The U.S. market will reportedly launch 85 new electric vehicles over the next four years, including the Chevrolet Equinox SUV (GM), kia electric vehicle (KIMTF), and the last one is the first electric car from Subaru Soltera (FUJHY).
Is this year the tipping point for electric vehicles?
The auto industry appears to be committed to increasing the supply of electric vehicles. But where are the consumers' needs? This is a difficult question to parse.
Tesla's electric cars have garnered so much of the news coverage and attention that a casual observer might think they're the only players in the game. With its sleek design and wide variety of computer accessories, Tesla is marketing as a high-end luxury car. That's all well and good, but as analysts point out, the high price point of an electric car (the base price of the 2020 Model S sedan is $74,990, and the Model X starts at $79,990) makes it out of reach for many consumers.
If manufacturers and governments don't make more efforts — tax credits — to make these vehicles available to the public, the end result could be that the wealthier people who own home-charged homes enjoy the benefits offered by electric vehicles, while the less wealthy ones. Experts say the vehicles are classified as an increasingly dilapidated fleet of internal combustion engine cars that cost more on the road each year.
According to online sources, electric vehicles account for only 3% of the automotive market, and hybrid vehicles (that is, vehicles that use a combination of fossil fuels and electricity) account for "about 5% of the total sales of light vehicles in the United States."
Currently, consumer demand for electric vehicles is not as high as manufacturers' commitments to electric vehicles. But the coming wave of electric vehicles shows that manufacturers are working to change consumer habits.
The first step is to lower the overall price point. According to Experian, the average price for a midsize sedan was $27,545 in 2020, $36,203 for a midsize pickup truck and $39,969 for a midsize SUV/crossover. That compares to an electric car that starts at $42,620. But the price point for these electric cars began to slowly decline, as the Chevrolet Equinox SUV sold for $30,000.
Electric car manufacturers are also constantly trying to give people what they want. Statista's data shows luxury cars are great, but across the country, the best-selling car brands are crossover SUVs and pickup trucks. Obviously, these are the cars and trucks that most Americans want, so if manufacturers want people to drive electric cars, then they need to make the electric cars that the United States wants to buy.
That's why we can expect to see a wave of larger electric vehicles, including the upcoming GMC Hummer EV (GM) and Rivian R1T (RIVN) pickup trucks. The tesla Cybertruck's long-delayed release, as many have pointed out, looks like a Batmobile and is constantly being delayed, but perhaps one day it will also meet consumer demand.
Biden has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and has set an "ambitious goal of 50 percent of U.S. EV sales by 2030." This is the reason why manufacturers have increased production.
It's clear that electric vehicles are a growing industry.