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A group of more than 5,000 car dealers have made public their worries about a lack of demand for electric vehicles. Earlier this year the group lobbied the White House to water down impending federal fuel efficiency regulations that would require automakers to sell many more EVs. Now, they’re sounding an alarm over impending EV mandates, particularly in the so-called Zero Emissions Vehicle states.
The ZEV states—California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia—all follow the emissions standards laid out by the California Air Resources Board, which require that by 2035, 100 percent of all new cars and light trucks be zero-emissions vehicles (which includes plug-in hybrid EVs as well as battery EVs).
That goes into effect starting with model-year 2026 (i.e. midway through next calendar year) and would require a third of all new vehicles to be a BEV, claim the car dealers. But there is not enough customer demand for electrified vehicles to buy those cars, the dealers say. Worse yet, it would make gasoline-powered cars more expensive.
“This is a de facto mandate, as dealerships will be allocated fewer internal combustion engine and hybrid vehicles, and due to the lack of BEV sales, the result will create excessive demand driving up prices for customers,” the group wrote in a statement.
EV sales are growing more slowly in 2024 than the 50 percent growth we saw in 2023 (to this writer, calling a 12.5 percent growth rate “flatlining” seems hyperbolic).
A lot of the dealers’ concerns are around a lack of knowledge about EVs among their customers. The open letter complains that customers are ignorant about where to charge and how long that takes, how long batteries last and how expensive they are, and range loss in winter. In defense of those car buyers, a place that sells cars, including electric ones, would surely seem like the obvious place to ask those questions—again, at least to this writer.
