Congratulations Musk-Haters: You Are Killing
The EV Market
Issues & Insights,
by
The Editorial Board
Original Article
Posted By: RockyTCB,
7/25/2025 11:40:26 AM
You’ve heard it countless times. Climate change is the biggest threat to humanity since the dawn of man. Nothing else compares. Well, nothing except hatred of Elon Musk.
The same people who want to ban gas-powered cars to “save the planet” decided, bizarrely, to attack Musk (for the unpardonable sin of trying to root out waste and fraud in the federal government) by targeting Tesla drivers.
Well, it worked. Tesla sales are down. Tesla earnings are down.
But those who are in the market for an EV didn’t rush to buy plug-ins made by other companies. The entire market is down.
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
mc squared 7/25/2025 12:18:24 PM (No. 1982343)
Coincidence isn't causation. The left turned on on Musk but most of the car buying public turned on EVs. They've been out long enough that the evidence is clear: EV is OK for local deliveries but for 90% of us, the downside isn't acceptable. Need a second car or for the college bound? Who will pay thousands for a vehicle whose batteries will cost more than the purchase price. I know: some do last but take the chance?
12 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
kono 7/25/2025 12:35:15 PM (No. 1982355)
Unintended consequences are sometimes hidden blessings. The "green energy" scam, including the commercial EV market, needs to be laid bare. Gruesome Newsom's plan to mandate EVs in CA by 2030 might have fewer advocates if the actual "greenness" comparison was made public.
5 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Mr Clean 7/25/2025 12:38:45 PM (No. 1982356)
EVs are just glorified golf carts and the public is not amused. With regard to Musk, the left shows once again how an iconic figure can go from hero to zero with one (perceived) political transgression. He now joins the dozens of formerly revered professionals in progressive purgatory.
18 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
mean Gene 7/25/2025 12:56:10 PM (No. 1982363)
The EV market was imploding and we all knew it.
Cargo ships are refusing to transport them across oceans.
Now, with CAFE standards going the way of the dodo, automakers don't even have to produce them anymore.
15 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
zephyrgirl 7/25/2025 1:46:48 PM (No. 1982385)
I suspect that most people who want EVs have probably bought one since there are many now available on the market. Since they're not practical as your primary vehicle, they've been bought as second or third cars. I saw a survey that a significant portion (but less than 50%) of EV buyers wouldn't buy another. They probably have friends with whom they've shared their reasons, thereby making their friends less likely to buy one or to buy a more practical hybrid instead. With subsidies and CAFE standards going away, car makers can return to making cars that people want, and stop making EVs that they have to sell at a loss. There EVs might continue as a niche in the automobile pantheon, but as the point of equilibrium between buyers and sellers approaches, there will be a shakeout and some EV manufacturers will fail.
5 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Californian 7/25/2025 1:47:05 PM (No. 1982386)
3, no, an EV, especially a Tesla or other higher end unit is not a golf cart. The mid range and higher end ones are sports car (or often better) speed and acceleration while the cheap ones are roughly equivalent to gas cars. Please stop saying things that are publicly known factually incorrect on a conservative site which makes all of us look bad.
The current generation of batteries are quite safe, the last generation from 6+ years are less safe but the conditions required to make one catch fire or explode are pretty rare. Those older batteries are no longer going into new EV for several years now. The next generation will be solid state and safer than tying your shoes as well as have capacities from 600 miles for early versions to 1000+ miles a few years from now as the technology advances. Mercedes has a functional solid state demo unit on the road right now with estimated 600 mile range.
There are a number of good reasons for many people to not own/drive an EV today. "Golf cart" is not one of them.
3 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
franco 7/25/2025 1:55:59 PM (No. 1982392)
Hate to break to it Elon -- and I know he bought Tesla on a whim in its infancy with technological problems that would have to be solved -- but EVs will never be accepted by a "free market" for automobiles as long as they require 4 hours to "refuel" (recharge batteries at a charging station) while their gasoline-powered alternatives require only 5 minutes to refuel from a gasoline pump. It matters not a whit whether the driving distance on a single "charge" is equivalent to that of an internal combustion engine.
Rumor has it the Chinese have "invented" (i.e. probably stolen the intellectual property from some occidental business based in Europe or the Americas) a technology for fast-recharging an entire EV in 5 minutes. I'll believe it when i see it. Meantime, I'll continue to drive my decade-old gasoline-powered car that has no government-mandated (thanks to Nancy Pelosi) eavesdropping facilities built into it.
4 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
crashnburn 7/25/2025 2:11:38 PM (No. 1982403)
And EV's aren't even green. The mining and manufacture of the Lithium-Ion batteries adds the equivalent of 80,000 miles of ICE driving pollution. On top of that, the energy needed to power the cars doesn't come from the air. It has to be generated, transmitted, and distributed, and even worse, the batteries aren't 100% efficient. What it all boils down to is an EV needs the same amount of raw energy to drive a mile as an equivalent ICE car.
Ask me how I really feel about EVs.
5 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
kono 7/25/2025 3:32:37 PM (No. 1982436)
Besides, didn't Musk, a couple of years ago, declare that Tesla was really not financially viable for the long term and his prospects for future wealth were more closely tied to his space business?
3 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
KTWO 7/25/2025 3:33:16 PM (No. 1982437)
Sales of EVs are down for good reasons. EVs are improving so rapidly that many considering a purchase have decided it makes sense to wait.
Charging will be faster, more standardized, more available, ranges will improve, the purchase and interest costs are very likely to fall in the next two years.
Add: In my neighborhood about 1 in 4 homes now has an EV. The novelty has worn off. No one is impressed.
2 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Strike3 7/26/2025 7:08:30 AM (No. 1982674)
There never was an EV Market. The economy is all about supply and demand, not subsidized, government mandated vehicles that make no sense in America. They may be worth some money someday, as novelty cars like the VW Beetle.
1 person likes this.
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