t Paul Kolk
They don’t want the useless things in Europe either!
Germany has suffered a “spectacular” drop in electric car sales as the European Union faces growing calls to delay its net zero vehicle targets.
The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) said sales of new battery-powered electric vehicles (EV) in Germany plunged by nearly 70pc to 27,024 in August.
In France, the EU’s second largest market for battery electric vehicles behind Germany, deliveries fell by 33pc to 13,143.
ACEA said “the spectacular drop” in both countries meant that only 92,627 battery electric vehicles were registered across Europe last month, a fall of 43.9pc compared to a year earlier. This drove a wider 18pc drop in new car sales across the EU.
The collapse in EV sales comes amid concerns about their range, high prices and the lack of charging infrastructure across the EU.
Felipe Munoz, a global automotive analyst at JATO Dynamics, said: “The reality is that whether you look at business or private, electric vehicles do not convince yet.”
Earlier this month Volkswagen warned it may have to close a factory in its home market in the face of slumping sales. The car maker has also scrapped a decades-old promise to protect workers’ jobs, with fears as many as 15,000 roles could be at risk.
The EV sales crisis prompted the ACEA to call for “urgent action” to address new EU net zero car sales rules that will leave European electric car manufacturers at risk of hefty fines.
The European Commission, which creates and enforces EU law, is preparing to introduce new rules for car and van makers designed to slash carbon emissions and encourage the adoption of electric vehicles.
The new rules require all new European cars to produce no more than 93.6g of CO2 per kilometre. Brands will be fined €95 for each gram of CO2 per kilometre over the limit, multiplied by the number of cars sold.
The ACEA said the “continual downward trajectory” of EV sales in the bloc meant manufacturers would be at risk of multi-billion euro fines and said the new rules needed a rethink. It warned that demand for EVs was still well below the level needed for the EU’s new vehicle emissions rules to work effectively.
“We are missing crucial conditions to reach the necessary boost in production and adoption of zero-emission vehicles: charging and hydrogen refilling infrastructure, as well as a competitive manufacturing environment, affordable green energy, purchase and tax incentives, and a secure supply of raw materials, hydrogen and batteries,” the ACEA said.
The Brussels-based industry body said that 902,011 battery-electric cars were registered from January to August, representing just 12.6pc of the market.
The ACEA urged the European Union to delay new carbon emissions targets and instead take “urgent and meaningful action” to reverse the sales decline.
Top carmakers including Volkswagen, BMW and Renault have already suggested pushing back the targets, which would see companies fined for failing to comply.
Meanwhile, Italy urged the EU to pause its “absurd” plans to ban petrol cars by 2035 amid concerns the policy risks triggering the automotive industry’s collapse.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Agee totally. I live in Germany….test-driven 2 E-cars, and done the study of putting panels up on the roof. At the end, I gave up on the E-car being the solution of the future. Maybe it’s 20 years too early. All of these garage fires bother me to some degree as well.
It’s worth repeating that batteries are not a new and emerging technology, they first appeared in the early 19th century, were in use throughout the 20th, and since the emergence of portable electronic devices in the 80s, have been subject to 40 years of continuous improvement by the best minds in the business.
I don’t see the potential for substantial technological improvements that would make BEVs viable for most people.
That is the most cogent comment I’ve read regarding battery electric vehicles.
Thomas Edison and his friend Henry Ford made a big show of developing an electric car to replace the internal combustion driven car, with Edison working feverishly to develop the battery. His nickel-iron battery was the result, and while it was good in many respects, it didn’t come close to supporting a car with the range and other characteristics of an internal combustion car. The whole effort quietly petered out, and Edison made a statement about it that I once found, but have lost, so I’ll have to paraphrase it: “Only a fool would believe that a battery could ever replace gasoline.” It was the final judgement of the man who literally electrified the world.
There’s not a lot of mystery left in the periodic table, there’s not a lot of potential for new battery tech, and yes, potential was a pun.
