back to closing bell here on cheddar news now while
prices soar at the pup many people are looking towards
electric vehicles as an alternative option to getting around.
But with supply chain issues and troubles with securing funding
, the industry is also a bit shaky right now
. Center News senior reporter Michele Castelli is breaking down
what's going on in the world of electric vehicles right
now and Michelle every automaker last mile Solutions just went
public last year. Why is it declaring bankruptcy now
? This is a really interesting case and I don't
think it's indicative of the entire E. V.
Industry, but you will have a little insight into
it. So last mile they are based in michigan
, they mostly make electric cargo vans which are much
in demand, especially as we rely more on online
deliveries. Now they had some questions about their financial
statements in the past which actually forced their former Ceo
out of the company and now the company is declaring
chapter seven bankruptcy saying that because of all these inquiries
into their financial statements, they found it hard to
raise financing to get the company to the next level
. So unfortunately we won't see this company any longer
, especially at a time where we're starting to see
a lot more brands, A lot more delivery services
, look for electric vehicles to lower costs of delivery
as well as we rely more on online shipping.
So how fast is the adoption growing across the U
. S. Especially as gas prices are just getting
out of control. You know, we're actually seeing
that we are expecting EV adoption to continue to grow
into the double-digit percentages by 2028 as soon as that
. So right now, if you look at the
charts were about 3% of our 3% of our vehicles
are at that E. V. State right now
. Sorry, 5% of our vehicles are at CVS
were about 5% 500,000 north of that. But by
2028 we're going to have about three million vehicles on
the road which will be at 17.65% of all vehicles
. Now, supply chain issues are hitting the whole
automotive industry but internal combustion engines are facing a little
bit more difficulty and those are gas powered cars than
E. V. S with getting these supplies.
E. V. S have their own issues.
We know that batteries are hard to come by.
Even Tesla making deals with chinese automakers to get those
batteries for their cars, but they aren't facing as
many issues as the traditional gas powered cars. So
it is actually a beneficial thing, especially if you're
in the market for something that's a little bit more
environmentally friendly. Now, the Ceo of GM ford
still Lantus and Toyota North America wrote a letter to
Congress yesterday urging them to lift the caps on the
$7500 tax credit for E. V. S.
Why will this make a difference? Let's recap a
little bit what this tax credit is. So if
you buy an electric vehicle from a manufacturer, you
can get up to$7,500 Back in tax credits for
purchasing an electric vehicle. Now, the interesting thing
about this is it is capped until that company sells
200,000 plug in electric vehicles. And right now only
Tesla and GM have reached that threshold. But Toyota
is supposed to reach that threshold any day now.
So they're actually asking Congress to lift that number so
that they can qualify because they feel like the adoption
of E. V. S. In the U
. S. Is only growing and this might actually
set things back now, democrats have also tried to
push this forward. We know the biden administration's also
in favor of adding more incentives, but at this
time that level will stay there. And as more
people buy SUVs, a lot of these bigger companies
like Toyota may face that threshold. There's been some
backlash across the pond in the U. K.
After the government ended its grants towards buying E.
V vehicles in order to improve E V charging.
Could something similar happen here in the US. This
is a super interesting case. Yes, in the
UK, you no longer get those tax incentives or
rebates if you buy an E. V car.
And they said those funds have been re allocated in
order to improve electric vehicle charging stations throughout the country
. Now we know the U. S. Does
need to improve electric vehicle charging. But I don't
think we're there yet. The europe has adopted TVs
at a faster rate than the US. And while
we are currently increasing our UV adoption, we still
are trying to encourage people to buy these vehicles above
internal combustion engines. So we do see plans from
democrats trying to increase actually the tax credit at this
time, there was one proposal in september 2021 That
would give us based e. V. manufacturers up
to$12,500 in tax credits in order to encourage more
us people to buy these tv cars. So I
think those are going to stay for now, but
it is also something that to look at that we
might need more charging stations in the future. It's
something that definitely people have definitely brought up as a
point. I mean, all the motivation is there
now, you see it at the pump. What
challenges are consumers facing when they decide whether or not
to go E V. Is it the price of
getting an E. V? Is it the range
of these vehicles? What have you seen? Well
, you know, the price is also one of
the considerations. Um, they're not as cheap as
getting an internal combustion engine, even though you actually
might have to wait a little longer to get that
gas powered car, especially with the supply chain issues
, the pump, definitely the E V pump issue
. Sorry, the electric vehicle charging station issue is
something that has been of a concern if you're trying
to drive from here to there, especially for work
it's not, you will probably find chargers in your
spaces, there are incentives to install them in your
apartment buildings or in local neighborhoods but going those longer
distance drives especially as people want to get out this
summer, we know that travel is increasing, it
is going to prove to be a little bit more
difficult. I know there's been experiments done in California
just to see if you can get from northern to
southern California and people have actually struggled with trying to
find these stations and that's in a state that really
has adopted E. V. S. So I
do think that there is still some barrier although that
is improving as more people adopt TVs, they are
asking for more charging stations and I think a lot
of companies are willing to comply. The average American
lives about eight minutes or less from their local gas
station where the average American lives about 30 minutes or
less from the nearest charging station and that is a
huge factor when it comes to these decision making.
Alright cheddar news senior reporter Michelle castello, thank you
so much for bringing the E. V. Sector
down for us