The Electric Vehicle (EV) doom loop has been closing for several years. As I noted in California: electric vehicles are on fire!, California’s most recent wildfires exposed, yet again, EVs manifold weaknesses. Among them are:

*1000-pound batteries wear out expensive tires at incredible rates.

*Range is always less than the EPA and manufacturers claim. Public chargers are few and far between and often don’t work.

*EVs are much more expensive than comparable conventional vehicles.

*Parts are scarce and insurance and repair costs outlandish.

*They lose value at incredible rates and there is virtually no used EV market.

*They tend to spontaneously combust and since they make their own oxygen when on fire, virtually impossible to extinguish.

*They’re bought almost exclusively by the top 7% of households in income.

Even before Donald Trump was reelected, manufacturers were having a very hard time convincing dealers to stock them, and numerous EV companies were going bankrupt, usually taking millions in taxpayer cash with them. Among the surviving EV makers, Ford, like the rest, made bold predictions about EVs dominating their product lines in just a few years. Inevitably, that hubris turned to announcements of postponing those deadlines, and canny observers understood that meant closed production lines and canceled EV plans. It seems even Ford can’t afford to lose $132,000 on each EV made and sort-of sold for too long: 

Graphic: X Screenshot

The Verge reports that on Wednesday, Ford Motor Company announced its fourth quarter and full-year earnings for 2024, surpassing Wall Street expectations. However, the automaker also reported substantial losses in its electric vehicle (EV) and software division, known as Model e. The company lost $5.1 billion in this segment in 2024, a significant increase from the $4.7 billion lost in the previous year. Furthermore, Ford predicts that losses will continue to mount, potentially reaching $5.5 billion in 2025. 

If that prediction holds, by the end of 2025, Ford will have lost $15.3 billion in only three years. One would imagine Ford’s shareholders are becoming…nervous. When Ford finally wises up, how will they unload remaining EVs worth virtually nothing and virtually impossible to repair?

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has also struck several EV death blows: 

Graphic: X Screenshot

On Tuesday, Jan. 28, Duffy directed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to begin the process of rolling back updated corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards established by the previous administration. CAFE standards set minimum miles-per-gallon fuel efficiencies for passenger vehicles and fuel consumption standards for certain medium-duty vehicles.

EV/Green cultists have used CAFÉ standards to force manufacturers to build EVs. There is no other way for them to meet insanely high, unobtainable standards. Even though EVs have never been technologically viable replacements for conventionally powered vehicles, that hasn’t stopped utopian bureaucrats from trying to force manufacturers to make, and Americans to buy, vehicles they don’t want and can’t afford.

The only way EVs can ever be even remotely viable is if there is a nationwide network of publicly available EV fast chargers exceeding the number of contemporary gas stations. Despite the claims of EV cheerleaders, even the fastest chargers under ideal conditions can charge an EV to about 80% capacity in around an hour. To reach 100%, which manufacturers don’t recommend, requires far longer as the chargers must slow to avoid overheating batteries which when overheated tend to burst explosively into flames. So much for EPA EV mileage range figures.

Graphic: Most EV charging station's default state. Author.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s fecklessness is the stuff of legend. Given $7 billion to build a half million charging stations across American, in two years Buttigieg managed to build only seven.  statelymcdanielmanor.wordpress.com/2024/05/15/electric-vehicles-billion-dollar-charging-stations/ Called out by a finally stirring press, he whined building EV stations is like, hard. Non-feckless Secretary Duffy is taking the sane path:

The Trump Transportation Department has ordered state transportation directors to "decertify" plans created to spend $5 billion to build thousands of EV charging stations across the interstate highway system. [skip]

“The new leadership of the Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) has decided to review the policies underlying the implementation of the NEVI Formula Program,” wrote Emily Biondi of the Federal Highway Administration in a letter to state transportation agencies.

“Therefore, effective immediately, no new obligations may occur under the NEVI Formula Program until the updated final NEVI Formula Program Guidance is issued and new State plans are submitted and approved,” Biondi wrote.

The NEVI program was supposed to disburse federal cash for EV stations, but the cash ran out after a few years, leaving private owners with EV charging stations that could never be profitable. Federal regulations were also inflexible, demanding stations in remote areas few would ever use. Unsurprisingly, sane states said: “thanks but no thanks.”

It will take congressional action, but Donald Trump has promised to remove all EV tax incentives. When that happens, the EV doom loop, at long last, will be nearly closed.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.