Ford's Edsel: a costly lesson no one learned from--especially politicians.

In the fall of 1957 the nation's #2 car maker (Ford) rolled out a new model, called the Edsel.

Of course to have watched it happen one would be at least 76 now, so almost no one today has heard of it.  Fair enough.

Ford execs and "automotive experts" (Media types) said it was a sure hit.  Unfortunately for Ford, nobody ran the design past "focus groups" that might have imparted some caution.  Didn't need to, see?  Duh company wuz duh experts.

The execs and experts were sure they knew better than consumers what the latter wanted.  And those experts were all shocked when it didn't sell well.  Yes, it had a slightly unusual look, and comedians got lots of laughs making fun of it.  But it was just as reliable as other cars.  Just didn't sell.

There's a lesson here--but only for those willing to listen and learn.

So today we have 1) a mob of tyrannical, tone-deaf rulers who are fixated on the wonders of battery-powered cars; and 2) have announced they'll give Billions of dollars to companies that will make 'em; 3) same regime clearly growls that "the Science is settled" that CO2 is killing life on Erf, so any company that doesn't play ball by making electrics will be in the regime's gunsights.  Finally we have "wokie" car execs determined to signal their virtue to both the public and their gruberment masters, by saluting and building millions of battery-powered cars.

And with those factors the stage is set for a financial debacle that will dwarf the Edsel-- because the Edsel's failure only hurt one company, whereas the battery-powered car has the potential to cost all the car companies hundreds of billions of dollars.  And for young Americans, that means the Democrat will inevitably use tax dollars to cover the companies' losses--cuz "auto-workers unions."

Already--even before the disaster has fully hit--the amount of taxpayer money the biden regime has spent on EVs is mind-boggling.  The regime's so-called Infrastructure bill of 2021 included $7.5 billion in subsidies just to build EV chargers. (Two years later not one charger has been built with those funds.)

Porridgebrain's vaunted (craptastic) “Inflation Reduction Act” includes billions more in tax incentives, grants and guaranteed loans for battery makers, and big "rebates" for EV buyers.  Buy the "right" EV--favored by the regime--and taxpayers will pay $7,500 of the cost for you.  Neat, eh?  Say, does the Constitution give the gummint that authority?  No?

Well it didn't stop Emperor Barack and the Democrats in congress from passing a law called "Cash for Clunkers."  Look it up.  The son of a bitch paid people up to $5,000 to *junk perfectly good older cars* in order to "stimulate the economy" (ensure jobs for auto-workers).

Conservatives said the government didn't have the Constitutional power to do dat.  Obozo just laughed and did it anyway.

In August of last year biden’s Energy Department announced $12 Billion in loans and grants to auto-makers "to make the transition to electric vehicles."

And before biden, wokie "Global Wormies" in congress and Democrat states had showered $22 billion in federal and state subsidies, regulatory credits, and other breaks on those faaaabulous EVs.

The total of all that fabulous money works out to about $40,000 per EV sold.

Problem is, relatively few consumers want the things.  Ah, the Edsel effect.

Now Dems are muttering about passing a law to FORCE a certain percentage of all cars sold by each maker each year to be electric.

WOW, how do ya think they're gonna do that, eh?  No matter how cunningly they disguise it, it gets down to putting some kind of added tax or charge on gas cars, making those way more expensive than EVs.  You're gonna love it, citizen.  Or else.

For awhile EV's were selling due to "early adopters"--people who absolutely have to buy the newest trendy gadget--and virtue-signaling wealthy, who keep their several gas-powered vehicles too.  

But now that most of the virtue signaling wealthy and trend-followers have bought theirs, that's the end of the early rush.

The rest of the car-buying public is more concerned with silly things like price, cost of insurance and repairs, range, and not having to worry about the car spontaneously catching fire, as lithium batteries seem prone to do.

This situation isn’t likely to improve as current EV owners realize the true cost and inconvenience of owning one of these cars.

EV owners are also finding that repair costs tend to be much higher.  They also cost more to insure.  An analysis by an insurance comparison shopping site found that it costs $1,000 more per year to insure a Tesla Model 3 than a gas-powered Ford truck.

To wealthy liberals these extra costs are trivial.  But for most folks these are big concerns.

And of course there's the issue of range and re-charging.

Last summer biden's energy secretary--the moronic Jennifer Granholm--took a four-day road trip in an EV to show off the wonders of the technology.

Determined to avoid having to report long wait times to charge, a member of her advance team pulled a classic Democrat "do you know who I am?" move and used a gas-powered government car to block a charger so his boss didn’t have to wait for one.

A family that was waiting for a charger to open up called the cops on the blocker.

In a sign of how fawningly the Media obey biden's lackeys, the Energy Department managed to spike all reporting of this story for two months (i.e. until most editors would call it "old news" and ignore it), until a friendly NPR reporter wrote a breezy story about it two months later.

When a Wall Street Journal reporter drove around Los Angeles testing chargers, she found that almost 30% of the 120 she tried were out of order. When you consider how long it takes to charge an EV, having nearly a third of them broken is a recipe for disaster.

Then there's the fact EVs are being falsely claimed to be “zero emission” or that the batteries’ components are mined by slave labor, but who cares, eh?

When the Edsel flopped, Ford scrapped the model, ate the losses and moved on.  But if EVs are an Edsel-scale flop, what then?

One rule of government is to never admit a mistake. So the leftists who run the regime will just offer higher subsidies to potential buyers--paid for by all taxpayers.  There’s already talk of an industry bailout as car makers try to absorb the massive losses they are incurring on each EV they sell.

If higher subsidies aren’t enough, the Dems will simply ORDER that all new cars be electrics.  California and New York have already passed laws setting that date, and several other liberal states are about to follow.  That’s why the biden regime is talking about a national law ORDERING that two-thirds of new cars must be electric.

And if they can't get enough votes to pass such a law, they can always do it by simply having the EPA or DOE make a ruie doing the same thing, since such rules have the force of law, even if they exceed the authority of the issuing agency.

The regime has spoken, and consumers and taxpayers be damned.

Source.

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/12/06/evs-arent-the-edsel-of-the-21st-century-theyre-far-worse/