Better tell the researchers that they can go home now. Guess we hit peak technology in the 40s. 😛
Wrong as always… real cars have continued to progress and become more and more efficient.
EV’s are still only a niche market for virtue-seeking *ankers, and is predictably, starting to crash.
Battery technology needs a massive break-through to become even remotely usable for transport technology…
And storing the amount of energy density required will just make them more and more dangerous.
The only way to rival the energy and power density of combusting liquid hydrocarbons is by… combusting more liquid hydrocarbons 🙂
Especially those working on wind mills which is tech from 1500’s.
It’s a very risky bet to bet that batteries will never be good enough. No one can foresee all the possibilities — otherwise we would already have them. Electric cars will probably become dominant eventually but they are still plenty of years away from that point. Pushing them with subsidies and fines is crazy.
Batteries are limited by Thermodynamics. They can never have the energy density of a hydrocarbon fuel.
I have the same problem with EV and new ICE cars. They are both Big Brother machines that tell their location and speed and god knows what more 24/7 to god knows who. Just like a mobile phone that I do not have.
It will always be 20 years too early.
Agee totally. I live in Germany….test-driven 2 E-cars, and done the study of putting panels up on the roof. At the end, I gave up on the E-car being the solution of the future. Maybe it’s 20 years too early. All of these garage fires bother me to some degree as well.
The comment’s so nice it had to be said twice
Only if something is inherently useless does it take government regulations, tax breaks and subsidies to make it competitive with something else that actually delivers value to society.
You mean bikes and public transport?
On yer bike Jimmy
Public transport rarely makes a profit. It is a cost to society.
Bikes are totally useless and highly dangerous in wet weather.
The number of “electric bikes” exploding in China is horrendous.
And let’s not forget that EVERYTHING in your feeble existence is there because of access to fossil fuels.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800918308097
Sure, because energy is extremely expensive in Europe. And if people like to walk and bike- awesome. But don’t force it on everyone.
roflmao.
As soon as you see some twit using the words “social cost, you just start laughing, because you know that what follows will mostly be pure fantasy, and not based on any rational idea of reality.
You didn’t address the two main points either.
You seem intent on proving that you are a moron. !!
steady on, bicycles sometimes make great sense. I live in Newcastle Australia and can get to work on my bike only a couple of minutes slower than in a car, its about 8km, On the way home is faster on the bike because of the traffic.
In the rain ill use my car, but bikes are far from useless. They are like EVs, really useful in some circumstances, not a good choice in others.
I think anyone who is in good shape should ride a real bike- not an electric bike. It’s terrific exercise. But, if that’s what they want- it’s fine by me. It’s called freedom.
It’s easy to say that, but then you see that there is zero bike infrastructure because urban planning was centered around the car since the 60s. Public transport has been ruined through austerity. That you can’t walk or bike anywhere without risking your life – and any attempt to improve things is met with “They take away our freedoms!!!!” , “WAR AGAINST CARS!!!!” etc.
Freedoms easy when siding with the oppressors.
You know that there are things called hills, right?
I can get down to town about as quickly on a bike as I can in a car, coming back the other way, good luck, and I’m moderately fit, quite what you’re supposed to do if you’re not, I don’t know.
I look for steep hills to ride up on my mountain bike. It’s a great, cheap high. Then I feel great for the rest of the day, fully oxygenate.
Lots of American cities at least have bike lanes. Public transportation is great in some areas of the world (Europe, China, etc.) because the populations are much denser and energy is far more expensive- so it makes sense. I’d like to see more and better public transit in America too. But done right. Too often it’s not. Boston is a good example and California’s attempt to build that fast train hasn’t succeed despite spending billions. You exaggerate. That’s what’s wrong with the left today- exaggerate issues by orders of magnitude. Then, the reaction to that might be as you say- “they’ll take away our freedoms”. It seems that way the left is trying to force net zero down our throats. I’m a middle of the road guy- I’m fine with people’s life styles. I don’t care how anyone wants to live. But when it comes to government forcing policies on us that can’t be justified, that’s different. Put net zero up for a vote and it’ll lose. Sure, politicians who support it do win- mostly because they promise everything to everyone- those who promise the most usually do win.
