The Electric Car Revolution Is Not Going Well

[00:00] The electric vehicle revolution was supposed to  be inevitable. Electric vehicles are cleaner,   less noisy, and accelerate faster. And  really, what's there not to like? Oh yes,   the price. That's why governments all over the  world subsidized electric vehicles. But in the  

[00:17] past 6 months, the situation has changed. The  smooth, fast, unstoppable transition that car   companies promised a few years ago is now looking  much less smooth, much less fast, and much less  

[00:31] unstoppable. Let's have a look. The clearest sign  is not the sales numbers. It's what car makers   are doing with their own money. They're cancelling  models, delaying factories, and switching back to   hybrids and petrol cars. I don't know much about  business finances really, but I think this is  

[00:48] not what companies do when a market is booming.  Ford is the most dramatic example. In December,   Ford admitted that its electric vehicle plans had  gone badly wrong and wrote off $19.5 billion as a  

[01:03] loss. They also scrapped several planned electric  models, including a large electric pickup that   were supposed to be built at a major factory in  Tennessee. That factory is now expected to build   petrol powered trucks instead. They also cancelled  some planned electric commercial vans and ended  

[01:20] battery related plans with supplier. In plain  English, Ford looked at the market for its next   generation of electric vehicles and decided that  much of it no longer made financial sense. That's  

[01:33] a $19.5 billion oops. I feel much better now that  I forgot to cancel that free trial. General Motors   made the same mistake. It had told suppliers  to prepare for many more electric cars than  

[01:47] customers now seem willing to buy. In January,  it said that scaling those plants back would   lead to about a $6 billion loss. They also slowed  work at battery plants and cut production at an  

[02:00] electric vehicle only factory in Detroit. Same  thing with Honda. In March 2026, they cancelled   three electric cars they had planned to build in  the United States. They also dropped their plans  

[02:14] of getting 20% of sales from electric vehicles by  2030 and to sell only electric or fuel-cell cars by 2040. They also suspended an $11 billion electric vehicle  and battery project in Canada. Same thing for  

[02:28] Porsche and Stellantis and Nissan. Nissan quietly  stopped work on an electric version of the Qashqai,   its bestselling model in Europe. The Qashqai  was supposed to be built in the UK and part  

[02:41] of Britain's electric car future. It's gone from  the future of transport to never mind in one year.   Quite the range indeed. Online shopping is now  basically an intelligence test where the answer is  

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[04:08] that includes your back to school shopping  too. And now back to the science news. These   cancellations trickle down into the battery  industry. Ford canceled a $6.5 billion deal with  

[04:21] LG Energy Solutions. Volvo passed its NOVO Energy  battery project in Sweden and cut the remaining   jobs there. Automotive sales company abandoned  planned battery factories in Germany and Italy.  

[04:34] These companies are saying the demand just isn't  there anymore. For now, the sales numbers don't   reflect this. Globally, electric vehicles,  including plug-in hybrids, are going well. In  

[04:46] September 2025, global sales hit a monthly record  of 2.1 million. Though that record was partly   caused by buyers rushing to get subsidies before  they expired. For the first 5 months of 2026,  

[04:59] the global year-on-year growth was about 1%. Not  great, but still growing. So far, the slowdown   is regional. In May 2026, registrations of battery  electric cars and plug-in hybrids in North America  

[05:15] were 26% lower than in May 2025, almost certainly  because the federal tax credit was discontinued by   the Trump administration. China is the world's  biggest electric car market, but even there,  

[05:29] the numbers have weakened. In May 2026, sales were  down 9% compared to May 2025, again, probably due   to tax breaks ending. In Europe, EV sales are  still growing, though, probably helped by high  

[05:46] petrol prices, European emissions rules, and new  or expanded support schemes in countries including   Germany, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom.  Italy had also introduced new subsidies in 2025.  

[06:00] So what is going on? The problem is as so often  that market economies don't care what sounds good.   They care about costs. Costs for batteries, costs  for maintenance, costs for the entire charging  

[06:14] infrastructure, which is still lagging behind. All  these costs haven't been going down as quickly as   the optimistic projections had it. It doesn't mean  it's not going to happen, but it's why without  

[06:26] subsidies, growth is difficult. And the problems  with the EV infrastructure are only just about   beginning to surface because all that energy for  charging the vehicles must come from somewhere  

[06:39] and it must get to the vehicle somehow. You can't  have an EV revolution without also having a plan   for power generation and grid updates, neither of  which is coming along. It's remarkable how often  

[06:54] consumer preference turns out to mean "there was a  discount." Thanks for watching. See you tomorrow.