Mike's Minute: What are we going to do about EVs?

I've got an EV car question for you. 

But first, the latest EV news. 

Nissan are laying off thousands of workers, Toyota says the California regulations are unworkable, Trump has arrived, tariffs are an issue and he is anti-EV, and in Britain they are discounting EVs by a third because of rules that make manufacturers sell a certain number of EVs, and if you don’t sell that many you are fined. 

Sales here are dire. Sales of petrol cars for the past month are up. Last month was the second best month of the year, apart from EVs, which sold next to none. 

So, to the question - what are they going to do? 

Under normal market circumstances a product lives and dies on demand. 

Demands can waver and prices are adjusted accordingly, models are updated, and marketing is refreshed to fizz up demand or awareness. But ultimately, if something doesn’t have a customer base it dies. 

EVs don’t appear to have a customer base. They did, to a degree, when Government's subsidised them, but that I suspect simply gave early adopters a cheaper ride. 

It's not like you can't get a good deal now, but even with a cheap price they still don’t sell. People, in bulk, simply don’t want them. 

What's made this unique is the manufacturers have been forced into producing something, I suspect, they knew wouldn’t work. 

They would have been way quicker to bail on a failed product if they hadn't had Government's lecturing them, hectoring them, and changing the laws and forcing them into a business that looks like it's going nowhere fast. 

So the question is, just what needs to be done to either increase sales or kill off the whole idea and come back another day? 

You can't force people into something they don’t want and the lack of sales show this to be true. 

Are they going to ban regular cars? No. 

Are they going to subsidise them forever? No. 

Are jobs going to be lost, bottom lines going to bleed red and factories close because of all this? Yes. 

So, who blinks first? The ideologues, or the realists? 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Got an ev question for you, but first I've got
the latest news from around the world. Evan news from
around the world, and listen are laying off thousands of workers.
Our Toyota have said this week that the California regulations
around EV's and engines and emissions are unworkable. Trump's arrived,
of course, a tariffs are an issue there in his
anti EV. In Britain, they are now discounting EV's by
a thirty three percent off because of rules that make

(00:22):
manufacturers sell a certain number of evs and if you
don't sell that many, you'll then find so. Sales here,
of course, are dire. Sales of cars is past month
are up. Last month was the second best month of
the year for sales, apart from EV's, which sold next
to none. So here's the question, what are they going
to do? See under normal market circumstances, a product lives

(00:43):
and dies on demand, doesn't it think about it? Demand
can waiver. Prices are adjusted accordingly, models are updated, Marketing
is refreshed to fizz up demand or awareness. But ultimately,
if something doesn't have a customer, it dies. EV's don't
appear to have a customer base. They did to a
degree with government subsidize them. But that I suspect simply
gave early adopters a cheaper ride. It's not like you

(01:03):
can't get a good deal now, because you can. But
even with a cheap price, they still can't sell them.
People in bulk simply don't want them. So what's made
this unique is, of course, the manufacturers have been forced
into producing something I suspect they knew wouldn't work. They
would have been way way quicker to bail on a
failed product if they hadn't had governments all over the

(01:23):
world lecturing them and hectoring them and changing the laws
and forcing them into a business that looks like it's
going nowhere fast. So the question is just what needs
to be done to either one increase sales or two
kill off the whole idea and come back another day
with something different. See, you can't force people into something
they don't want, and the lack of sales shows this
is the truth. Are they going to ban regular cars,

(01:45):
No they are not. Are they going to subsidize them forever,
No they are not. Are jobs going to be lost?
Bottom line is going to bleed red? Factories closed because
of all of this? Yes, so who blinks first? I
think that this is where we've got to. I think
who blinks first, the idea or the realists. For more
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(02:05):
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