You are siding with the oppressors, you utter cockwomble.
Did the kamal give you that word salad/gibberish ??
Still stuck in your 15 minute ghetto.. you poor little child.
A victim of your own inadequacies.
Thinking back to when I lived in Penrith, NSW and had to work on South Head (I was in the navy), the 2 hour each way journey by car (no public transport between those two points) every day would have been so much more enjoyable if I had a bike, electric or pedalled. /s
It must be so nice to live in the inner city where everything is transported to you and your work (if you have a job) is next door or just down the street
Non electric bikes are great. I’ve been riding real bicycles for 70 years.
Whenever I see a bus owned by a local transit authority- they’re mostly empty or just 1 or 2 people.
Some of the trains in Bah-stin, are now “free”. A crappy system. I used it not long ago. Their underground stations are dark, dirty, smell- and are certainly not safe.
Not just wet weather.
Ever ride a bike in snow and ice?
I rode a pushbike everywhere around a place called “Sutherland Shire” until I was about 17…
… then got a motorbike because it allowed me far more freedom to go where I wanted to go.
So, no, snow and ice not encountered. 🙂
You mean bikes and public transport?
Public transport doesn’t and can’t go everywhere.
Busses have routes which leave streets and neighborhoods uncovered, they don’t go everywhere.
Taxis have limits on distance and can be costly for extended travel.
Neither will tow a trailer for you (camper, travel, moving, horse, livestock, auto)
Bicycles can’t tow those things either and also have limits on distance.
And ALL require petrochemicals to manufacture the synthetic rubber tires they run on.
I can’t take a Bus, Taxi or Bicycle to my sisters house, she is 180 miles away.
I can’t take a Bus, Taxi or Bicycle to my brothers house, he is 420 miles away.
We can’t take a Bus, Taxi or bicycles to visit my in-laws, they live in the next state over.
Personal transportation is necessary in a modern society to meet ALL the needs stated above.
We started with
Walking everywhere
Ox Carts
Horses
Horse & Buggy (cart wagon)
Steamers
EVs
ICVs (for a time all 3 existed simultaneously but ICVs won the day for practical reasons)
…steamers and battery EVs were not practical.
Personal Transportation has evolved over the years with something better replacing something less functional or less practical.
Now the government is trying to force the adoption of a step backwards to EVs when the tech hasn’t really developed much.
Range is still limited, even less when towing
Recharging requires hours instead of minutes
More materials are required…
…more mining
…more refining
…more shipping and transportation
…more manufacturing
…more rare earth mining
…more coal mining for the steel and electronic components
…more oil and gas extraction and processing (petrochemicals are needed for the lightweight components and tires that get used up 4 times faster)
And lets not forget the Li-Ion batteries tend to be unforgiving of mishaps and end their lives rather violently and unpredictably whether plugged in recharging or not.
It would be far better to allow transportation technology to evolve naturally, like it has in the past so what comes next is BETTER than what its replacing and doesn’t require government rules, regulations or taxes and subsidies to make it happen.
The current state of Battery EV simply isn’t better than current ICV technology.
When a new I-Phone is available, people are lined up for blocks to be the early buyers- regardless of price.
True, but an I-phone is a useful tool.
And in a lot of cases the price of the phone is included in a 2 or 3 year contract with the telecommunications company. Contracts that can cost upwards of $200 – $300 A month or as much as $1800 A year for three years…to pay for the new phone.
But, but, but…. Wattshisname told us EV sales were on fire
Or was that EVs were on fire, I forget
2030 at latest will show I was right. And applauding western car makers for lobbying instead of innovating means cheering for their destruction.
Wanna bet?
2024 is already showing you are WRONG !!
EVs are NOT innovation, they are a waste of resources and a virtue-seeking idiocy.
EV production has already put several companies close to bankruptcy.
