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text | zhai fangxue

editor|zhang bowen

the most popular incident in the automotive industry recently is that the united states wants to ban internet of vehicles hardware and software made in china and russia. the reason is that the united states believes that these devices will steal the data of american car owners and threaten "national security."

this follows an investigation launched by biden in march into cybersecurity risks in chinese automotive software. however, the scope, methods and specific results of the entire investigation have not been publicly stated.

and chinese companies, such asbydthe response to this is: not much. according to bloomberg, liu xueliang, general manager of byd's pacific auto sales department, responded that he has turned his attention to markets with open electric vehicle policies, such as asia, south america and australia, and said he is not worried that tariff increases and other obstacles will hinder u.s. consumption. people buy electric cars.

from byd official website

to be honest, if smart driving threatens national security, china should be more worried. because 27.7% of the market share of china’s smart driving market is occupied by the israeli company mobileye, including components such as chips and assisted driving software.

the u.s. ban triggered strong opposition from the auto industry in the united states and other countries. according to reuters, general motors,toyotatrade groups for major automakers including volkswagen, volkswagen and hyundai have warned that changing hardware and software will be difficult and take time.

under this rule, general motors andford motor companyimports of cars from china will need to be stopped. currently, general motors sells in the united statesbuickenvision and ford sold in the united stateslincolnnautilus are all assembled in china.

this will undoubtedly make the us electric vehicle market, which is declining, even worse.

according to data from kbb, an authoritative u.s. auto industry organization, u.s. electric vehicle sales in the first quarter of this year only increased by 2.6% year-on-year, and fell by 7.3% month-on-month. although growth resumed in the second quarter, the growth rate was only 11.3%, which was far lower than the 59% growth rate in the same period last year. moreover, the penetration rate of electric vehicles in the united states was only 8% in the second quarter. it is difficult to achieve the goal of 10% this year. there is a huge gap between the goal set by the biden administration of reaching 50% of electric vehicles in 2030.

what is curbing the upward momentum of electric vehicles in the united states?

charging piles are frequently damaged and become a new obstacle

cases of vandalized charging piles occur all over the world, but they are particularly serious in the united states and are becoming more and more rampant.

according to the u.s. department of energy's 2023 alternative fuels data center report, the united states has approximately 50,000 public electric vehicle charging stations, totaling nearly 130,000 independent charging ports. the sacramento-based electric vehicle charging association notes that more than 20% of u.s. charging stations have experienced some form of vandalism, ranging from copper wire theft to electrical component tampering to charger short circuits.

two years ago, electrify america, which operates the nation's second-largest dc fast charger network, said one of its 968 charging stations had a charging cord cut every six months. as of may this year, this number has reached 129, 4 more than in all of 2023. anthony lamkin, vice president of operations for electrify america, said that at one charging station in seattle, charging cords were cut six times last year.

two other leading electric vehicle charging companies, flo and evgo, have also reported an increase in thefts. seattle-area charging stations are frequently targeted. nevada, california, arizona, colorado, illinois,oregoncharging stations in , tennessee, texas and pennsylvania were also hit.

the destruction of charging piles is a fatal blow to the promotion of electric vehicles, because people may drive for a long time without finding a place to charge, and even end up having to transport their cars away with a tow truck.

officer robert carson, head of the houston police department's metal theft unit, recalled that one time, a thief stoletesla18 of the 19 charging lines at the charging station. that day, carson visited the charging station to inspect the damage. in the first five minutes he arrived at the charging station, about 10 electric cars in need of charging were turned away.

u.s. media analyzed that despite widespread public concern about the shortage of charging stations, charging pile failures have become the latest obstacle to u.s. automakers' efforts to attract more americans to use electric vehicles.

in order to protect charging piles, the u.s. government and charging companies have made efforts: electrify america is installing more security cameras; tesla is using solar-powered, camera-equipped "macgyver" robots to protect its equipment; some charging stations are starting to use retractable cables; the recycled materials association is issuing scrap theft alerts for law enforcement officials so members can be alert to suspects and stolen items; some local jurisdictions are developing an ordinance making it easier to buy and sell stolen copper, the most precious metal found in charging cables ) becomes more difficult...

from tesla official website

china, the largest market for electric vehicles, has also seen cases of charging pile thefts, and the stolen parts are varied: some removed the entire charging pile and stole it; some pried off the coin box of the charging pile and took it away; some cut the charging cable. they come down to sell scraps... but in summary, the reason for stealing is very simple, just for small profits, which is different in the united states.

although it is true that some thieves cut the cables of charging stations and sell the copper wires inside because the global copper price has reached its peak, in fact, they do not make much money.

evsession president ferro believes that no one will get rich by robbing charging stations. "with the right tools, it only takes a few minutes to cut a cable. but no one gets rich selling cables. copper costs $3-5 per kilogram, and there are about 2 pounds of wire in a cable. thieves don't get it all. price. they have to sell it for half the original price, so the vandals don’t make much money.”

the money you can get from selling charging cables for scrap is nothing compared to installing a cable. a thief can make about $400 by stealing 20 cables, but it costs the charging company about $1,000 to replace just one cable.

this behavior is more of a form of retaliation, an anti-ev movement known as the “green backlash.” such behavior has happened more than once in europe and the united states.

a man in british columbia, canada, soaked the charging plug of a tesla supercharger in sealant. after the sealant dried, the charging pile became unusable; some time ago, a ford ranger owner smashed a new zealand car with a hammer. parking spaces at the tesla supercharger station in taupo.

