We are living through one of history’s longest and most excruciating versions of “We told you so”. When in March 2020, the world’s governments decided to “shut down” the world’s economies and throttle any and all social activity, and deny kids schooling plus cancel worship services and holidays, there was no end to the warnings of the terrible collateral damage, even if most of them were censored.
Every bit of the warnings proved true. You see it in every story in the news. It’s behind every headline. It’s in countless family tragedies. It’s in the loss of trust. It’s in the upheaval in industry and demographics. The fingerprints of lockdowns are deeply embedded in every aspect of our lives, in ways obvious and not so much.
Actually, the results have been even worse than critics predicted, simply because the chaos lasted such a long time. There are seemingly endless iterations of this theme. Learning losses, infrastructure breakages, rampant criminality, vast debt, inflation, lost work ethic, a growing commercial real estate bust, real income losses, political extremism, labour shortages, substance addiction, and more much besides, all trace to the fateful decision.
The headlines on seemingly unrelated matters go back to the same, in circuitous ways. A good example is the news of the electric vehicle bust. The confusion, disorientation, malinvestment, overproduction and retrenchment – along with the crazed ambition to force convert a country and world away from oil and gas towards wind and solar – all trace to those fateful days.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “As recently as a year ago, automakers were struggling to meet the hot demand for electric vehicles. In a span of months, though, the dynamic flipped, leaving them hitting the brakes on what for many had been an all-out push toward an electric transformation.”
Reading the story, it’s clear that the reporter is downplaying the sheer scale of the boom-bust.
That’s not to say that Tesla itself is going bust, only that it has a defined market segment. The technology of EVs simply cannot and will not become the major way Americans drive. It might have seemed otherwise for a moment in time but that was due to factors that traced exactly to pent up demand caused by lockdowns and huge errors in supply management due to bad signalling.
Looking back, the lockdowns hit in the spring of 2020 and supply chains were entirely frozen by force. This might have been a major problem for car manufacturers that had long relied on just-in-time inventory strategies. However, at the very time, the demand for travel collapsed. Commutes came to an end, and vacations too. At that same time, pre-arranged Government subsidies and mandates for EVs flooded the industry, all of which were later ramped up by the Biden administration.
As demand picked up, retailers sold their old inventory of cars and looked to manufacturers for more but the chips needed to complete the cars were not available. Many cars were put on hold and lots emptied out. This continued through the following year as used car prices soared and stock was otherwise depleted.
By the time matters became desperate in the fall of 2021, manufacturers discerned a heightened demand for EVs and began to retool their factories for more. There was even a time when cars were being shipped without power steering, just to meet the demand.
It might have seemed for a time like the crazed period we just lived through was birthing a completely different way of life. A kind of irrationality, born of shock and awe, swept industry and culture. The EV was central to it.
This demand seemed to pan out in 2022 as Americans grabbed whatever cars were available, perhaps willing to give the new doohickies a shot. So on it went as more carmakers threw more resources at production, benefitting from massive subsidies and staying in compliance with new mandates for reducing their carbon footprint.
There was no particular reason to think anything would go wrong. But then the next year began to reveal uncomfortable truths. Cold weather dramatically cuts the range of the EVs. Charging stations are not as readily available on longer trips, charging takes longer than one expects, and having to plan such matters adds time. In addition, the repair bills can be extremely high if you can find someone to do it.
Tesla as a manufacturer had planned out all such contingencies but other carmakers less so. Very quickly the EVs gained a bad reputation on a number of different fronts.
“Last summer, dealers began warning of unsold electric vehicles clogging their lots. Ford, General Motors, Volkswagen and others shifted from frenetic spending on EVs to delaying or downsizing some projects,” writes the Journal. “Dealers who had been begging automakers to ship more EVs faster are now turning them down.”
In short, “the massive miscalculation has left the industry in a bind, facing a potential glut of EVs and half-empty factories while still having to meet stricter environmental regulations globally.”
Today, lots are selling the cars at a loss just to avoid the costs of keeping them around.
Truly, this has been one spectacular boom-bust in a single industry. There seems to be no real end to the bust either. These days it appears that everyone has given up on any chance of actually converting the mass of American cars to become EVs. All recent trends are headed in the other direction.
Meanwhile, the EV is deeply loved by many as a second car for well-to-do suburban commuters who own homes, can charge overnight and have a petrol or diesel car as a backup for cold weather and out-of-town trips. That is to say, the market is becoming exactly what it should be – a street-worthy golf cart with very fancy features – and not some paradigmatic case for the ‘Great Reset’. That’s simply not happening, despite all the subsidies and tax breaks.
“A confluence of factors had led many auto executives to see the potential for a dramatic societal shift to electric cars,” writes the Journal, including “Government regulations, corporate climate goals, the rise of Chinese EV makers and Tesla’s stock valuation, which, at roughly $600 billion, still towers over the legacy car companies. But the push overlooked an important constituency: the consumer.”
Indeed, the American economy, much to the chagrin of many, still primarily relies on consumers to make choices in their best interest. When that doesn’t happen, no amount of subsidies can make up the difference.
