There is another dimension to this. All of the legacy auto manufacturers, without exception, have been dragging their heels on EVs. Lots of people talk about corporate inertia and shareholders and whatnot forcing the companies to be irrational, but I don't think that's entirely correct.
I think the executives at these companies have long since identified that EVs are a far more fundamental existential challenge than people normally understand. The reason I think so is that Internal Combustion Engines are the primary barrier to entry into the car market. In an all electric world they are once again open to competition from startups who can source the same commodity motors, batteries, controllers, and the like. The barriers to entry drop and it becomes a brand new world of competition from all sides. The only major stumbling block being regulatory (crash testing, etc...). Nobody in the industry wants that, so the best solution is to fight the EV adoption as long as they can. Had Tesla not been a company they would still be dragging their heels with compliance cars to this day.
Of course countries without existing ICE manufacturers to protect, like China, are free to take control of the EV market and dominate the auto industry in the coming decades. An existential crisis for legacy automakers.
Not all. Renault is doing pretty well.Stellantis is now scapegoating EVs for its massive losses, when the real reason is that their products are garbage and in a fit of hubris they actually raised the prices in the US.
No, it’s just disruptive and political.
Ford built a world class product in the F-150 lightning, but their dealers and customers rejected it. A big part of it is that it’s a threat - you don’t need mechanics to fix electric cars.
Well, yeah. The primary market of pickup trucks is men cosplaying the rugged, outdoorsy, blue-collar vibes. The truck is an extension of their masculinity. Selling EVs to those people? Virtually impossible.
Had Ford designed an affordable yet semi-luxury sedan or crossover, it would've sold like hot cakes.
I think the minivan is the perfect vehicle for electrification. It's used mostly for short trips. Getting rid of the engine means you can greatly shorten the nose and improve cargo area, or just make it easier to park. People don't use them to tow. The people who own them have a garage. Yet nobody seems all that interested in making one. The EV Hummer doesn't count, it's a giant expensive monstrosity. You want something affordable and kinda boring but practical.
Ford did design an affordable semi luxury electric crossover, the mach-e. It did not sell especially well. $40k is about as cheap as semi luxury crossovers come in the US
How can manufacturers fight EV adoption? If an EV is a superior offering it will find its market. Germans are free to buy Teslas, BYDs or domestiv EVs. There are reasons why the EV market share in Germany was still only 4.1% in 2025 (most likely: high electricity prices, relatively low gasoline price) but manufacturers "fighting adoption" is not one of them.
Domestic auto manufacturers can also set high prices on their EV offerings to prevent them from effectively competing and lobby the government to put high tariffs on competitive foreign EVs, or even completely block them at the border.
People will come in to say that the batteries are inherently expensive, but that's not really true anymore. Manufacturing costs have plummeted over the past few years, but you wouldn't know that in the west.
I think it is a market failure that there have not been more Tesla-like startups that come in to eat their lunch. I get that even when you don't need to make an engine the startup costs are high, but there is a crapton of money sloshing around the markets right now looking for the next big company. We need someone with the gumption to execute.
Manufacturers have large marketing budgets. Presumably all that money influences which cars people want to buy.
Germany has different factors. But in the US, lobbying has established BYD as a national security threat.