Electric Vehicles... Honeymoon Over?

[SYZ]

Volkswagen is to pause production at three of its plants in
Germany—Dresden, Zwickau, and Osnabrück—because of
weak demand for fully electric cars in Europe. Closure days
are also being considered at a fourth plant in Emden, which
makes the ID.4 and ID.7 vehicles.

The decision by a company emblematic of Germany’s position
as the engine of the EU’s economy, will be seen as a dent in
the union’s hopes of switching the continent to electric vehicles
in the next 10 years.

Sales of EVs slowed last month while demand for hybrid battery
models soared, underlining continuing consumer fears over
range and the availability of charging points.

In southern Europe, where there is little EV charging infrastructure,
demand is particularly weak. Overall, just 16% of new car sales
are EVs, according to UAMA data. The figure for hybrids is 37%.

Last week, VW’s chief executive, Oliver Blume, said manufacturers
were experiencing “massive changes” with “a clear drop in demand
for battery-electric cars”.

   My partner and me would not purchase full electrical
   vehicles in favour of small 4-cylinder Asian hybrids.

   Only 9.3% of vehicles sold in Australia are full electric, as of 30 June 2025.

[Minimalist]

Sales of EVs slowed last month while demand for hybrid battery
models soared, underlining continuing consumer fears over
range and the availability of charging points.

Those are legitimate concerns.  So are initial cost.  Durability. And the possibility that the battery may spontaneously combust and take your house ( and possibly the homeowner) along with it in the ensuing fire.

[SYZ]

One of the major concerns voiced in Australia is the thermal
runaway danger of Li-ion cell (batteries) vehicle fires.  Water
won't suppress a Li-ion fire, or Class 'D' fire, as it's defined.

The foam needed, AVD, is an aqueous dispersion of chemically
exfoliated vermiculite. It's applied to lithium battery fires as
a mist, preventing the propagation of the fire.  Trouble is of
course that numerous smaller fire brigades, particularly in rural
regions, simply don't hold it in sufficiently practical amounts.

I guess everybody's seen this video by now.

[Paleophyte]

When gas-powered automobiles first entered the scene people were checking to see if their tank was empty by looking into it using the light of a lit match. This has to be better than that.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Vast distances covered with limited infrastructure, of course that market's going to plateau at low levels for the time being. It's basically the chicken-or-egg conundrum.

[Rhythmcs]

Rapid deployment would require beefy subsidies for charging stations. 7.5b is provided for this in the us. There was an attempt to freeze the program but the courts compelled the current regime to continue.

It wouldn't be a terrible idea to set them up at rest stops. That'd bridge gaps between urban areas and provide a little revenue for maintaining the roads and stops.

[SYZ]

I live a couple of hundred metres from a charging station,
and in the 12 months or so since it was installed, I've not
once seen it being utilised.  Rural drivers in Australia have
largely rejected EVs due to daily travelling distances for
work and/or socialising.

The cheaper EVs here (less than AU$100K) have a range of
only 300km to 420km on a charge.  My round trip to Melbourne
is 420km plus local kms, so I'd need to charge the battery
somewhere—probably in Melbourne, waiting in a queue of a
dozen other drivers, and then twiddling my thumbs for a further
~35 minutes while it uses a (possibly) 150kW "rapid" charging station.  
There are only 21 EV charging stations for our population of 5m.

That's for a AU$44K BYD Atto 3.  A Tesla Model Y takes even longer,
taking ~75 minutes on a 60kW charging station.

And charging at home from a 240V/15A domestic supply?  Forget
it as your EV will be out of action for up to 24 hours.

[Rhythmcs]

Yep. Longer distance travel isn't where they shine. If we weren't savages we'd have more buses and trains for that sort of thing, which would also be electric.

As a fun sidenote, the early ice cars didn't have good range, and gas stations didn't yet exist. 300km is about what a model a probably got, and you had to take tanks of fuel with you from the general store.

[SYZ]

Is this vehicle the most absurd, impractical, and a total waste
of limited resources on a planet dying due to climatic changes?
And seriously, the driver takes both hands off the wheel at more
than 300km/h with an apparent closeted death wish.

[mordant]

China, through government strategic investment designed to make them first in the world with EVs, have gotten the tech to the point that EVs can be built more cheaply than ICE vehicles, at lower price points. They have EVs on the market there that have range comparable to ICE, can charge in a couple of minutes, etc. Breakthroughs in battery tech are the main driver. After all EVs have far fewer moving parts, easier to build, less to maintain.

China is leaving the US in the dust. Thanks to Tesla losing its early market lead, Trump's ridiculous tariffs on China, etc., these new EVs are coming on the market in Europe and elsewhere but not here. There is some indication that General Motors may have viable competitive tech in the pipeline, but I'm not holding my breath.

Other countries (Norway comes to mind) are almost 100% EVs already.

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the tech, it is more about government/private partnerships of various kinds, something that is too "woke" and "socialist" for the US anymore.

[Dānu]

Part of it is geography, though. In the U.S. and Australia, population density is much lower than in Europe, resulting in longer travel times.

