By Peter M. DeLorenzo
I gave up trying to predict what our readers take away from my columns long ago, as more often than not they will alight on a particular passage and make assumptions about the rest of the column and what it all means. We have found that those who do that can be puzzling, to say the least. And more often than not, wrong. (One reader on LinkedIn chimed in after reading “The Price of Independence,” saying, “if you don’t like it here, leave!” which was an excruciatingly painful reminder that some people just don’t get it and are incapable of ever getting it, for that matter.)
But most of the knee-jerk negative reactions from some quarters are always the “stick to cars” rejoinder, as if my writing about anything than cars is an affront to their sensibilities somehow. As you might imagine, that doesn’t sit well with me (No. Shit. Dot. Com. -WG). But, as I’ve said previously, we’ve become an airy, vapid wasteland of unserious people spewing flat-out stupidity 24 hours a day. The collective “we” dines on a cotton-candy menu devoid of substantive ideas and purpose. Fewer and fewer things have true meaning and retain genuine, legitimate value, because people are all too busy with relentless self-absorption and the pursuit of “more” to pull their heads out of their asses and actually see where this is all going. And oh, by the way? That downward spiral is accelerating.
So, “stick to cars”? Not. Gonna. Happen. Dot. Com.
Yes, this website is called autoextremist.com, we get that. Yes, the True Believers are still giving it their all in this industry, and the Design community is still artfully creating compelling, interesting design work – although I’m not counting the endless interpretations of the SUV as such. But the fact of the matter is that the automobile business as it exists right now is a swirling maelstrom of tedium, punctuated by abject stupidity and relentless boredom.
Or how about the ongoing Muskian Nightmare that seems to never end? Tesla continues to be allowed to scam countless consumers with its “Full Self Driving” bullshit, but I am encouraged that the Feds are at least slowly but surely turning the screws on St. Elon over this, and hard. How hard? Musk and his minions are going to be on the hook for billions of dollars for this FSD fiasco, and it couldn’t happen to a more deserving Unctuous Prick.
And then there’s the current state of the business operating in the Twilight Zone between a shiny happy EV Future and the ugly realities of a market not ready for it. Yes, misguided political mandates are a huge cause of this mess we find ourselves in, as politicians are quick to believe “flipping a switch” will make everything good overnight. Hardly. The laundry list of why EVs are not ready for prime time is long: the infrastructure isn’t there and when it is the lack of maintenance is appalling, the charging times are tedious and unacceptable for most, and, to make matters worse, the costs are simply out of line. And finally, there are two things that I find most egregious with the “promise” of EVs: the ground-pounding weight of EVs is simply unacceptable, and the lack of a sound signature – electronically enhanced, or not – is flat-out stupid. I’m not into rheostat-controlled driving, despite what the EV fanboys say.
Other journalists have adopted the mantle that we should all grow up and realize that our EV Future will take time, and that we should give the automakers a break. I find that to be laughably rich. After all, it was the automakers who set these expectations in the first place by spending hundreds of millions of dollars marketing and advertising EVs that were years away. Not months, years. And we should give them a break now out of the goodness of our hearts? Sounds like unmitigated bullshit to me.
As a reminder, let’s take yet another look at Jim “Electric Boy” Farley, the Ford CEO who beat the EV drum incessantly and loudly, insisting that our EV Future is right around the corner and that Ford would be leading the charge. How did that work out again? Stalled EV sales, crushing losses and plant “pauses” just to name a few. But then again, that Farley has overpromised and underdelivered is par for his career course. EVs are so dead in the water at Ford right now that Reuters is reporting that the company is requiring its managers to lease a Mach-E EV or Lightning EV pickup before they can order an additional vehicle. if all else fails, force EV “demand” down your employee’s throats, right?
Meanwhile, Farley is insisting that American consumers need to fall back in love with small cars again because big EVs just aren’t sustainable. Oh, really? What about the Lightning? Hello? To make his point, Farley is promising a profitable $30,000 EV in two-and-one-half years. Really, Electric Boy? That’s the story you’re going with? Pathetic.
It should be noted that Ford’s most noteworthy success story at the moment is the Maverick hybrid pickup, a vehicle that I identified a couple of years ago as something Ford should be promoting because of its fundamental affordability and fuel economy. The company is just now getting around to building enough Mavericks to matter in the market. So, Farley can blather on about EVs all he wants, but it will be years (not two-and-one-half, either, more like five, at least) before they matter to the company in real-world terms.
Granted, the development of battery technology is moving at a furious pace – lighter weight, fewer rare earth materials used, more storage capacity, more range, quicker recharging, etc., etc., etc. But for right now and the next decade at a minimum, this Twilight Zone will continue. I warned years ago that the “Grand Transition” to an EV fleet would be excruciatingly slow and painful, marked by a two-steps forward, three-back cadence. The recent news from the “biz” has only solidified my analysis. The U.S. manufacturers in particular are struggling to find a balance between churning out profit-generating ICE vehicles and continuing the breakneck pace of EV development. They found out the hard way that being ahead of the curve had consequences, monumentally negative consequences.
So again, “stick to cars”? Hardly. As a matter of fact, given the current dismal state of this business, I will be writing about topics other than cars more frequently. So, get used to it… or not.
And that’s the High-Octane Truth for this week.
Editor’s Note: Click on “Next 1 Entries” at the bottom of this page to see previous issues. – WG