Apr 8, 2024
To facilitate the automotive industry’s transition towards electric vehicles, the Biden administration has rolled out a range of initiatives aimed at promoting EV adoption.
However, Bob Nardelli, the former CEO of Chrysler, is skeptical about the government's role in this transition.
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During an interview with Fox Business, Nardelli discussed the challenges facing America’s EV industry.
“There’s 64,000 EV charging stations compared to 196,000 gasoline stations,” he said.
Nardelli also highlighted the reliability issues associated with EV charging stations compared to traditional gasoline pumps.
“This is just another, you know, another issue, another debacle by this administration, trying to create a revolution versus allowing an evolution,” he remarked. “You can’t force it down consumers’ throats.”
Startups ‘not going to make it’
With an increasing number of EVs hitting American roads, EV stocks have garnered significant interest. However, Nardelli has noted that recent developments in this area have not fully lived up to expectations.
“Tesla really missed the number in the first quarter,” he said.
In Q1 of 2024, Tesla delivered 386,810 EVs, representing an 8.5% decline from the same quarter last year. This figure also fell significantly short of Wall Street's expectations, which had forecasted deliveries of 454,200 vehicles.
Nardelli also called out Chinese EV manufacturer BYD, stating, “BYD missed it even further. They were only 301,000.”
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BYD sold 300,114 EVs in Q1 of 2024, a drop from its record-breaking quarterly peak of 526,409 EVs sold in the preceding three months.
Regarding the emerging players in the industry, Nardelli does not hold a particularly optimistic view.
“Rivian lost $5.4 billion last year,” he said. “So they're having one heck of a time, these startups are just not going to make it.”
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Will regulations soften?
The Biden administration recently highlighted the significant progress made in the EV sector.
“Since the President took office, EV sales have more than quadrupled, with more than four and a half million EVs on the road,” the White House said in a press release.
However, the government’s regulatory stance may soon soften.
The New York Times reported that the Biden administration plans to slow the pace of limits on tailpipe emissions. The move is intended as a concession to automakers and labor unions, said unnamed sources.
“The change in pacing is in response to automakers who say that more time is needed to build a national network of charging stations and to bring down the cost of electric vehicles, and to labor unions that want more time to try to unionize new electric car plants that are opening around the country, particularly in the South,” the news report read.
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Jing is an investment reporter for Moneywise. He is an avid advocate of investing for passive income. Despite the ups and downs he’s been through with the markets, Jing believes that you can generate a steadily increasing income stream by investing in high quality companies.