This story is impossible to understand without reference to the crazed illusions caused by lockdowns. Those are what provided the respite of time to allow automakers to retool. Then they boosted demand artificially for transportation after a long period in which inventory had been depleted.
Then the whole ridiculous ethos of the ‘Great Reset’ convinced idiotic corporate executives that nothing would ever be the same. Maybe we would get 15-minute cities powered by sunbeams and breezes after all, along with a social-credit system that would allow the authorities to decommission our ability to drive in an instant.
It turns out that the entire bit, including the fake prosperity of the lockdown economy, made possible by money-printing and grotesque levels of Government spending, was unsustainable. Even sophisticated car companies bought into the nonsense. Now they are paying a very heavy price. The new market depended on a panic of buying that turned out to be temporary.
In short, the illusions of these horrible policies have come crashing down. It was born of liberty-wrecking policies under the cover of virus control. Every special interest seized the day, including a new generation of industrialists seeking to displace the old ones by force.
More and more, it’s obvious what a disaster this was. And yet no one has apologised. Hardly anyone has admitted error. The big shots who wrecked the world are still in power.
The rest of us are left holding the bag, and paying very high repair bills for cars that are non-optimal for driving from one town to another and back again in the cold weather that was supposed to be gone by now had the ‘climate change’ prophets been correct. They turn out to be as correct as those who promised us that we would no longer need ‘fossil fuels’ and that the magic inoculation would protect everyone from a killer virus.
What astonishing illusions were born of this nutty and destructive period. At some point, not even corporate CEOs will be tricked by the experts.
Jeffrey A. Tucker is Founder and President of the Brownstone Institute, where this article first appeared.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
It did work exactly as intended, it’s making cars/personal transportation out of the reach of ordinary ppl (what they call the plebs). Once achieved public transport can be heavily taxed, as they’ll be a virtual government monopoly on movement. Don’t expect Uber to ride to the rescue either.
“the results have been even worse than critics predicted, simply because the chaos lasted such a long time. There are seemingly endless iterations of this theme. Learning losses, infrastructure breakages, rampant criminality, vast debt, inflation, lost work ethic, a growing commercial real estate bust, real income losses, political extremism, labour shortages, substance addiction, and more much besides, all trace to the fateful decision.”
Sadly, where Jeffrey Tucker sees poor decision making and rank mismanagement I see the opposite. The outcomes listed in the above paragraph will I am sure be listed as successes by the Davos Deviants. They have possibly succeeded in the collapsing of Western society – just as intended. This is what they mean by “Build Back Better,” but in order to Build Back Better first they have to destroy, hence the Great Reset.
I always enjoy Jeffrey Tucker’s work but on the matter of Lockdowns, their management and out comes I believe he is off kilter. Sadly, the destruction of the West has much further to go.
The Davos Deviants may think they are in control but I am not convinced. This will end very badly for the whole planet. Them and us.
The way we’re being played by the ‘Davos Deviants,’ and our response to them generates memories of Peter Finch’s creation ‘Howard Beale’ in the film ‘Network’, particularly his oration to the studio audience about mind control. His performance was mesmeric, no more so than when delivering his famous line: “I’m mad a s hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore.”
Thanks for the Peter Finch reminder.
Equally, Ned Beatty’s boardroom speech was spellbinding in its delivery and content.
How the world works!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuBe93FMiJc
Fossil fuels being a finite resource have become a kind of currency. Like Gold. The worlds resources cannot just be squandered, by endless burning and economic activity. Or at least that is the view of the world government in waiting at the UN. So how do you stop people using them all up? You need a very plausible excuse, and that excuse is “climate change”. Notice it is the wealthiest countries that are to be first to slow down and eventually stop using fossil fuels NET ZERO) because we have apparently already used up more than our fair share of the fossil fuels in the ground. ——-Eco Socialism
6uild 6ack 6etter
Exactly.
All for the “greater good”. ——–The Communist manifesto of the phony planet savers.
My son learned to drive in an electric car that I made for him in 1993. He now drives a 4.5 litre petrol guzzler.
You should be proud.
Thank you. He is the most unwoke son you could wish to have.
No doubt a sensible father helps.
Power Wheels
Converted junk invalid carriage.
Evs were never meant to work. They don’t want us to travel.
It isn’t just travel they want to stop. It is everything that needs fossil fuels. There is this fear that the developing world by bringing billions out of abject poverty and using vast amounts of coal oil and gas that these valuable resources will be depleted.
We’ve far more so called fossil fuels than we suppose.
Indeed, we have enough oil to deep-fry the Earth many times over.
Indeed we do. But fear of scarcity is one of the tools of the planet savers, along with fear of a climate apocalypse and population growth. ——It is a doomsday dossier of absurdity backed up by ZERO evidence.
Today’s corporate executives have not developed knowledge and skills in the unforgiving capitalist free market economy, instead their upbringing has been as clients of a Corporate Welfare State of subsidies, tax breaks, cheap money, ‘too big to fail’, protectionist regulation, job preserving, State directed economy. Hail the technocratic State.
They don’t understand how to manage in a free, consumer led environment, only know product led, Government command and control market.
