The roadmap for replacing older carbon-emitting cars with electric vehicles is well developed, at least in theory. All the major automakers (and even some of the the smallest) publicly bet on the electric one.
But really, buy a new electric car? That is a completely different matter.
Volkswagen, the world’s largest automaker, recently announced that it had Exhausted of electric vehicles in the US and Europe for the rest of 2022. Ford’s E-Transit sold out before even started making them.
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Even the most basic (lower spec) version of the Tesla Model 3 vehicle will now not be delivered for more than a year, despite the fact that the company is capable of producing the largest production volumes in the world, a recent stop production in china although.
Turn back the clock to 2019, just when the electric vehicle revolution was really underway in terms of sales figures, and Tesla had stocks of cars in the UK that they could deliver to customers in a matter of days. Now, even though they can produce a lot more vehicles, you will probably have to wait a long time for a new one to be delivered.
For now, then, motorists aspiring to own a new electric vehicle will have a hard time moving forward. So will those governments that have plans to ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars. In Norway, for example, a ban will take effect in 2025; in the UK, it is 2030.
These objectives are largely based on the usual cycle of vehicle replacement. And for old vehicles to be replaced by new ones, supply must be at a level that can replenish those that are scrapped, as well as allow for some growth in demand.
At the moment, there simply aren’t enough electric vehicles being made to meet that demand. i’m involved in ongoing investigation investigating how and when various companies are replacing their old internal combustion engine vehicles with electric vehicles, and one of the main barriers seems to be supply. The government’s goals for roads full of electric vehicles may soon seem unrealizable.
End of the road?
so what has gone wrong? For starters, in the early days of electric vehicles, manufacturers were playing it safe. This was a new and uncharted world for them, and it was unclear whether other competing technologies (such as hydrogen power) would be more popular with consumers. But the batteries won out and consumer demand, helped by those plans to ban gasoline and diesel, soared.
The current problems have been caused in part by COVID-19 affecting global supply chains and shortages of semiconductors, a vital component of modern vehicles.
In the spring of 2022, Tesla had to close its Shanghai factory for three weeks. due to lockdowns in China. Before that, I was producing around 2,000 cars per day for the Asian and European markets, so it may have lost production of around 42,000 vehicles.
This equates to around three months of supply for a market like the UK. And just when he reopened the factory, he had to reduce production due to problems in the supply chain.
This is because Tesla does not manufacture all the parts to build the cars in a single factory (although it does produce more than industry average), so as the factories that supply Tesla have also closed due to lockdowns, the necessary parts are not arriving. CEO Elon Musk has now suggested that his company may stop taking orders, narration Financial Times: “The frustration we are seeing from customers is not being able to get them a car.”
He added: “Actually, we’re probably going to stop taking orders beyond a certain period of time because part of the time is a year from now.”
Again, it’s certainly not just Tesla that is affected. Semiconductor problems continue and many vehicles are being shipped without features, or parked in fields waiting for parts
These delays will take a long time to clear and will be a huge headache for all concerned. Manufacturers and customers will be frustrated, while politicians who rely on electric vehicles for the future of transport policy will have to adjust their expectations and demands.
More importantly, the current situation is a terrible blow to global efforts to reduce carbon emissions and tackle climate change.
Driving back important targets in road vehicles could be catastrophic for the planet, but we still need vehicles. We may now need to shift to using fewer cars through more ride sharing, or look to alternative forms of transportation, and even convert older cars to electric. If we don’t, the path to net zero could soon be empty.
This article of Tom Stacey, Senior Lecturer in Supply Chain Management and Operations, Anglia Ruskin Universityis republished from The conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the Original article.