New York Times gets EV prices all wrong — is it intentional?

The New York Times recently published an article titled “Electric cars too expensive for many, even with help with climate bills”, which put forward the misleading claim that, “[While] policymakers in Washington are promoting electric vehicles as a solution to climate change, (an) inconvenient truth remains: battery-powered cars are far too expensive for a vast majority of Americans.

Is that fact true? Absolute. Kind of. Is the New York Times to present that fact in a misleading way? Absolute. The only real question is: why? And I think I have the answer. (Full disclosure: I’m about to rant a bit here, so – yeah.)

EVs are NOT too expensive

Chevy Bolt

Chevy Bolt, image courtesy of GM.

That up there? That’s the Chevy Bolt – a capable, reliable, and not at all likely to catch fire battery electric vehicle (BEV) capable of carrying you and yours for about 259 miles before needing to be plugged into one of thousands of EV charging stations available across the United States.

Brand new, a Chevy Bolt starts at $31,500 before taking into account any federal, state or utility bills. Eventually, some customers in markets like Oregon and California will be able to drive home in this capable little EV for around $24,000 (plus, plus, plus — of course). Now, you may not know this next little fact, but I bet you NOW‘s Jack Ewing does (or should, if he is going to write for the… Time). that’s that the average transaction price of a new car in the United States rose to $48,043 in June this year.

For those of you who are bad at math, that means you can get a brand new Chevy Bolt EV for just a tick under half of the average sales price of a new car in the US. It’s not alone either. The upcoming Chevy Equinox EV and the Nissan LEAF are priced about the same as the Bolt. Even the hugely popular Ford F-150 Lightning has a starting price of about $15,000 less than the average transaction price (with incentives). that is advertised as “too much?” It’s not the EVs that are the problem, right?

As noted above, the article included the statement, “Battery powered cars are way too expensive for a vast majority of Americans.” The simple fact is that new cars are too expensive for the vast majority of Americans. That’s why most people buy used cars. Among new ones vehicles, although there are electric vehicles that are actually in “affordable” categories that are well below the average retail price.

In addition, the operational and maintenance costs of EVs are sometimes lower a lot lower. Resale value is also often higher for EVs than their gas-powered competitors. So if you look at the entire period of owning a new vehicle (for the buyer of the new vehicle, not the next person he or she sells that car to), EVs are actually much more affordable than would be assumed by people who just look at the sticker price. To learn more about this fun topic we’ve written about total cost of EV ownership for years – browse those archives. Our most recent story in that category: “My Tesla Model 3 TCO estimate was bad, Model 3 was cheaper to drive than most Camrys!

It’s not the cars, it’s the jobs

Image by Kyle Field, for CleanTechnica.

What the New York Times seems to want you to believe, based on the wording of the article, that electric cars are the problem. They are too expensive due to supply chain bottlenecks (the latest pro-corporate boogeyman), and”wider steps are needed to make electric cars more affordable.” The article also cites the idea that lack of refueling at home is a real barrier to EV adoption – somewhat baffling, since nobody buys an ICE car because they don’t have a gas pump at home, you know? (Like I said, a bit of a diatribe.)

See, the real problem here is stagnant wages. Simply. The NOW will never admit that either because the news giant is largely owned by Vanguard and BlackRock and serves its shareholders more than the public, or because the writing team really doesn’t know any better and believe that the $66,000 Tesla Model Y (the only EV price mentioned in the piece) is the only EV out there. Then let’s go with the latter and educate some more!

In 2009, the average price of a new car from an American automaker was $23,276. Adjusted for inflation (July ’09 to July ’22, using government statistics), which is “only” $32,022 – almost $16,000 fewer than the average price of a new car today. Thus, car prices are higher than broader inflation. In addition, $16,000 is approximately the increase of average compensation in the country so that none of that pay rise is left for other rising costs. If we look further back and consider broader economic factors, wages more or less stagnated 50 years — except in C-level positions, where CEO pay has increased more than 900% since the 70s.

The short story is that most Americans cannot and should not buy new vehicles. About 15 million new cars were sold in the US in 2021. That’s compared to: 258 million adults. So technically, the NOW That’s right: brand new EVs (like all brand new cars) “are way too expensive for a vast majority of Americans.” However, if we compare the cost of ownership of a new 3 or 5 year EV to other new cars, EVs do very well.


 

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