--- title: "Car Companies Are Suddenly Super Worried About the Future of EVs" description: "Automakers including General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, and Honda have all expressed doubts about EVs amidst flattening sales." date: "2023-10-28" modified: "2023-10-28" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/car-companies-worried-future-evs" categories: - "Advanced Transport" tags: - "electric vehicles" - "evs" - "the digest" --- # Car Companies Are Suddenly Super Worried About the Future of EVs ![]() *\Image: Lukas Schulze/Getty Images\* ## Missing the Target If electric vehicles are going to be the eco-friendly future of cars, their popularity with buyers right now isn't quite reflecting that. Major automakers are being increasingly candid about the technology's disappointing forecast, *Insider* [reports](), and are starting to significantly cut back on their EV investments. Domestically, one of the biggest automakers to sound the alarm was General Motors. At an earnings call this week, the company said that it's [ditching its target]() to build 100,000 EVs in the second half of this year, and 400,000 by the first half of 2024. It has not stated new targets, and says that it does not know when it will hit its previous ones. "As we get further into the transformation to EV, it's a bit bumpy," GM CEO Mary Barra said at the earnings call, as quoted by *Insider*. ## Reality Check GM has other big problems on its plate, however, that could play into its conservative projections, including [a month-long strike]() by factory workers and the [huge]() [setbacks]() of its robotaxi division Cruise, which has [paused all its driverless operations](). Still, GM is far from alone in its worries. Mercedez-Benz [reported]() a dip in its third-quarter earnings, blaming price cuts and supply chain issues, though it stressed that it wasn't shifting its EV targets. "This is a pretty brutal space," said Mercedez-Benz CFO Harald Wilhelm, [as quoted by *Reuters*](). "I can hardly imagine the current status quo is fully sustainable for everybody." Japanese automakers seem to agree. This week, Honda announced that it was [abandoning its plans]() to release a lineup of smaller, sub $30,000 EVs — which would've been a much-needed boon to buyers [searching for a cheaper vehicle in a pricey market](). "After studying this for a year, we decided that this would be difficult as a business, so at the moment we are ending development of an affordable EV," Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe [told *Bloomberg*]() in an interview. Chairman of Toyota Motor Akio Toyoda said that with the drop in demand for EVs in the US, the industry is having a reckoning about the technology. "People are finally seeing reality," Toyoda said, [as quoted by *The Wall Street Journal*](). He went on to suggest that EVs were not the only way of reaching carbon-neutral goals. ## Still Ticking Despite all the gloomy talk, it's worth noting that EV sales are actually still growing. In the first half of 2023, sales climbed by 51 percent, [according to research firm Motor Intelligence](). Instead, what's giving automakers pause is that the pace of that growth has flattened, down from the heady 71 percent climb in the latter half of 2022. Nonetheless, car prices across the board [still haven't slowed down]() from their surge during the COVID-19 pandemic, with EVs being particularly expensive. As of July, the average EV in the US sold for [over $4,000 more]() than a gas-powered car. All told, it's too soon to sound the death knell on the tech — but it's worrying that it's the automakers themselves that are doing the doomsaying. **More on EVs:** *[Sweden Invents Flat Pack Car]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()