Automobile inventories may be rising, but consumers are much more reluctant to purchase than they were six months ago. With interest rates still climbing, more and more consumers continue to steer away from vehicle purchases.
In response, many automobile distributors have begun lowering prices or offering large discounts/rebates to help clear out inventory. More and more U.S. vehicle manufacturers like Ford are turning their attention to EV’s.
This should come as little surprise considering the demand for electric vehicles has risen steadily in recent years. However, the car manufacturing industries globally are changing to meet this demand head-on.
For instance, Ford recently announced that it would carry out a large layoff of its European employee base. Around 3,800 employees will be cut from Ford’s workforce as it refocuses its efforts on EV manufacturing.
However, the zero-carbon emission push is more than just a U.S. phenomenon. European companies like Volvo, BMW, and Volkswagen have also stepped up their EV game in recent years.
Indeed, Volkswagen has even taken it upon itself to create its own EV battery recycling facilities to recycle lithium-ion batteries.
The result of these efforts is a changing global auto industry. As car manufacturers see opportunity in producing more electric vehicles, more experts predict the market will change in that same direction.
Metals like cobalt, lead, and nickel should enjoy solid long-term demand as the world attempts to manufacture more EV batteries. Despite this, short-term lithium and cobalt prices dropped at the end of December, 2022.
The market saw another sharp drop in the lithium price index at the beginning of February. Fortunately, lithium was not hit quite as hard by China’s high post-zero-COVID infection rate as steel and other metals.
This is mainly due to most of the world’s lithium coming from Chile and Argentina. Unfortunately, this only accounts for raw lithium materials.
China remains a top producer of the actual lithium-ion batteries. Thus, the price index still saw some impacts from the high Covid-19 numbers.
China is the largest market for electric vehicles in the world. Germany was the second until the USA just displaced Europe’s largest economy as EV sales accelerated.
BloombergNEF data shows the USA is now the world’s second-largest EV market, shifting Germany down to the third spot. Last year, nearly one million EV’s were sold in the USA, compared with 650,000 in 2021.
Last month, Tesla slashed the prices of its vehicles so buyers could take advantage of the $7,500 US government tax credit. Now the Model Y sold out until April. Electrek’s Fred Lambert said the price cuts sparked unprecedented demand in the USA.
Meanwhile, Ford shares stumbled this past week after it paused production and shipments of its electric F-150 Lightning pickup due to a potential battery issue.
The Biden administration is the biggest proponent of electrifying America’s future, pushing for d-carbonization across the entire transportation system.
On the local level, California, New York, and other states are moving to phase out the sale of gasoline-powered cars by the end of the decade to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Oil Price.com / ABC Flash Point Electric Vehicles Blog Site News 2023.
Electric cars are a threat for nature, excavating 200 tons of material to make one car battery, leaves mother earth destroyed. Also recycling is a major hazard for now, only lithium can be extracted back the rest is polluting dumps.
Sales doubled from 3% to 6% from 2021 to 2022!
Looks like a failed incentive?