Hi, what are you looking for?
Floating “Artificial Leaves” Produce Clean Fuel
Solar & Storage Industry Charts Course For U.S. Manufacturing Renaissance Thanks To Inflation Reduction Act
Renewables to Equal 22% of U.S. Electricity Generation in 2022 — U.S. EIA Forecast
Peaking — A Theory of Rapid Transition
Virginia Offshore Wind Project Could Power 600,000 Homes, Create Over 1,000 Jobs
How Wind Energy Can Help Us Breathe Easier
U.S. Department Of Energy Finds Record Production & Job Growth In U.S. Wind Power Sector
Renewables to Equal 22% of U.S. Electricity Generation in 2022 — U.S. EIA Forecast
Peaking — A Theory of Rapid Transition
Decarbonizing Data Centers — It’s Fun!
Most Renewables Now Cheaper Than Cheapest Coal
Kenya Elections: Electric Mobility, Utility Scale Battery Storage, Energy Efficiency & Green Hydrogen Feature Prominently
More Electricity from Wind & Solar than Nuclear for 1st Time in USA
Funding Notice: Community Geothermal Heating & Cooling Design & Deployment
3 Barriers to Large-Scale Energy Storage Deployment
Cummins Calls Dibs On New Long Duration Energy Storage Iron Salt Formula
The Faraday Institution & NREL Sign MOU In Support of US & UK Joint Battery Research
A 100 Percent Renewable Electricity Calculator for the United States
New Tesla LFP Megapack Is Big — Really Big! (With Video)
Comparing The US & China On Climate, Economy, & Other Outcomes Should Be Deeply Humbling For America
San Diego Electric School Bus Puts Electricity Into The Grid
Can Virtual Power Plants Provide Revenue for Householders?
ERCOT & Tesla: How Virtual Power Plants Can Help Texas Electricity Grid & Save Lives
Energy Security at the Edge of the Grid
New Jersey is Ready for 100% Clean Electricity & Buildings
A Guide To Fuel Efficient Driving — Part Three (2022 Update)
New Heat Pumps For Old Apartments
Our Water Heaters Could Help Save the Wilderness
Heat Pumps Proved Themselves During A Harsh Maine Winter
How Tesla Reworked its Software to Survive the Semiconductor Chip Shortage
New Jersey is Ready for 100% Clean Electricity & Buildings
Rural Country Car Buyers Trust Local Car Dealers
Nearly 2,000 Zero-Emission Trucks & Buses on California Roads — New Data
A Guide To Fuel Efficient Driving — Part Three (2022 Update)
This Go-Anywhere, Eye-Catching E-Bike Is A Honey
Ford F-150 Lightning — CleanTechnica Review
Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Maintenance Cost Update at 3 Years & 27,000 Miles
75,000 Miles With My Tesla Model 3: Maintenance Costs, FSD (Beta), Hauling, Etc.
Putting The EcoFlow DELTA Pro Power Station To A Hard Test
22% Of New Car Sales Now Electric In The Netherlands!
Germany’s EV Share Cold Comfort Against 34% Shortfall In Overall Auto Market
UK Plugin EV Share Shrinks In July, BEVs Still Growing
French New Auto Sales Crash 37%, BEVs Still Growing
Norway’s Plugin Market Share Drops, BEVs Still Growing
This Go-Anywhere, Eye-Catching E-Bike Is A Honey
Ford F-150 Lightning — CleanTechnica Review
Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Maintenance Cost Update at 3 Years & 27,000 Miles
75,000 Miles With My Tesla Model 3: Maintenance Costs, FSD (Beta), Hauling, Etc.
Putting The EcoFlow DELTA Pro Power Station To A Hard Test
Ford F-150 Lightning — CleanTechnica Review
Tesla Q4 Shareholder Conference Call — Watch & Listen Here
Volkswagen Group — In-Depth Conference Call Highlights Company’s Focus On Transition
Bill McKibben On Unions, Tesla, & Elon Musk — CleanTechnica Interview
How To Watch & Listen To Tesla Q3 Earnings Call — Most Useful Livestream
The New York Times does what it can to shit focus away from stagnating wages and record profits.
The New York Times recently published an article titled “Electric Cars Too Costly for Many, Even With Aid in Climate Bill,” which put forward the misleading claim that, “[While] policymakers in Washington are promoting electric vehicles as a solution to climate change, (an) uncomfortable truth remains: Battery-powered cars are much too expensive for a vast majority of Americans.”
Is that fact true? Absolutely. Sort of. Is the New York Times presenting that fact in a misleading way? Absolutely. The only real question is: Why? And I think I have the answer. (Full disclosure: I’m about to go on a bit of a rant here, so — yeah.)
Chevy Bolt, image courtesy GM.
