Automotive: More woes for the Electric Vehicle (EV) car industry

Suffice to say, all is not well for the Electric Vehicle (EV) industry these days. Despite ample subsidies from the federal government, EV sales are slumping.

Some of the largest automakers, such as Mercedes Benz, admit they won’t come close to hitting their EV sales estimates over the next few years. And Tesla, the king of EVs, just announced its lowest quarterly profit over the past two years. After the Tesla news broke, the company’s shares cratered, leading to a $138 billion decline in value.

Even worse, Hyundai Motor North America is facing a lawsuit that contends the auto manufacturer “has emphasized sales-volume growth in its Hyundai branded EVs, leading the public to believe these increasing EV sales are occurring organically because of the desirability of Hyundai EVs and customer demand for these vehicles.”

What’s more, the lawsuit, filed by Napleton Aurora Imports, a dealership based in the Chicago suburbs, alleges Hyundai pressured dealerships to “artificially inflate” EV sales numbers; created a perverse incentive system in which dealerships that “played ball” were rewarded while those who did not were “punished,” issued several press releases trumpeting “fake” Electric Vehicle sales figures, “created a multitiered scheme to cause its dealers to report false [EV] sales,” and deliberately pushed a “false narrative” that its EV sales were due to “organic growth fueled by desirable vehicles and consumer demand.”

Aside from the lackluster sales figures and alleged scams, the EV industry is facing several vexing problems that seem almost insurmountable at this point in time.

For instance, over this summer alone, there have been numerous reports of people being trapped inside EVs due to dead batteries. In some of these cases, toddlers have been locked inside of sweltering cars. More at AmericanThinker