It’s buyers’ remorse on a grand scale when 46% of your customers aren’t satisfied with the electric vehicle they purchased from your company and say they want to return to using their previous car or truck relying on a gas-powered internal combustion engine.

Those same customers must also feel the sting of billions of dollars of their hard-earned money spent on white elephants they cannot resell and cost a fortune to insure and repair, and the billions more in taxpayer dollars spent on government attempts to promote an electric-vehicle transition.

Then there’s the safety hazards.

Last week, McKinsey & Co. released the results of a survey it conducted of 30,000 people “who regularly use mobility,” and found 46% of U.S. EV users would “likely” return to using vehicles powered by an internal combustion engine.

Internationally, that number drops to 29%, but the numbers indicate widespread dissatisfaction with EV limitations, including lack of public charging infrastructure, the high costs of ownership, range anxiety, and overall stress associated with keeping the EV’s battery adequately charged.

That doesn’t bode well for the future of EVs. Nor does the higher interest rates for car loans and the higher salaries automakers doled out to striking United Auto Workers last fall.

All this after Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation doled out approximately $2.3 billion to EV and EV battery manufacturers, according to figures compiled by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

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The impetus for the Whitmer administration’s push is to incentivize sales of 2 million EVs in the state by 2030.

Only 43,000 EVs are registered in Michigan, according to Bridge in an article published in late May. That number underperforms by 17,000 the number of EVs predicted by government officials. Whereas 8% of U.S. car buyers are selecting EVs, only 3.2% of Michigan residents are purchasing EVs.

“Electric vehicle sales have been growing — just not as as quickly as hoped, per Guidehouse Insights analyst Sam Abuelsamid,” according to a Marketplace article published last November. Abuelsamid noted automaker projections were over-optimistic.

Marketplace added that General Motors had to abandon its ambitious plant to build 500,000 EVs by July 2024, while Ford Motor Company had to extend its deadline for building 600,000 EVs a year. The website also noted demand for Teslas is “softening.”

The Center for Insurance Policy and Research also notes that EV owners pay up to $44 per month more than their ICE counterparts.

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“There are several reasons behind this increase in cost, including scarcity of repair shops, costlier repairs, battery fires, pedestrian safety due to quietness, cybersecurity threats, and automated driving features (when applicable),” CIPR noted late in February. “[T]he replacement part market and availability of specialized labor to repair them have not kept pace with growth. While the fire risk of electric vehicles is lower than that of ICE and hybrid vehicles, the complexity of the fire and repair is more extensive. In short, EVs and their parts are scarcer and more expensive in general, resulting in higher insurance rates. Additionally, electric batteries are dangerous to repair and often require a specialist. In many cases, replacing an electric battery is cheaper than repairing one, despite the battery representing ‘up to 50% of the EVs price tag.’”

Vehicle owners accustomed to switching to a newer vehicle ever two years or so are also finding it troublesome trading in EVs.

According to iSeeCars in an article released June 10, EVs depreciated more quickly than ICE vehicles between May 2023 and May 2024.

“The study analyzed over 2.2 million 1- to 5-year-old used cars sold in May 2023 and 2024 and found that the average used EV price is down 29.5 percent year-over-year versus 6.1 percent for the average used gas car price,” the automotive-industry analysis said. “In May 2024, the average used electric vehicle was priced at $28,767, or 8.3 percent below the average gas car at $31,424. These prices show a major turnaround from a year ago, when the average used EV cost $40,783 and the average used gas car cost $33,469.”

Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars, said there’s been a “crash” in EV values over the last 12 months.

“We’ve watched EVs prices fall between 30 and 40 percent since June of last year, while the average gas car’s price has dropped by just 3 to 7 percent in that same timeframe.”

Brauer added: “It’s clear used car shoppers will no longer pay a premium for electric vehicles and, in fact, consider electric powertrains a detractor, making them less desirable – and less valuable – than traditional models.”