29 July 2024

Marketplace: "What’s putting the brakes on demand for EVs?"

by Mitchell Hartman

Part of this is simple consumer preference, according to Columbia Business School climate economist Gernot Wagner.

“General Motors is printing money selling massive gas-powered SUVs,” he said.

Globally though, consumers are going the other way, per Wagner. “China is racing into this future. It has much cheaper electric vehicles. So BYD famously sells an electric SUV for $10,000.”

Chinese EV-makers are also giving European competitors a run for their money. “But what the EU has is domestically-built, cheap, small vehicles — which the U.S. for the most part just doesn’t,” Wagner said.

Quoted in: "What’s putting the brakes on demand for EVs?" by Mitchell Hartman, Marketplace (29 July 2024).

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