Is the EV Transition Stuck in Neutral?

Climate One

News, Social Sciences, News Commentary, Science, Earth Sciences

4.7 • 583 Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2024, BloombergNEF predicted electric vehicles would make up nearly half of U.S. new car sales by 2030. Now, they’ve revised their projection down to less than 30%, just one year later. In a time when we need to be speeding up the energy transition, EV sales in the U.S. are stagnating. Sales of Teslas, once the king of electric vehicles, are collapsing. What’s behind the slowing demand? And with China’s growing electric car industry growing, how much should we worry? Guests: Camila Domonoske, Correspondent, NPR Business Desk Dan Bowerson, Vice President, Energy and Environment Policy, Alliance for Automotive Innovation Matthew LaBrot, Former Tesla sales employee Mike Murphy, CEO, EV Politics Project For transcripts, related links, and more information about this episode visit our website. On July 31, Climate One is hosting Premal Shah and Kinari Webb for a live episode recording! With years of experience navigating the global climate movement, the two are sure to offer unparalleled insights during their conversation with Co-Host Greg Dalton. Tickets for the show, which will be held at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, are available now through our website. Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today. Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hear that? It's your big McDonald's hunger calling, because the Big Arch is back,
0:04.8	and this time it's here to stay with juicy beef, cheddar cheese and that Big Arch sauce.
0:09.9	Hungry? You are now.
0:11.7	Order delivery on the McDonald's app.
0:15.0	Serve from 11am. Upcharges and fees apply to delivery orders. Subjects availability, price and participation may vary.
0:22.8	I'm Ariana Brocious. I'm Austin Cologne.
0:25.6	And this is Climate 1.
0:30.1	Around the turn of the 19th century, electric vehicles made up about a third of cars on the road.
0:36.3	But by the 1930s, they had almost disappeared.
0:39.6	Yeah, internal combustion engines really took off as gasoline became cheap,
0:44.0	and Ford started making cars that everyone could afford.
0:47.9	At the time, electric cars were more expensive, slower,
0:51.6	and hard to charge in rural areas without electricity.
0:55.0	And apart from a brief resurgence of interest in the 1970s, that's pretty much how it was until the 90s.
1:01.0	Welcome to the electric car of the future, sponsored by the gasoline producers of America.
1:07.0	Hello, I'm an electric car.
1:13.6	I can't go very fast or very far.
1:17.6	Well, maybe what The Simpsons suggested was true initially, but as an EV owner, I can attest to how incredibly fast and far electric vehicles can
1:30.4	go. I mean, I've done at least six cross-country road trips in my Model Y, maybe more. And don't
1:36.8	tell my parents, but I've gone from zero to 135 miles per hour in seconds on the Bonneville
1:42.6	Salt Lands. Yeah, that's incredible and terrifying, honestly. A little bit. 35 miles per hour and seconds on the Bond of Rollsulf lens.
1:47.2	Yeah, that's incredible and terrifying, honestly.
	...

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