[Deesse23]

As you maybe know, I am working for one of the worlds leading T1 automotive suppliers. My employer is desperately trying to get into the AM ( autonomous mobility) business.

We have a vehicle test track on site, and they benchmarked a few Chinese and German cars and their AM functionality using the test track as well as thousand if km on public (German) roads.

Conclusion.:
While Chinese vehicles provided more functionality for less €, it also was apparent that the number of aborted maneuvers and warning lamps, due to internal error, was ca. 4x higher than in a VW.

[skyking]

I live a couple of hundred metres from a charging station,
and in the 12 months or so since it was installed, I've not
once seen it being utilised.  Rural drivers in Australia have
largely rejected EVs due to daily travelling distances for
work and/or socialising.

The cheaper EVs here (less than AU$100K) have a range of
only 300km to 420km on a charge.  My round trip to Melbourne
is 420km plus local kms, so I'd need to charge the battery
somewhere—probably in Melbourne, waiting in a queue of a
dozen other drivers, and then twiddling my thumbs for a further
~35 minutes while it uses a (possibly) 150kW "rapid" charging station.  
There are only 21 EV charging stations for our population of 5m.

That's for a AU$44K BYD Atto 3.  A Tesla Model Y takes even longer,
taking ~75 minutes on a 60kW charging station.

And charging at home from a 240V/15A domestic supply?  Forget
it as your EV will be out of action for up to 24 hours.

you cite atypical mission requirements.
Urban drivers can get to and from work in less than 100KM round trips that can easily be replenished overnight from simple chargers.
They are not suited for long hauls, regardless of the availability of charging stations.
Rural drivers comprise a small slice of drivers, compared with the higher population densities. They were never the market.
Even my long haul between our home and the new one is 320 Km round trip.
You cite the Atto 3 as an example, but it has a range of 420 Km.
You don't need to top it off to get back to the sticks then. You need to add 100Km of range to soothe range anxieties.
How often do you make this 420 Km round trip?
I would never opt for one for the long drives either. But that does not write off the idea for a whole lot of folks who never venture that far from home.

[Thumpalumpacus]

But that does not write off the idea for a whole lot of folks who never venture that far from home.

Right, most drivers just don't pull 1000-mile cross-countries, no matter the motor in their car, EV or ICE. Most people do maybe 75 miles a day tops on their commute and around-towning.

[SYZ]

I live a couple of hundred metres from a charging station,
and in the 12 months or so since it was installed, I've not
once seen it being utilised.  Rural drivers in Australia have
largely rejected EVs due to daily travelling distances for
work and/or socialising.

The cheaper EVs here (less than AU$100K) have a range of
only 300km to 420km on a charge.  My round trip to Melbourne
is 420km plus local kms, so I'd need to charge the battery
somewhere—probably in Melbourne, waiting in a queue of a
dozen other drivers, and then twiddling my thumbs for a further
~35 minutes while it uses a (possibly) 150kW "rapid" charging station.  
There are only 21 EV charging stations for our population of 5m.

That's for a AU$44K BYD Atto 3.  A Tesla Model Y takes even longer,
taking ~75 minutes on a 60kW charging station.

And charging at home from a 240V/15A domestic supply?  Forget
it as your EV will be out of action for up to 24 hours.

you cite atypical mission requirements.
Urban drivers can get to and from work in less than 100KM round trips that can easily be replenished overnight from simple chargers.
They are not suited for long hauls, regardless of the availability of charging stations.
Rural drivers comprise a small slice of drivers, compared with the higher population densities. They were never the market.
Even my long haul between our home and the new one is 320 Km round trip.
You cite the Atto 3 as an example, but it has a range of 420 Km.
You don't need to top it off to get back to the sticks then. You need to add 100Km of range to soothe range anxieties.
How often do you make this 420 Km round trip?
I would never opt for one for the long drives either. But that does not write off the idea for a whole lot of folks who never venture that far from home.

What is range anxiety and should electric vehicle drivers in Australia be worried about it?

Ironically, their image shows a German road with a Photoshopped
wind farm in the distance.  Of course, this site is setup as an ad for
their EV supply gear, rather than being truthfully explanatory.  We
don't have those sorts of wind (or many solar) farms here due to
overwhelming opposition from the farming community on whose back
Aussies ride.  Australia is the 2nd largest beef exporter in the world,
ahead even of the United States.

(BTW, everything I asserted in my above comments
were accurate and not shonkied in any way.)

[Minimalist]

But that does not write off the idea for a whole lot of folks who never venture that far from home.

Right, most drivers just don't pull 1000-mile cross-countries, no matter the motor in their car, EV or ICE. Most people do maybe 75 miles a day tops on their commute and around-towning.

I bought a new Kia Sportage in February, 2024.  It has just turned 7000 miles. Granted I was out of commission from May to September of this year but I just don't drive much.

[skyking]

I could to and fro between the new houses in an EV, but this is a completely unprecedented time in our lives.
The longest daily commute I can recall was 60 miles each way.
This was taken from my parking spot. It made the drive bearable.