[Martinjlm]

Originally Posted by Iron Lung Jimmy

There are very real differences between now and the 80's.

People in the 80's didn't flock to small Japanese cars because they suddenly thought it would be fun to drive them, or that they were impressively stylish, or for whatever other fashionable reasons people choose a car. They flocked to small Japanese cars because gasoline had gotten very expensive and Japanese cars got much better fuel economy. Not only that, but the Japanese cars cost less. There was a very real financial incentive, both immediate and long term.

Then, having bought them for those reasons, they discovered that the build quality was far, far superior to the crap the Big 3 was selling and the rest is history.

Today's push to EV's is largely government, not consumer driven. And instead of a fuel shortage which was costing real people real money, the reason is nebulous climate change warnings which, if we are being honest, are way down the list of most regular people's concerns. Way down the list.

And the government knows this.

So, in order to get people to buy cars they don't really want in order to solve a problem they don't really care about, it does two things - puts harsh regulations on the type of car they do not want to be sold - and threatens even harsher ones - and financially incentivizes consumers to buy the type of car they, the government, wants them to buy.

In a vacuum you are correct about the intent of the IRA incentives, but there were government incentives going back to practically the first Tesla that rolled off the line. Those incentives were for the sole purpose of making EV's more competitive with ICE so people would buy them and, to my way of thinking, today's incentives are no more than that.

I agree with most of what you say relative the Japanese invasion of the ‘80s. The causes were different, but fact of the matter is the results and potential results are very very similar. Difference being, the government that is supposed to be looking out for the well-being of our economy and labor base are actually out in front of it this time.

Yes, there were incentives during Tesla’s early run up, but Tesla (and all automakers) had a cap of 200,000 vehicles under that incentive plan before they were no longer eligible for incentive. Tesla and GM blew through that 200k mark quickly. Fast forward to today and Tesla sells that many Model Y in a year. In the interim period, between when they ran out of the first incentive plan and when they became eligible for the IRA incentive plan, they still had triple and double digit growth rates. So the idea of incentives only being in place to get people to buy cars / technology they don’t want is demonstrably false. Tesla was outselling Mercedes Benz and BMW while selling higher priced EVs with zero incentives in place. And gaining on lower priced mainstream brands that they have since surpassed. But nobody wants EVs.