chargers must increase to 1.2 million from 53,000 — about $35 billion in additional investment. “It’s a massive amount of undertaking to make that happen,” he said. Finkelmeyer, who had a nearly 20-year career at Nissan, said he’s come to admire competitor Toyota for its more moderate views around electrification. He showed conference-goers the “pretty darn good looking” new Prius, a hybrid starting at $27,000. He said Toyota can build 90 of the vehicles with the same amount of lithium as one all-electric vehicle battery. And yet, despite far more minimal environmental impact, those hybridelectric powered vehicles don’t qualify for federal incentives. He believes U.S. lawmakers should take a more “balanced view” of emissions regulations and incentives that consider not only all-electric vehicles but hybrids, too. “To me, it seems like we’re going to have to use some moderation as we move towards” a future with fewer carbon emissions, Finkelmeyer said. “There’s a very interesting balancing act; we need to be thoughtful as we embark on this journey.” Finally, Finkelmeyer encouraged dealers to embrace EVs if they want to gain an advantage and said more manufacturers should collaborate, similar to how Ford, GM and Rivian agreed to adopt Tesla charging networks. “This is going to be a slow, complicated process with lots of moving parts,” he said. But he paraphrased Winston Churchill, who said: “Americans usually get it right after they’ve tried everything else.” “I certainly have a lot of faith that America is going to figure this out,” Finkelmeyer said. “And I also have a lot of faith that the U.S. car dealer is going to figure this out.” projected fixed ops revenue for an EV at $4,246, just $300 less than a gasoline powertrain. “When you think about all new vehicles, all new technology ... there’s certainly going to be plenty of opportunity to make money in the fixed operation side of the business,” he said. In addition, the Biden administration’s goal is to hit 67% EV adoption by 2032, a target Finkelmeyer calls “pretty ambitious.” Nevertheless, OEMs have no choice and are making significant investments in EV manufacturing, including more than $200 billion into 10 states. Virginia is not one of them. Pothole 3: Electrical Grid Finkelmeyer cited a Boston Consulting Group study noting that utilities may need to spend up to $5,800 per household on grid upgrades for each EV sold through 2030. The charging network is also unreliable, he said, with one in five chargers out of order. “And that’s certainly not going to breed enthusiasm for consumers that are already nervous about [range] when they don’t feel confident about a charger,” he said. “There are massive issues that the country is going to have to work on to fix the charging situation.” Pothole 4: Supply Chain Far more raw materials go into an EV versus a traditional car or truck, Finkelmeyer said. And he noted China is well ahead of the U.S. in materials mining, component processing and consumer adoption. In China, 33% of cars sold are electric, compared to about 5.8% in the U.S. He noted the new Volvo EX30, built in China, has a highly competitive starting price of about $35,000 after a $9,000 tariff. “That’s going to certainly create some pressure on the domestic car companies as [EV competition] becomes very much a global thing,” he said. To achieve the federal government’s goals of 67% EV penetration by 2032, Finkelmeyer calculates success would require 48 million EVs on the road, and vada.com 13
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