Once you are old enough to get a licence and learn to drive, you might start to understand.
Would you mind being a little more specific? Are you predicting that pure EV’s will make up 51% or more of the new car sales figures for the EU in 2030?
Not only EU, we will see >50% of new car sales worldwide being EVs. Bus > 70%. Trucks around between 30-50%.
That’s my prediction.
Ha
Where is all that metal going to come from?
Predictions are like a$$holes, everyone has one.
And, some (not to mention his/her/its name) are a$$holes.
The only good thing about your prediction is the fact that the left wing governments pushing this will be defeated specifically because they are pushing this, and their mandates will die.
Have you made an actual bet on one of the prediction markets?
Buses.. ROFLMAO.
Quite a few places have tried the “electric bus” thing.
Then abandoned the stupidity and gone back to the reliability of diesel.
https://thedriven.io/2024/03/20/electric-trucks-and-buses-show-staggering-sales-growth-in-europe/
Mr. name: Your comments show that you’re not smart enough to be a reverse barometer. You’re not even wrong.
You should explain a bit more, what are you asserting that you are right about?
Are you just saying that plug-in EVs will replace ICE by 2030, and that otherwise life will carry on as now?
ICEs won’t be able to compete with full electric vehicles neither in price nor maintenance costs. That’s when ICEs will be the minority of sales for edge cases that will be electrified up until 2040.
The cry for tariffs on chinese EVs only shows how desperate car makers are today, let alone six years down the road. They know what’s coming, but somehow they think they can manipulate markets and governments to prevent it.
The “Markets” are telling you something about EV’s.
The mad dash to Net Zero is going to destroy Europe, and it won’t be just the car companies that are destroyed.
EU politicians are the ones manipulating the markets. And, as we see, it’s not going well, which is to be expected when government bureacrats meddle in the Free Market.
Radical Leftists don’t like Free Markets. They interfere with their plans to impose tyranny on the rest of us. Like now.
But European (and American) car makers are not having problems because ICE cars cannot compete with EVs. They are having problems because they cannot make EVs as cheaply as China.
It is not that ICE or hybrids cannot compete with EVs. Its that China, for a variety of reasons, is a lower cost manufacturer of just about anything, and that includes cars, whether EV or ICE.
You would not want the West to imitate the factors which make China a low cost manufacturer. They include a total lack of unions, no welfare state, minimal regulation of the massive network of component suppliers, minimal environmental regulation… and cheap power from fossil fuels!
The question, whether ICE cars will be around in 2040 outside of niche markets? It depends what happens to batteries. If there is some breakthrough on battery cost and performance which convinces buyers, yes, EVs will take over. Otherwise the only way through buyer resistance is going to be legislation, and that is possible of course. But it will lead to all kinds of collateral social and economic consequences that people never even start talking about. Like, reducing car sales and car ownership.
There is no reason at the moment to forecast that EVs will, on their merits, convince free buyers to choose them over ICE mild and plugin hybrids in the near future. Certainly not totally by 2030. To maintain your point of view on that you would have to cite some cost or technology trends that there is no sign of at present.
What seems to be happening is that there have been large sales of EVs, and that the experience hasn’t convinced any except first movers, and not many of them, to repeat it. This is why sales are falling, except in cases like the UK where the market is heavily rigged by company car tax breaks in favor of EVs. But you want to see buyer resistance in action, look at used EV sales. They come off lease, and their price drops like a stone, because people do not want them. This is not a product with competitive advantage sweeping everything before it.
China’s EVs are also exploding at a rate of 21,000 to 43,000 A year. Anyone want a “Cheap” Chinese EV?
A nitpick: It is not accurate to say that China has no welfare. The Chinese government provides various social safety nets, including health care, unemployment benefits, pensions, housing subsidies, and education, particularly in urban areas.
