A prevailing view is that transitioning away from fossil fuels is inevitable, though not imminent. But as consumers reject new green technologies, even that supposed inevitability is coming into question. Earlier this week it was reported that the German luxury car-maker Porsche is scaling back its ambitious sales targets for electric vehicles due to reduced demand, with the company stating that “the transition to electric vehicles will take longer than we assumed.” The original goal of making battery-only cars 80% of the manufacturer’s sales by 2030 is no longer realistic, and Porsche is joined by Mercedes-Benz after the latter recorded “a 25% drop-off in sales of fully electric cars”.

The retreat from electric vehicles is not limited to Germany. In the United States, General Motors has announced, also this week, that it will delay the development of new EV models and postpone the opening of an electric truck factory, while Ford Motor replaced plans for a factory that was designed to build electric SUVs with plans to build combustion engine pickup trucks. And there are good reasons for this. As the energy writer Robert Bryce has calculated, Ford “sold 23,957 EVs during the quarter, but it lost USD 1.14 billion while doing so. Thus, Ford lost $47,585 for each EV it sold.”

Given the fact that 10 years ago we were told that “by 2025, gasoline engine cars will be unable to compete with electric vehicles”, the numbers provided by Western car-makers are sobering. If anything, American and European electric cars are unable to compete with Chinese ones, as Beijing has put significant efforts into becoming the world’s leading manufacturer of EVs, repeating a model it has already successfully applied in the areas of wind and solar.