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Majority of U.S. car dealerships consider Biden’s electrification plan too ambitious

If it hadn’t been for the chip shortage, I think the Biden administration would have already helped the auto industry into a recession.

Although the plans for electrification in the United States are a lot less ambitious than in Europe, they can count on little approval from the US car dealers. This is according to a survey by the American dealer magazine Autonews. President Joe Biden’s administration wants half of all new cars sold to be EVs by 2030 (in the EU, the goal is for all new cars to be completely emission-free by 2035). Only sixteen percent of respondents (196 dealer company managers) support that goal. Sixty percent are against.

For example, Autonews quotes an entrepreneur in the industry: “I think the biggest problem is that they are trying to harness the cart for the horse. The infrastructure is not there. Another respondent thinks that “if it hadn’t been for the chip shortage, the Biden administration would have helped the auto industry into a recession anyway”.

Biden has not made himself popular with car companies in the country in his first year anyway, according to the Autonews survey. Of the respondents, 51 percent say that the new government has affected their affairs in a negative way. They cite rising inflation, high gasoline prices, government regulation, and the push to electric cars ahead of market demand as the main causes of their dissatisfaction. In the United States, around 3.6 percent of new cars sold in 2021 were a (ph)EV. in the EU, that figure is around 24 percent.

The negative trend contrasts with the positive figures of the US dealership industry, according to Autonews based on figures from the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA). The average U.S. dealership posted a net profit of about $ 3.4 million in 2021 through October. This is well over the record year 2020, when the average dealership made a profit of $ 2.1 million over the year.

2021 ended with sales of around 15 million passenger cars, an increase of 3.1 percent compared to the sales volume of 2020. And 2022 looks set to be an even better year, Autonews reports.

“This is likely to be the most profitable year dealers have ever recorded as inventories remain at near-historic lows,” said Tyson Jominy, vice president of data and analytics at J. D. Power.

NADA also expects a good 2022, the Institute writes on its website: the trade association expects 15.4 million new cars to be sold this year, an increase of 3.4 percent compared to 2021.




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