The only way EVs will ever out price ICVs is if…
ICVs are hit with additional taxes that currently don’t exist
ICVs are subjected to Government Fees that currently don’t exist
ICV fuel is subjected to such additional fees as to make it unaffordable
EVs are made CHEAPLY in China and don’t last more than 5 years (the length of a sales financing contract)…you buy a new EV and it works until you make your last payment then it breaks down.
EVs may need little to no maintenance but Current EV pricing vs ICV equivalent shows the average EV buyer is paying upwards of $20,000-$60,000 more than an ICV equivalent which covers both Fuel and Maintenance costs for well over 100,000 miles of travel
How are maintenance costs going to fall drastically from today’s high levels? Will there be a massive increase in supply of parts, materials, and skilled labor? (Especially when, contrary to your prediction, EV sales are falling in the USA, Germany, Spain, France Italy, and other places.)
I have nothing against EVs. I expect they will eventually become the norm but it’s crazy and coercive to push them artificially fast.
There’s absolutely nothing stopping you investing your life savings in EV companies then. Not only will you have been proved right, you’ll be rich, rich, RICH!!
What are you waiting for?
Aha: yet another climate-linked prediction soon to be disproved.
I’m cheering for car making lobbying to protect themselves against lobbyists.
If you charge an EV in your garage, it is not a certainty that your house will burn down.
But the odds of someone’s house burning down from that activity approach 100%.
So it’s a lottery.
Can the government mandate that you participate in a lottery?
China has just banned EVs in underground garages
And Chinese car maker Volvo is stopping making EVs.
No, they are not. And they are swedish.
I found online:
Only making 90% EVs != stop making EVs
“ some hybrid vehicles by that date. “
Hybrids are PETROL or DIESEL POWERED cars.
Volvo Cars: Majority shareholder: Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, a Chinese automotive company
LMAO, that’s like saying MG are British
Eventually your battery will have dendrites form and you will have a short circuit. It’s not a matter of if, but when.
Not a chance actually – as I shall NEVER own one!
“Germany has suffered a “spectacular” drop in electric car sales as the European Union faces growing calls to delay its net zero vehicle targets.”
Delay its net zero vehicle targets? How about dumping them altogether?
I’m still waiting for the day when Europe completely abandons Marxism and central planning. I guess I’ll have to wait a while.
The EU Central Planners just keep doubling down on stupid.
I think it is going to take a trainwreck for them to change direction.
I think a trainwreck is coming.
When Volkswagen closes a German manufacturing facility, it’s time for Germans to ask themselves “what is going on here?”.
Climate Change is not the problem, it is Climate Change Policy that is the problem.
As if anything Europe does could detectably change the Earth’s temperatures. It’s ridiculous. But Net Zero aspirations gives the Central Planners something to plan for.
The whole Western world is an Idiocracy. Governed by Idiots, who think they are going to save the world from CO2, despite there being no evidence the world needs saving from CO2.
Net Zero is a good vehicle for imposing tyranny, though, and that’s what the Central Planners are really doing.
“The whole Western world is an Idiocracy.”
It’s like so many families- once well off for generations, they grow stupid. The West grew rich thanks to ff- and is now losing common sense.
The west also grew rich through imperialism and slavery – but I guess things can improve. And that’s whats happening, no matter how a loud minority is kicking and screaming to stay in the past.
If the West grew rich through imperialism and slavery, why didn’t Turkey also become wealthy? After all, the Ottoman Empire stretched from the Balkans to the Arabian Peninsula, and lasted centuries? Germany was already an economic and technological powerhouse long before it acquired an empire in East Africa.
Thanks for demonstrating your ignorance of History, along with everything else.
Turkey was wealthy for the elite.
Russia was also Wealthy for the Elite…and still is for the select few.
I’ve seen one report that Putin is by far the richest person in the world. He gets a cut of all the corruption by the oligarchs and military. He built a palace that compares with the Versailles. Of course he doesn’t want to brag about it to his nation.
Sure, imperialism and slavery but not just that- also a work ethic, and the fact that the western hemisphere was loaded with raw materials. Who is kicking and screaming to retain imperialism and slavery?
Yeah, what did the Romans ever do for us?
