Few years ago, many car companies were committing to go full EV. Now it’s clear that won’t be the case.
Take Benz for example, in 2021 it stated it would go full EV for new models from 2025 onward and all EV by 2030 where market conditions allow. Now in 2024 it back pedaled, saying by 2030 will only do 50% EV.
Why?
– The most common reason is weak consumer demand due to weak charging infrastructure plus ICE outperforms in many use cases.
– EVs are not cheap enough.
What’s more?
Many countries don’t want to rely on China’s supply chain.
And?
There are deeper implications/concerns.
Auto industry in EU is built on ICE cars. The traditional car industry provides jobs, income, taxes, etc.
The stability of EU relies on traditional vehicles!
Btw, this also affects Japan with the same logic.
Auto industry is a smaller part of US economy directly, and US has Tesla, but US will likely be negatively affected if EU and Japan is unstable or poorer.
Therefore, either EU/JP needs to maintain competitiveness in the EV era, or they need to pivot to other industries (very hard; nothing in sight), or US will need to strengthen its own economy and rely less on EU/JP.