EV TARGET TANTRUMS: The Truth Behind Big Auto’s Big Meltdown

EV News Daily - Technology and Business of EVs

Welcome back to EV News Daily, and a bonus podcast about the rising tide of anti-climate rhetoric coming from certain carmakers, which I’ve noticed is having a drip feed through to the general reporting of EVs, and a potentially dangerous misperception.
I’ve held of talking about this for a long time because this podcast doesn’t need to get clicks based on wild headlines. I prefer taking a pragmatic approach and not knee-jerking to every dire warning from a failing auto maker, because for each one of those, there are many more EV success stories.

But this has been a rough week in the headlines. So go on, I’ll bite!

WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING?

Phrases like “low demand for EVs” and “slowdown of EV sales” have been more common in general reporting of the industry, often being parroted from press releases issued by lobbyists.

But here’s the fact: In September 2024, the UK witnessed a record-breaking month for EV sales. BEV registrations reached an all-time high of 56,387 units, accounting for 20.5% of the overall market, up from 16.6% in the same month of the previous year. That’s the highest number of BEV registrations ever.

The overall market share for electric vehicles in the UK has been steadily increasing, with BEVs commanding an 18.1% share of the market in October 2024. The mean monthly sales figure over the first 10 months of the year was around 30,000 units.
But the auto industry recently has been sounding the alarm over EVs. They blame the lack of infrastructure, they blame the Chinese competition, they blame the regulators for introducing clean-air policies.
It's everyone's fault but theirs. And that is a little frustrating. Let me highlight those three cases today.