Technology

Mercedes Bends.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Today, Mercedes published its annual results for 2023, and it's clear that the company has little confidence that any region will be ready for EVs-only sales by that date.

Here in the US, established automakers like Ford and General Motors have already told investors that their EV plans were overambitious or focused on the wrong market segments, like full-size pickups, and this week saw startups Rivian and Lucid both forecast much-reduced production in 2024.

It's tempting to try to find a single reason for this growth in EV pessimism—unsympathetic actors like car dealers flush with record profits complaining about having to learn to sell something new make for easy villains in this story.

In part, BEVs remain a little too unfamiliar for a large swath of the general public to make them feel comfortable spending tens of thousands of dollars or euros.

Those gas station visits have also made drivers expect to be able to refuel in a few minutes, something that just isn't possible with even the fastest fast-charging BEVs.

Hybrid powertrains in particular provide a cost-effective, efficient alternative to just burning liquid hydrocarbons, and in terms of reducing fleet carbon emissions, OEMs like Toyota say they can make 90 HEVs using the same raw materials as one BEV or six PHEVs, leading to a 37-fold reduction in lifetime carbon emissions.

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