The EV Fleet as Spearhead
Are Rental Companies Leading the EV Switch-Over?
While consumers still balk at buying new EVs, they are likelier to plunk money for an EV rental car from an EV fleet. So, are business interests, like rental cars, driving the EV switchover? Sure, after all, rental car companies run fleets. That’s the idea: Fleet.
The government incentivized Business fleets across the country to make the switch, and they’re getting after it, from Uber people mover company to school bus companies. Any business or government entity with a fleet is considering switching to EVs.
Tax Credit for Businesses Buying The EV Fleet
Now that the 2023 tax break for the purchase of EVs has come into effect, is it making a difference? It’s substantial. The IRS is giving 30% of the price of the vehicle businesses buy, regardless of how they finance it. Companies must buy a retailer-certified electric vehicle that gets “significant propulsion” from a battery cell or a fuel cell motor vehicle and put it to work.
Government’s Involvement in The EV Fleet
While the Biden Administration has yet to create the size bureaucracy that could pull off the mammoth switch to Electric cars, it’s not like it’s doing anything. They’ve set an ambitious goal of reaching 50% of the vehicles manufactured in 2030 with zero emissions, and it has pledged to develop an infrastructure that provides 500,000 charging stations throughout the country.
Has there been significant progress? The effort has only managed to get 2% of the cars on the road today with zero emissions, and there’s a handful of car chargers in the parking lot of your local Target Store. That the electric car still needs to be less pricey for most car buyers is also disappointing.
It’s impossible to imagine a solution that doesn’t involve government and business in partnership. Perhaps that can make America reach even its modest objectives of half the cars manufactured being EVs.
Consumers want the $7500 Vehicle credit.
But let’s face it: consumer vehicles will be the most significant changeover. So, are consumers interested? If expressing an interest in electric cars indicated an actual number of buyers, the US would be where they set the goals at 50%. In recent polls, 50% of respondents are considering buying an electric car. That number keeps increasing. Remember that the number of zero-emission vehicles on the road in 2030 is supposed to be fifty percent.
You’d have to be a millionaire to not qualify for the government’s $7500 tax credit.
The public must make car companies aware of consumer demand for cheap EVs. Cars are a severe budget item. Toyota is marrying its vaunted lean assembly system with the new EV technology to win the race for EV affordability.
Other Benefits of Electric Cars
One significant benefit of electric cars comes from their simplicity. Internal combustion car consists of thousands of parts. Electric cars eliminate all those parts, making EVs more accessible and cheaper. Forget the trip to the oil change place every three months. EVs don’t need an oil change. The single-speed transmission saves money by increasing efficiency and reduces the wear on the brakes by “regenerative” braking, so you don’t need brake pads replaced quite as often.
Today’s variable speed transmissions on internal combustion engine cars appear less reliable than older transmissions, so switching from a CTV transmission to an EV one-speed will further simplify things.
In addition, converting your regular car to an EV is gaining traction. It figures since the sticker shock from new EVs is real. So, another benefit of EVs is the ability to pull the engine on your old car and insert an EV engine, which can lower your EV cost to $13,000 to $20,000, which may or may not assuage your sticker shock. There’s also a DIY offering that comes in under $5000.
What Happened to the Hybrids?
What about them, you think rather resentfully. Experts consider hybrids the Lucy-like link between the internal combustion engine and EVs in the latter’s evolution. The zero fossil fuel market is currently dominated by Hybrids, even if they’re not proper zero-emission vehicles. Experts believe Hybrids will exist until the 2040s, so you can choose a hybrid for the next 17 years.
The average car lasts a dozen years before they’re toast, so buying a hybrid now or next year fresh off the lot will work fine. You’ll butt up against 2040 with that. However, driving more than 20,000 miles a year might consume a car in something closer to ten years. The EV Fleet hybrids last only a few years.
The EV Fleet: Why Are Businesses Dragging Their Feet?
Everybody’s got an opinion on The EV Fleet; that may be why businesses hesitate to convert. The average consumer thinks EVs are slower than internal combustion cars, something of a myth. Less mythical is the perception of the EV range. It’s a perception of people behind the wheel, not the traffic following EVs.
The buying public would shun EVs if they didn’t get the incentive to buy or suffer the government mandate to buy. That means that the mandate and the government’s business incentive will eventually be the difference between people buying or not buying. Of course, there’s also the overriding concern for carbon emissions exacerbating climate change.
Are New Car Companies Able to LeapFrog Older Car Companies?
It might be the perfect time to start an electric car company. Or invest in one. Why? Are the older car companies dragging their feet trying to milk the internal combustion engine for all its worth before it’s gone? They’re juggling today’s consumer demand for big gas-guzzling trucks with future demand for EVs. When a startup approaches the manufacturing problem, they don’t have the baggage the older car companies have to make EVs work, companies like Tesla, Rivia, and Lucid.
But isn’t leap-frogging the big auto manufacturers hard to do? Just think of the size of besting, for example, General Motors! Experts say GM cannot be beaten strategically, but does that sensibility mean much when the issue is reinventing the automobile.
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