One Finite Planet

Topics and Subtopics.
All: Transition to EVs & Renewables: Problems and progress.

Who makes a profit from EVs in 2023? Everyone but Tesla and BYD making a loss?

Why is it so hard to make money from making EVs at a competitive price?

This is an exploration of the profitability challenges, and the answers to “Do only Tesla & BYD profit from EVs?” and “Why make vehicles at a loss?“.

Auto makers must either 1) find a way to make EVs at profit, 2) close down, or 3) hope there will still be a large enough market for ICEVs for them to survive. Highly funded research indicates that in future just 5 brands will dominate 80% of the market, and the reality is only one of the top ten automotive from 2021 is a likely contender.

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Any transition from gas to EVs needs around 30 years.

In this polarised world, there seem to be two groups: those who want all vehicles to be EVs now, and those who feel EVs will never be a good idea.

Truth is, it would create a legal minefield and cost consumers and the environment heavily to ban too quickly, but bans will come.

This is an exploration of reality of a transition to EVs, which concludes any optimum transition takes around 30 years.

This conclusion means anyone wanting to reach EVs by 2050 needs to start very soon, and anyone worried all EVs should never happen, can take comfort that any environmentally sound transition will take a long time, although for economic reasons, does need to at least start soon.

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A deeper look how EVs impact the power grid.

What is the real answer to how the grid will cope? First the answer from an actual power company, a link to one from a popular vlogger, both of which should placate most people, although neither is water tight as both skip over some details critical to the full answer.

And then, the deeper questions on what the impact will be on power bills and reliability, and to the transitioning of the grid to renewables.

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The environmental impact of the transition to EVs and the potential problems.

There are many claims that EVs result in more emissions than fossil fuelled vehicles. The reality is that even when an EV is powered from a ‘dirty’ grid, it is clear that driving an EV creates less emissions. What is less clear, is whether the emission reduction when driven justifies the emissions that are created when building the EV?

Buying an EV is better for the environment in the long term than buying an ICE vehicle but can be worse for the environment than not buying any new vehicle at all. The key finding is that while it is best to stop buying so many new ICE vehicles ASAP, there should be no rush to replace existing ICE vehicles with EVs, and instead allow existing vehicles the around two decades until their normal scrap date.

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Tracking Legacy Car Brands Fall as EVs Rise.

Electric vehicles have become desirable “real” cars much sooner than many brands expected or wanted. We are in a time of disruption by electrification as planes, trains and automobiles, as well as shipping, all move to electric power, but it is the car industry that will be most disrupted. New players such as Tesla, Rivian, Lucid and others, combined with the globalisation of the EV centric Chinese car industry, will take around 50% of the market. So what happens to the existing big brands of the legacy car industry? Either half die out, all halve in size, or some combination of both.

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Toyota: Failure inevitable?

Once the darling of Hollywood in the wake of “green” image built by the Prius hybrid, Toyota has more recently prompted shareholder complaints, and calls for boycotts by climate groups in response to Toyota anti-climate action and anti-EV lobbying that has seen the company reach the status of no 3 climate enemy company in the world, behind only Exxon-Mobil and Chevron.

Either Toyota is ideologically against action on climate change, or senior management see no way for Toyota to survive the EV transition.

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Transition to EVs & Renewables: Problems and progress.

Any transition from gas to EVs needs around 30 years.

Any transition from gas to EVs needs around 30 years.

In this polarised world, there seem to be two groups: those who want all vehicles to be EVs now, and those who feel EVs will never be a good idea.

Truth is, it would create a legal minefield and cost consumers and the environment heavily to ban too quickly, but bans will come.

This is an exploration of reality of a transition to EVs, which concludes any optimum transition takes around 30 years.

This conclusion means anyone wanting to reach EVs by 2050 needs to start very soon, and anyone worried all EVs should never happen, can take comfort that any environmentally sound transition will take a long time, although for economic reasons, does need to at least start soon.

Parent / Sub topics
Electric Vehicles and Electrification: Another perspective.

Electric Vehicles and Electrification: Another perspective.

This topic contains subtopics on living with EVs, reference pages, and analysis of the impact of EVs and electrification on the world. As this is not a news site, the focus is on analysing the implications of news for these topics, rather reporting all EV or electrification news, for which I recommend Cleantechnica, InsideEVs and CNEVPOST. The focus of these pages is on how EVs and electrification will change our lives, and change the planet. As a species, we are currently transforming from combustion as our primary energy source, to an electronic age, where electricity is our energy source. Just how much of our lives are changed by this can be easy to overlook from the inside experiencing the steps as the occur.
Webpapers
Toyota: Failure inevitable?

Toyota: Failure inevitable?

The environmental impact of the transition to EVs and the potential problems.

The environmental impact of the transition to EVs and the potential problems.

Tracking Legacy Car Brands Fall as EVs Rise.

Tracking Legacy Car Brands Fall as EVs Rise.

Who makes a profit from EVs in 2023? Everyone but Tesla and BYD making a loss?

Who makes a profit from EVs in 2023? Everyone but Tesla and BYD making a loss?

A deeper look how EVs impact the power grid.

A deeper look how EVs impact the power grid.