so, where does the anti-electric vehicle trend in the united states come from?

who is driving the anti-electric vehicle trend across america?

starting in 2022, there have been posts on overseas anonymous communities asking: why are there so many anti-electric vehicle remarks in the united states recently? one answer below is this: what you don’t know is that someone spent $30 million on secret public relations, and the amount is still expanding.

from the perspective of american history, whether to develop electric vehicles has always been a debate issue between republicans and democrats.

when clinton was in office, he was lobbied by new energy companies and proposed the "new generation automotive partnership plan" in 1993, and formulated a large number of relevant policies to support the development of new energy vehicles;

when george w. bush came to power, he was lobbied by oil companies to hinder new energy. in 2000, he withdrew from the "kyoto protocol”, the bush administration’s excuse at the time was that it believed that china was the world’s largest carbon emitter;

when obama took office, he vigorously subsidized new energy and proposed to invest us$150 billion in the development of clean energy in the next 10 years;

after trump came to power, he overturned it again and strongly opposed electric vehicles, believing them to be "job killers" and "green scams";

when biden took office, he adopted a completely opposite attitude, continuing to increase infrastructure investment in the field of new energy vehicles and increasing support for the local new energy vehicle industry.

the partisan divide behind the electric vehicle debate is becoming increasingly clear.

according to a recent report by the washington post, the u.s. electric car buying crowd is mainly composed of democrats, and “most republicans have not yet joined the ranks.” according to a gallup poll in march this year, 61% of democrats said they were "seriously considering" or "may consider" purchasing an electric vehicle in the future, while only 24% of republicans had such plans.

the republican party lobbies the people from different angles: the decree mandating the purchase of electric vehicles constrains the freedom of the people; the development of electric vehicles destroys the steady path of prosperity in the united states; subsidies for electric vehicles come from the taxes of tens of millions of people, but they can buy those who can afford electric cars are those who can afford them, which means the coastal elites who rule the democratic party provide themselves with electric car tax breaks…

due to the opposition of the ruling party, the development of electric vehicles in the united states has been like a roller coaster. trump even said in his speech this year: i will end the electric vehicle directive on the first day i take office.

from twitter

on the one hand, it is to attract the votes of workers in the traditional automobile industry chain, and on the other hand, it is to preserve the u.s. oil business. the power behind the republican party is inseparable from oil giants, such as the koch brothers and exxon mobil, one of the world's largest listed oil and petrochemical companies. in 2016, trump even nominated the chairman of exxon mobil. secretary of state.

in fact, the biggest obstacle to the development of electric vehicles in the united states is these oil companies.

can you imagine? exxonmobil was the first to make achievements in lithium batteries. after the first oil crisis, exxonmobil believed that new energy was the future, so it built the world's first lithium battery in 1976. however, after oil prices fell, exxonmobil refused to mass-produce lithium batteries and chose continue to lie flat on the oil.

after the advent of the power battery era, exxonmobil, chevrontexaco and conocophillips worried that once electric vehicles were promoted in the united states, americans would reduce their annual gasoline consumption by 370 billion liters, so the oil giants began to suppress new energy vehicles. , they purchase upstream motor companies and set restrictions in the supply chain to prevent automobile companies from purchasing motors. they also acquired a large number of electric vehicle solutions and even acquired many start-up electrical companies with patents and hid them in the ice to prevent the development of electrification.

although there is great resistance and there are many voices denigrating electric vehicles, the actual situation is that gas stations are decreasing and charging piles are increasing around the world.

for example, in china, according to data from the "china petroleum distribution industry development blue book (2023-2024)", the total number of gas stations nationwide in 2023 will be approximately 105,800, a year-on-year decrease of more than 1,800. since the number peaked in 2020, the number of gas stations across the country has continued to decline.

from "china petroleum distribution industry development blue book (2023-2024)"

as the country with the highest per capita car ownership in the world, the united states once had 200,000 gas stations in 1992, but this has reached its peak. since then, the number of gas stations in the united states has been declining, from 170,000 in 2000 to 150,000 in 2012. today, there are only 130,000 gas stations left in the united states.

the development history of gas stations in japan is also similar. after reaching a peak of 60,000 in 1994, the number has decreased year by year. according to data, there will be 76 new gas stations opened in japan in 2022, while 555 will be closed. the number of closures is more than 7 times the number, the number of gas stations in japan is still continuing to decrease.

today, the biden administration still insists on pursuing a local electric vehicle policy. news was released a few days ago that more than $3 billion in funding will be provided to u.s. companies to promote domestic production of advanced batteries and other materials for electric vehicles. if harris can win the presidential election and continue the electric vehicle promotion plan, she may be able to reverse the decline of the us electric vehicle market.

on september 22, cbs and nbc announced the results of two latest polls, showing that harris had the largest advantage over trump so far, but she only led by four or five percentage points. at this stage of the 2016 and 2020 elections, the democratic presidential candidate's lead in the above two polls was at least twice that of harris.

but no matter what, the united states has shut out the chinese electric cars that are popular in the market. people whose consumption has been downgraded in the economic downturn cannot buy high-quality and low-priced electric cars, and they will switch to gasoline cars. this has accelerated the electric car market in the entire united states. decline in market vitality. this is obviously not a rational choice for the development of the us electric vehicle industry.