It is the essence of Fascist economic policy – the ideology visible for those paying attention in all our ‘free democratic’ Governments of the West and that Leviathan the EU, its ancestor the EEC created by those running the Governments of Germany, Italy and France of the 1930s and 1940s.
That is exactly what the WEF means when it talks about ‘stakeholder capitalism.’
Indeed, yet another Orwellian phrase.
Call me stupid…this is sort of off-topic but Electricity related. Octopussy have just taken over from Shell…Octopussy claim that 100% of the electricity they supply is from renewable sources…then I check out a few more of these “suppliers”…Sainsburys, Ecotricity, Scottish Power, Eon…I could go on…How come they ALL advertise that they supply 100% from renewables, when our National Grid supplies roughly 35% from renewables.
Perhaps someone can illuminate me (excuse pun) or am I just mathematically challenged/haven’t drunk the Kool-Aid? Please help me find me a safe space from this lunacy…and don’t wind me up about electric cars.
The conclusion from your inquiries being that 100% of the population can access electricity from renewables but there is not 100% availability via the National Grid.
I think some people might be telling porkies.
They are telling porkies.
What’s more that 35% is an average over the year. There are times when “renewables” account for a LOT less than that – any day with little wind and not much sun, not to mention the sun doesn’t shine at night. Maybe they should look at lunar power? So at any given time all these people who think they are using “green” energy are just deluding themselves.
Aaaah the good old 100% renewable “truth”- ROCs and back up capacity fuelled by …. FFs – Octopus and every other energy supplier especially the scam Local Authority so called clean energy auction ( run by by two Dutch people from Holland ) – dont like to deal with queries about these two inconvenient other truths …..the latter reluctantly admitting that their “100%” clean energy supplies are not as advertised ….wield surprise……. not
“quel”….
I had a discussion once with a person who was not happy about me questioning the need for electric cars. I think mainly because he owned one.—-He asked “Have you ever driven an electric car”? —–I replied “No I haven’t”. ——So he said “Well there you go then”. —-I said to him “I am not criticising electric cars I am criticising government policy that seeks to coerce me into one” ——-A subtle but important difference. —–An electric car is just a piece of technology and if they are any good people will buy them since we all mostly know how best to spend our own money. The problem with everything GREEN is that the government thinks they know best how to spend it, and infact they have decided they will spend it for us regardless of what we think.
Now they just gaslight….Jeremy Vine. ‘Is Brexit to blame for the recession’. Another one is the mini budget from Liz Truss.
Brexit just to Regrexit, is like detox just to retox.
Unfortunately, the action that will be deemed ‘necessary’ – in view of the failure of EVs – will be to stop us driving altogether. It’ll come, you can be sure. The expression “to cut off one’s nose to spite one’s face” was made for these people. It’s a death cult. All or nothing. At least they have principles!
Love this piece of writing!
The flabby acceptance by the car industry across the western world of the EV directive has been very disappointing. A total acceptance of Climate Change propaganda, and outrageous government intervention into fundamental principles of their business without any sort of opposition was shocking.
But then it applies to many other industries that have been feeble in their opposition to self destruction. Oil and gas, and steel for example. Ample lubrication with taxpayer money has helped of course.
The naive, unquestioning acceptance of all these insane policies by the gullible public is the most depressing aspect.
The resistance by the farmers is at least a step in the right direction.
People are missing the biggest point. The stupid CCP in China will destroy their economy with a product the world doesn’t want. Tee hee 😁
My 36 year old son is still keen despite everything I’ve advised him on EV’s. You cannot put an old head on young shoulders. Fortunately, he hasn’t had the necessaries to waste. His lesson in life is less painful than most. Such a failure will delve a few parallels deep within the brow. So wisdom is on the up.
The great reset, driven at it’s root by the derangement invoked in the liberal left/globalists by Trump’s win in the 2016 election. It is manifested by the military/industrial complex described in some detail here: https://rumble.com/v4e0xw0-tucker-carlson-interviews-mike-benz-the-u.s.-governments-orwellian-mass-cen.html
The price of second hand EVs is falling because the price of new EVs is falling. This is typical with new technology. Tesla is profitable and the Model Y was the best selling car of any kind in the world in 2023. Tesla is reducing prices because there is a wave of cheap EVs coming this year from China and it wants to retain market share.
The great reset aims not to switch everyone from ICE to EV, the objective is to switch the majority of private motoring to walking, cycling, and public transport.
The price of used EVs is falling because nobody wants them. They are wary of the cost of used batteries if they fail. The depreciation of high end new EVs is staggering, losing 50% of their value in a couple of years. The problem with BEVs are the batteries which are not up to what is being asked of them. The market solution for car manufacturers is, as the CEO of Toyota says, hybrids. There is a huge demand that many car manufacturers are scrambling to meet.
Toyota plans to sell 3-4 million EVs by 2030 and is promising magic new battery technology for 2027 Toyota EVs
Yes I have read about solid state batteries which are not chemical batteries. This would be a huge achievement and just not for EVs. But this is all speculation at the moment. If they can produce a solid state energy storage device that can store the same amount of energy as an equivalent weight of gasoline, that would be life transforming. I am naturally skeptical as this discussion site requires.