Gasoline Demand Setting New Records -- Now, Why Would That Be? -- June 25, 2016

Updates

June 25, 2016: it seems like the NYT article in the original post had trouble providing the bottom line. Here is the bottom line, from wiki, easy to understand:

The U.S. market share of plug-in electric passenger cars increased from 0.14% in 2011 through 0.37% in 2012 to 0.62% in 2013.

The segment reached a market share of 0.75% in 2014 and fell to 0.66% of new car sales in 2015.

That pretty much says it all.

Original Post

 

From Casablanca: "I'm shocked. I'm shocked."

The New York Times seems surprised at the reality that "American drivers regain appetite for gas guzzlers."

The single most effective action that most Americans can take to help reduce the dangerous emissions that cause climate change? Buy a more fuel-efficient car.

But consumers are heading in the opposite direction. They have rekindled their love of bigger cars, pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles, favoring them over small cars, hybrids and electric vehicles, which are considered crucial to helping slow global warming.

So far this year, nearly 75 percent of the people who have traded in a hybrid or electric car to a dealer have replaced it with an all-gas car, an 18 percent jump from 2015, according to Edmunds.com, a car shopping and research site.

In 2008, President Obama set a goal of a million electric cars on the road by 2015 in the United States, but the total is now around 442,000, including plug-in hybrids. This year, electric and hybrid sales have dropped to 2.4 percent of new-car purchases.

By the way, I think this was true in earlier years and had been previously posted: the vast majority of folks who trade in their hybrids or EVs, trade them in for an ICE.

As I've said before, once President Obama leaves office, the global warming scam will need a new cheerleader-in-chief.  Some data points from above:

• goal: 1 million EVs on the road by 2015; including hybrids, less than 500,000 (despite all the incentives; all the advocacy)
• EV/hybrid owners: 75% trade "up" to an ICE -- that an 18% jump from the previous year -- it suggests that for some reason, folks are NOT happy with the EVs (range? cost?)
• EV/hybrid sales have dropped this year

Cost? It would be interesting to see what EV/hybrid owners are trading "up" to? Their new ICE cars may not be more expensive, but they probably get "more bang for their buck."

More from the article:

A preference for big cars is not going to help the country reach the goals outlined in the Paris climate accord, reached in December. To help reach those goals, average fuel economy would need to soar to at least 100 miles per gallon — most likely achievable only through widespread adoption of electric and other zero-emission cars.

President Obama has pushed for stronger federal fuel-economy rules that call for cars to average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025; the current average is 25.4 miles per gallon.

Though electric cars may be somewhat out of favor for now, that may change. Many are hoping that the Tesla could transform Americans’ views on electric cars, much the way the iPhone did with mobile technology.

"Widespread adoption of electric and other zero-emission cars." To the best of my knowledge there is no such thing: most electric cars worldwide would get their electricity from coal. In the US, from coal and/or natural gas.

Flashback, from April 22, 2015:

Daily Caller is reporting:

President Barack Obama promised to put a million more hybrid and electric cars on the road during his tenure, but new research shows drivers are trading them in to buy sports utility vehicles (SUVs).

The auto-research group Edmunds.com found that “22 percent of people who have traded in their hybrids and [electric vehicles] in 2015 bought a new SUV.”

This number is higher than the 18.8 percent that did the same last year, but it’s double the number that traded in their electric car for an SUV just three years ago.

Only “45 percent of this year’s hybrid and EV trade-ins have gone toward the purchase of another alternative fuel vehicle, down from just over 60 percent in 2012.”

“Never before have loyalty rates for alt-fuel vehicles fallen below 50 percent."

Several story lines:

• EVs may not be as "loved" as owners say
• flipping EVs for the tax credit
• getting rid of an EV before the battery gets any older
• some argue that Saudi Arabia cut price of oil to $50 to stop the EV movement; if so, it's working
• not enough charging stations
• cargo space taken up by battery
• early adopters bought the EVs; mainstream was to follow; never happened ... for whatever reason 

The most surprising thing: I thought folks loved their EVs so much, they would be "replacing" them with newer EV models; not trading them in for SUVs. So we go from EVs to perhaps the poster child for all that is bad for the environment: gas-guzzling SUVs.