Pizza? 🙂
and hairy-legged men in short skirts
Eeeeuuuwww!!! 🙁
Roman Meal Bread😁
Slavery was not an economic benefit.
Luser forgetting that slavery is often used for manufacturing in its dearly beloved China.. Isn’t that right, comrade.
and open borders- resistance to that is growing rapidly
Does the EU have a tariff against Chinese EVs?
No-one sane wants to buy one.. that is a major tariff. !
Central planning always works that way.
A near perfect example of the ideal EV owner is the daughter of a friend of mine. The friend is a retired auto company executive, and his daughter is a university professor. She drives her EV through rush hour traffic in the car pool lanes even though she is alone in the car. She charges the car daily at no cost to her in an outdoor station at the university so her home is free from most of the fire danger. Then, whenever she needs a real car, she switches cars with her dad who lives a short walk away.
Unfortunately, for the rest of us, she only represents only about 0.0001 percent of the car buying public.
Is it a public university? If so, we’re paying to charge her car.
From the above article:
“. . . ‘the spectacular drop’ in both countries meant that only 92,627 battery electric vehicles were registered across Europe last month, a fall of 43.9pc compared to a year earlier.”
Hey, USA . . . any of your politicians or bureaucrats out there listening?
” 93.6g of CO2 per “
I’m impressed by the ” .6 “.
If they lower this to ” .5 ” everything will be fine.
California’s Proposition 65 — everything causes cancer, puts warning labels on everything — is a similar silly idea.
Excellent!
The cited required accuracy of ±0.1 g out of 93.6 g means the car manufacturers will be using instruments capable of 1 part in 1000 resolution for CO2 emission measurements . . good luck with that!
Also, I’m not impressed by the statement:
“The new rules require all new European cars to produce no more than 93.6g of CO2 per kilometre.”
Once one drives a new ICE car off the dealers lot, it appears to be OK if the car emits, say, twice that amount. Now, if only a car manufacturer had the wherewithal to install a switch that would . . .
But if you don’t have the warning label some idiot will sue for not telling them…
Don’t put this power cord in your mouth
Don’t grab the chain end of the chainsaw
Nicotine is addictive
Too much (fill in the blank) can kill you
Life can be harmful or fatal if swallowed
We have become a litigious society of useless idiots
Wouldn’t it be nice it somebody translated that 93.6g of CO2 into MPG.
My very rough sums, (30 seconds), using C8 for petrol and 800g/l gives a rough burn rate of 4 litres/100km. Do your own sums for those not on metric, especially if you use an odd gallon.
I’d love to see the actual figure using some real data for a typical petrol.
I found a link, the 4 litres/km is correct. (Oz gov data).
I also found that an electrical power station produces power at 475g/kWHr. And a typical electric car consumes electricity at 0.15 kWHr/km.
So an electric car has emissions of 71.2 gCO2/km.
It won’t be long before you can’t drive them in Europe either. Or will they be exempt?
Silly question, of course they will. Unicorn farts power them.
EVs are not practical, where I live we have 6 months of snow, any long journeys would mean considerable planning and risk. Add to that the fact that batteries are a nightmare environmentally, and expensive, they are not viable for mass market. They are limited to the 30%, middle class & rich market, who are brainwashed into thinking they are saving the planet.
The whole problem is that CO2 is not a problem!
Too bad that the powers that be can’t get that through their thick heads!
A pure government issue. Get rid of the EU and much of Europe’s problems disappear. Let each country’s government know they to are headed for the chopping block.
Electric cars produce CO2, just not by the car itself. Since most of these countries are not good candidates for solar power (too cloudy, too far north), most power is still generated the old-fashioned way by burning fossil fuels. France is the exception where nuclear power still dominates.
Greenies looking for a red knight in shining armour-
NIO (NIO) eyes Volkswagen plant in historic market shake up (electrek.co)
It figures watermelons.
No one in their right mind would ever opt for an EV – perhaps hybrid but certainly not an EV.