Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times via Zero Hedge
Stephen Moore, senior economist at FreedomWorks and once a senior economic adviser to former President Donald Trump, has issued a grim prediction about America’s electric vehicle (EV) market, saying EVs are poised to be automakers’ “next big flop.”
Mr. Moore’s grim prediction for the EV market came in an interview on Fox News’s “Varney & Co.” program on Oct. 30 and an op-ed in The Daily Caller on Oct. 29, in which the economist compared the current EV push to the failed rollout of the Ford Edsel.
“One of the textbook marketing flops of all time was the Ford Edsel sedan, which was heralded as the hot new car in the late 1950s,” he wrote in the op-ed.
At the time of the Edsel launch, automotive experts widely expressed the view that the sedan—named after Henry Ford’s son—would be a sure thing. However, instead of sales in the hundreds of thousands, as experts generally predicted at the time, the Edsel sold a paltry 10,000 or so units and was discontinued.
A key factor behind the Edsel’s flop is, according to Mr. Moore, that the car was pushed on a public that didn’t want it.
“The obvious lesson for the industry: you can’t bribe Americans to buy cars they don’t want. Given the all-in approach mentality for EVs at Ford and GM, it’s clear that Detroit never got this message,” he wrote.
Even though the Biden administration has been pushing EVs on the public, including an offer of a $7,500 subsidy, less than 10 percent of all new car sales over the past two years were electric, according to a study published in early September by GOBankingRates.
More recently, executives at General Motors, Ford, and Mercedes-Benz conceded that there’s weakening demand for EVs, with some announcing they would pull back on their own EV targets.
Mr. Moore says that waning EV demand is a possible signal that, aside from a relatively small fraction of early adopters of new technologies, buyers on the whole are simply not that interested.
“The Edsel was one of the great flops of all time,” Mr. Moore told Fox News in an interview. “I’m here to tell you, if these trends continue, we’re going to see the EV market become the next big flop because car buyers don’t want them.”
Market research firm Canalys estimates that global sales of EVs rose 49 percent in the first half of this year, down from last year’s 63 percent pace of growth.
Waning EV Demand
Speaking at an auto show in Japan last week, Toyota chairman and former CEO Akio Toyoda told reporters that waning EV demand is a sign that people are waking up to the reality that EVs aren’t the silver bullet against the supposed ills of carbon emissions they’re often made out to be.
“People are finally seeing reality” about EV technology, Mr. Toyoda told reporters ahead of the Japan Mobility Show in Tokyo last week, speaking in his capacity as the head of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, the organizer of the event.
Mr. Toyoda has been a long-time skeptic of a full-steam-ahead adoption of EVs. He stepped down from his role as CEO of Toyota this year amid criticism that he wasn’t serious enough about pushing the company into a quick adoption of battery-powered cars.
Mr. Toyoda’s response to journalists who asked for his thoughts about falling EV demand, suggests he feels vindicated in his reluctance.
“There are many ways to climb the mountain that is achieving carbon neutrality,” he said while implying that consumers are finally waking up from a dreamscape pushed by climate change alarmists that puts EVs on a pedestal and overhypes their benefits while downplaying their drawbacks.
His remarks came as demand growth for EVs in various markets has slowed, leading some companies to dial back their electrification plans.
