Why automakers are turning to hybrids in the middle of the industry’s EV transition

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/08/automakers-turn-to-hybrids-ev-transition.html

Electric Vehicle Market Share vs. Hybrids

Average Price EV/Hybrid/ICE

  • “People are finally seeing reality,” Toyota Chairman and former CEO Akio Toyoda, who has been heavily criticized for the slower approach on EVs, said in October regarding EVs, according to The Wall Street Journal.
  • As sales of all-electric vehicles grow more slowly than expected, major automakers are increasingly meeting their customers in the middle with hybrid vehicles.
  • Automakers are reconsidering the viability of hybrid cars and trucks to appease consumer demand and avoid costly penalties related to federal fuel economy and emissions standards.
  • Hybrids accounted for 8.3% of U.S. car sales, about 1.2 million vehicles sold, through November of this year. That share is up 2.8 percentage points compared with total sales last year.

DETROIT — As sales of all-electric vehicles grow more slowly than expected, major automakers are increasingly meeting their customers in the middle.

More and more companies are reconsidering the viability of hybrid cars and trucks to appease consumer demand and avoid costly penalties related to federal fuel economy and emissions standards.

The shifting strategies run counterintuitively to industrywide EV messaging of recent years. Many auto companies have begun to invest billions of dollars in all-electric vehicles, and the Biden administration has made a push to get more EVs on U.S. roadways as quickly as possible.

 

h/t absoluteunitVolcker

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