That up there? That’s the Chevy Bolt — a capable, dependable, and not at all likely to catch fire battery-electric vehicle (BEV) capable of taking you and yours something like 259 miles before needing to be plugged into one of thousands of EV charging stations available across the United States.
Brand new, a Chevy Bolt starts at $31,500 before any federal, state, or utility incentives are factored in. At the end of the day, some customers in markets like Oregon and California will be able to drive home in this capable little EV for about $24,000 (plus, plus, plus — obvi.). Now, you may not know this next little factoid, but I’d bet that NYT‘s Jack Ewing does (or should, if he’s going to be writing for the Times). That is that the average transaction price of a new car in the United States increased to $48,043 in June of this year.
For those of you bad at math, that means you can get a brand-new Chevy Bolt EV for just a tick under half of the average selling price of a new car in the USA. It’s not alone, either. The upcoming Chevy Equinox EV and the Nissan LEAF are priced about the same as the Bolt. Even the hugely popular Ford F-150 Lightning has a starting price some $15,000 less than the average transaction price (with incentives). That’s being touted as “too much?” It’s not EVs that’s the problem, is it?
As noted above, included in the article was the statement, “Battery-powered cars are much too expensive for a vast majority of Americans.” The simple fact is that new cars are too expensive for the vast majority of Americans. That’s why most people buy used cars. Among new vehicles, though, there are electric vehicles that are, in fact, in “affordable” categories well below the average selling price.
Furthermore, operational and maintenance costs of EVs are lower, sometimes much lower. Resale value is also often higher for EVs than their gas-powered competitors. So, if you look across the whole vehicle ownership period of a new vehicle (for the buyer of the new vehicle, not the next person he or she sells that car to), EVs are actually much more affordable than is assumed by people who only look at the sticker price. For more on this fun topic, we’ve written about total cost of EV ownership for years — scroll through those archives. Our most recent story in that category: “My Tesla Model 3 TCO Estimate Sucked, Model 3 Was Cheaper To Drive Than Most Camrys!”
Image by Kyle Field, for CleanTechnica.
What the New York Times would seemingly like you to believe, based on the wording of its article, is that electric cars are the problem. They’re too expensive because of bottlenecks in the supply chain (the latest pro-corporate boogeyman), and “broader steps are needed to make electric cars more affordable.” The article also cites the notion that lack of at-home refueling is a real-world barrier to EV adoption — somewhat baffling, considering no one doesn’t buy an ICE car because they don’t have a gas pump at home, you know? (Like I said: a bit of a rant.)
Look, the real problem here is stagnating wages. Plain and simple. The NYT won’t ever admit that, either because the news giant is largely owned by Vanguard and BlackRock and serves its shareholders more than it does the public, or because the writing team genuinely doesn’t know any better and believes that the $66,000 Tesla Model Y (the only EV price cited in the piece) is the only EV out there. Let’s assume the latter, then, and do some more educating!
In 2009, the average price of a new car from an American automaker was $23,276. Adjusted for inflation (July ’09 to July ’22, using government metrics), that’s “just” $32,022 — nearly $16,000 less than the average price of a new car today. So, car prices are outpacing broader inflation. Furthermore, $16,000 is approximately the increase in average compensation in the country, not leaving any of that increase in wages for other rising costs. Actually, looking further back and taking broader economic factors into consideration, wages have been more or less stagnant for 50 years — except in C-level positions, where CEO compensation has risen more than 900% since the 1970s.
The short story is that most Americans cannot and do not buy new vehicles. There were approximately 15 million new vehicle sales in the US in 2021. That’s compared to 258 million adults. So, technically, the NYT is correct: brand new EVs (like all brand new cars) “are much too expensive for a vast majority of Americans.” However, if we’re comparing the 3-year or 5-year ownership cost of a new EV compared to some other new automobile, EVs stack up very well.
I've been involved in motorsports and tuning since 1997, and have been a part of the Important Media Network since 2008. You can find me here, working on my Volvo fansite, riding a motorcycle around Chicago, or chasing my kids around Oak Park.
#1 most loved electric vehicle, solar energy, and battery news & analysis site in the world. Support our work today!
Advertise with CleanTechnica to get your company in front of millions of monthly readers.
Hozon Auto is taking the fight to Tesla.
Buying cars in 2022 can be a huge headache. Not only are some cars hard to find at all with dealers selling out of...
There’s a lot we don’t know about Stellantis’ upcoming, all-electric Jeep that’s set to debut in 2023. We don’t know the specs, for example....
Copyright © 2021 CleanTechnica. The content produced by this site is for entertainment purposes only. Opinions and comments published on this site may not be sanctioned by and do not necessarily represent the views of CleanTechnica, its owners, sponsors, affiliates, or subsidiaries.