Besides costs, the dealers said customers are concerned about charging access, loss of range in hot and cold weather, and not having enough charge for long daily commutes.
Nearly 4,000 dealerships wrote President Joe Biden in November to say they were struggling to sell the EVs on their lots.
“Those numbers are troubling on the surface but when you consider the brands our respondents represent, it might be even more distressing,” the report stated,
Under the rules, dealerships within the district will be required to sell only zero-emissions vehicles beginning in 2035.
By January, with no response from the Biden administration – and their numbers growing to over 5,000 dealerships – a second letter was sent urging the president to “slam the brakes.”
Despite the growing dealership inventory and less than 1% of the total vehicle registrations in the state being electric, Ohio continues to move forward with charging station construction.
Auto manufacturers will be required to increase the percentage of electric vehicles they sell gradually through 2030, and the mandates would sharply rise thereafter.
Half of all new car sales across the globe in 2022 were small and large SUVs. The electric versions of these vehicles are expensive and have limited towing range, which dealerships say are a turn-off for car buyers.
Experts say that automakers and the federal government grossly overestimated consumer interest in the vehicles. “The government can’t really dictate everything it wants to dictate to the market. Seems to me we have to learn this lesson in the United States every 10 to 20 years," said energy writer and analyst David Blackmon.
The IEA predicted in June that a pivot toward “lower emission sources” as a result of the global energy crisis, as well as growth in electric vehicle sales, would initiate a decline in gasoline consumption in 2024.