If you are:
* A current or prospective investor in E.V.-related companies of most any kind...
* In management of such companies in any way...
* A concerned consumer and citizen who NEEDS to know just what a MESS policy makers have made of things...
You need to WATCH THIS RIGHT NOW.
I'll give you a "Spoiler Alert" of sorts, albeit one of presently small consolation: NO, the major setback to the E.V. space and (often exaggerated) bad press is not the end.
But as I warned was coming, a whole industry still not ready for "Prime Time" (at least in North America) has got a LOT to sort out. And as I'll be writing separately not many days hence, it's likely going to be a while before numerous sectors that coalesce around E.V.'s are back in solid favor with the markets/investors.
While this does not change my own long-term views, I think Toyota's outgoing C.E.O. summed things up properly and quite bluntly this week; READ THIS particular MSN-carried story about what kind of a mess this industry is presently facing as it gets the kind of Reality Check that was, frankly, overdue.
In the wake of this indigestion, canceled orders, some auto makers and lease companies bailing on E.V.'s, lithium mines curtailing production or shutting down and the rest, a more sober, realistic and properly-equipped industry WILL still emerge, as Konni and I discuss. And I'll be discussing how we need to exercise more subdued expectations that will now take longer to be realized.
One of the lessons that will hopefully emerge from all this is that going forward we DESPERATELY need competent leadership to plan every aspect of our energy future. For as I discuss in the above-linked video, we are already set up for rolling energy crises, supply chain shortfalls of key commodities and more in the years ahead.
The only question is how much worse it gets before it gets better.