Today's Electric-Vehicle Buyers Are Market-Making Pioneers and Early Adopters
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SEE ALSO: Electric Vehicles Are Only Built By Stock Promoters On Wall Street
SEE ALSO:Ford's CEO admits to a 'reality check' during F-150 Lightning Route 66 road trip
By Marc Chaikin, founder
Chaikin Analytics
Dalbir Bala bought a new Ford F-150 Lightning in January...
That's the all-electric version of the company's flagship pickup truck.
And it wasn't cheap...
Bala paid more than $85,000 for his truck. He hoped to drive it for work and leisure activities – like going to his cabin or fishing near his home in Winnipeg, Canada.
He also needed to install the charger and other accessories. So in total, he spent more than $100,000.
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You see, Bala first stopped to recharge the F-150 Lightning in Fargo, North Dakota. It took two hours to get the battery from 10% to 90%.
After driving roughly 200 miles, he needed to stop again in Minnesota.
But the first charger he tried to use was broken. The next charger was broken, too. And with only a few miles of "range" left, he had to abandon his search for a third charger... Recommended Links: The Banking Crisis Has Only Just Begun
Bala and his family waited around for a tow truck. Then, Bala rented a gas-powered Toyota 4Runner to complete the road trip.
"The sheer helplessness was mind-boggling," according to Bala.
Bala and his family picked up the F-150 Lightning on the way home from Chicago. And earlier this month, he recounted his entire experience of EV ownership to Fox Business.
I can't take it to my lake cabin. I cannot take it for off-grid camping. I cannot take [it] for even a road trip. I can only drive in [the] city – biggest scam of modern times.
Now, I wouldn't go as far as Bala in calling EVs the "biggest scam of modern times." But Bala and many other buyers are falling victim to a common misconception about this space.
Think about it this way...
Ford sold 4,466 F-150 Lightning trucks in the second quarter of this year. That's a lot more than the roughly 2,000 sold in the same quarter last year. And even if you haven't spotted an F-150 Lightning truck on the road, I'm sure you've seen Teslas from time to time.
So it might seem like we've entered the prime part of the EV age.
But in reality, we're still far away from mainstream adoption. And it takes time for a major trend like this one to play out. The truth is hiding in the overall numbers...
Ford sold more than 640,000 F-150 trucks last year. So at the current rate, that means sales of the all-electric Lightning version will make up less than 3% of all sales in 2023.
Folks, that's still a drop in the bucket...
Today's EV drivers are unquestionably early adopters. But the incredibly loud marketing behind these vehicles confuses most consumers. Bala is a perfect example...
Sure, he probably should've known better. But he didn't. He paid more than $100,000 to live the EV experience. He just didn't understand that the EV experience is still in its infancy.
With that said, we can't just give EVs a hand-wave dismissal...
In fact, the EV trend is massive. And it's growing at a rapid pace. Take a look...
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Sure, Toyota released the first gasoline-electric hybrid Prius in 1997. And the plug-in version has been around since 2012. But the reality is simple...
We're still in the high-growth, early adoption stage of the EV trend.
Beyond that, we're now in the most important phase of the adoption cycle...
You see, according to the International Energy Agency, EVs only made up about 4% of the total car market in 2020. But that market share catapulted to 14% by the end of 2022.
Now, it's expected to grow another 35% this year alone.
Folks, it doesn't matter how any of us personally feel about EVs. It doesn't matter that some early adopters – like Bala with his F-150 Lightning – are having rough experiences.
EVs are taking over the market. This trend will continue to heat up in the years ahead.
Good investing,
Marc Chaikin
