The definitive EV thread. No spin. No BS., page-553

If we are interested in understanding the world market for EVs, which hopefully mirrors whether Lithium and hence PLS will be successful, I think we really need to ignore most of the commentary about US.

I have already explained that at length a few weeks ago, and supported it with uncontroversial stats. I will summarise my analysis here, hopefully in simpler terms.

First - the current topic, the Cybertruck. It is a large machine - 2m wide, leaving barely 150mm on each side when parked accurately in the centre of a standard ozzie 2300mm car spot.
Apart from US, and a few aficionados here, I doubt it will have much of a success elsewhere.

Basically Americans love big cars. The ROW wants smaller cars. The Tesla models 3 and Y are considered big cars in Europe. A few years ago I rented an A class Merc in Europe: all my cousins compared me with big rich americans because I had this "huge" car

Here is a funny thing:
https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T0409398EN/bmw-manufacturing-is-largest-automotive-exporter-by-value-for-ninth-consecutive-year?language=en
BMW's biggest factory is in US - makes the X series SUVs. But the funny thing is that 40% of its production is exported - by European standards these are large cars, but maybe not big enough for the americans?

The world market is for much smaller cars than the american market. Non US companies are not likely to try to produce many cars specially for the americans, and the american made cars are unlikely to be successful outside US. The only real success story of American car exports is Tesla.

The americans have dug a deep moat around themselves. They have grown up with big inefficient cars and cheap petrol. They think they don't need EVs. The USA is the world's biggest producer of oil, and Big Oil is doing its damnest to destroy the movement towards EVs. The Californians have been trying to dig the rest of the americans out of the big hole they dug inside their moat. For the last few decades they have been foremost in improving the fuel efficiency and cleanliness of the cars - a worthy service for the whole world. And their take up of EVs is much higher than the rest of the americans. But it is tiny when compared to China and Europe. So the idea that America is a large market for EVs is wrong.

Forget the US and any BS that comes from there about their inability to market EVs.