EVs Have Become Dogs, Proving The Government Can’t Make Them Popular

Most people don’t really want an EV when it comes right down to it, despite all the media spin saying otherwise. While EV sales started to get a little interesting last year, that turned out to be a temporary blip on the radar fueled in part by government incentives, propaganda, and Elon Musk going to war with price adjustments.

Tow truck steals a pastor’s car from the church parking lot.

When it’s time to pull the trigger, people who might have flippantly said they’d consider an EV are choosing hybrids way more, as clearly demonstrated by a new iSeeCars study. In fact, the company found EVs sell the slowest in both the new and used vehicle markets, showing they’ve become industry dogs.

Out of the 20 fastest-selling new cars, iSeeCars says only one is an EV, the Volvo XC40 Recharge at number 14. But eight of them are hybrids.

When it comes to used cars, no a single EV is in the top 20 fastest-selling, although eight are hybrids.

It’s no wonder automakers are shifting their strategies, pulling back in the EV market and pouring more into hybrids. While this is dismaying to the Tesla nerds and their not-as-cool other EV brand loyalists, the truth is the average consumer doesn’t want an EV – who can blame them?

With a plug-in hybrid, if you’re somewhere without convenient access to chargers, you can just fill up the gas tank instead. Same goes for if charging options involve ridiculously long lines, adding hours to a road trip.

Quite a few remote parts of the country don’t have many chargers at all, with even gas stations being few and far between. We don’t expect most “elites” living in NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, etc. who only fly over such areas to understand what that even means.

People like saving money on fuel, but they’re not sold on EVs for all of the above and much, much more. While the Silicon Valley crowd can clutch the pearls, try spinning what’s really happening, or labeling everyone else as backwards, the reality is even government coercion has its limits.

EVs are hot in China where the government is tyrannical and pushing consumers into them. It’s scary when we see people opining about why the US can’t or won’t do the same. We’d rather have a free market and the personal freedom which comes along with it.

See the iSeeCars study for yourself here.

Image via Toyota

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