By Jo Nova

The magic of the free market was suddenly applied to EV sales last month. Tax credits and subsidies for electric cars in the EU and China ended on January 1, and sales promptly halved.

So half the entire EV market apparently only existed because governments took money from poor people to help rich people buy EV’s. Everyone wants nice weather in 100 years, but no one wants to pay for it.

Let’s all sing “equity”.

EV sales collapse as subsidies and tax credits come to an abrupt halt

American Journal of Transportation

The global electric vehicle (EV) market is reeling from one of the most dramatic collapses in monthly sales to date, with Rystad Energy research showing that only 672,000 units were sold in January, almost half of December 2022 sales and a mere 3% year-on-year increase over January 2022. The EV market share among all passenger car sales also tumbled to 14% in January, well down on the 23% seen in December.

The US is a ray of hope for the industry. Not because American EV’s are necessarily better but because of “better” government interference:

EV subsidies in many European countries and mainland China were sliced at the start of the year, and a return of any significance is highly unlikely in the immediate future. One ray of hope for the global outlook is the US market, which is just beginning its electrification journey and rolling out tax credits thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act.

There have been a number of car-crash-holiday-tales of EV journeys of late, which won’t be helping sales either.

EV owner has unexpected holiday inside car

It wasn’t so much a holiday with an EV, as a holiday imprisoned in one:

BBC Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills misses flight after locking himself in car for 5 hours

MyLondon News

Scott Mills has revealed he was trapped in a car for five hours and missed his flight as a result. The BBC Radio 1 DJ had intended to set off on a romantic weekend with his partner, but instead was trapped outside the BBC studio.

“I’ve had quite the weekend,” he said. “I said goodbye to you on Friday. Me and Sam agreed to head to the airport in my electric car at 4pm. Flight is at 8pm. “Get in the car. Car doesn’t start. In fact, nothing works. I go to get out of the car. I can’t get out. Sam tries his door. Nothing. Also cannot leave the car.”

Scott says he had charged the car’s main battery, but the secondary battery had run empty.

British people bought more cars overall in January, they just wanted the ones that run on petrol:

Has the electric car bubble BURST?

How drivers are returning to buying petrol vehicles in droves due to lack of charging stations.

Oliver Price of This Money UK

Eighteen-month waits after ordering your new car and seemingly unending queues to power it up due to a dearth of new charging stations being built. This seems to be the experience for many UK motorists when buying and owning an electric car.

Electric car infrastructure in the UK was considered at ‘crisis point’ after it was revealed last month that just 806 new chargers were being installed per month, This is Money reported.

This rate which needs to nearly quadruple to 3,130 installations a month to meet the Government’s target of having 300,000 devices nationwide by 2030 – when the UK will ban new petrol and diesel cars. There are only 37,055 charging points in the UK as of January this year.

hat tip to NetZeroWatch, Notalotofpeopleknowthat