Population adjusted vehicle miles traveled in the first half of 2025 is lower than at the bottom of the Obama travel depression in 1H2014

Ain't got no where to go, I guess, with all that new delivery availability spawned by the pandemic.

 

 

OMG the dumbest line in this story: people who buy trucks often use them to haul things

 Well no shit, Sherlock.

The Electric Pickup Truck Boom Turned Into a Big Bust

... many electric versions just aren’t up for the task. ... 

Pickup sales, first half of 2025:

EVs 35,000

Internal Combustion: 1,600,000 

Power hungry data centers break the utility model of socializing electricity costs: Seventy percent of last year's increased electricity cost was the result of data center demand

 

 As electric bills rise, evidence mounts that data centers share blame. States feel pressure to act

... Monitoring Analytics, the independent market watchdog for the mid-Atlantic grid, produced research in June showing that 70% — or $9.3 billion — of last year’s increased electricity cost was the result of data center demand. ... 

PJM [Interconnection, the mid-Atlantic grid operator], has yet to propose ways to guarantee that data centers pay their freight, but Monitoring Analytics is floating the idea that data centers should be required to procure their own power. 

In a filing last month, it said that would avoid a “massive wealth transfer” from average people to tech companies. ...

 Demand for Electricity Takes Off. US Power Generation by Source in 2024: Natural Gas, Coal, Nuclear, Wind, Hydro, Solar, Geothermal, Biomass, Petroleum 

The quantity of electricity generated in the US by all sources, from natural gas to rooftop solar, rose by 3.1% in 2024 from 2023 to a record of 4,304,039 gigawatt-hours (GWh), according to data from the EIA today.

This is now clearly a breakout in demand, after 14 years of stagnation, from 2007 through 2021, when electricity users, to reduce their costs, invested in more efficient equipment – lights, appliances, electronic equipment, industrial equipment, heating and air-conditioning, etc. – and in better building insulation, shading, etc., to reduce their power costs. This relentless drive for greater efficiency kept demand roughly stable for years despite the growing economy and population. And it mired many power generators and electric utilities in a no-growth business where it was difficult to justify investment.

Now the scenario has changed, largely due to the growth in demand from data centers (AI, cloud, crypto) and the increasing penetration of EVs in the national vehicle fleet – EVs accounted for over 10% of US vehicle sales in 2024. ...

EV sales achieve record high 9.1% of total sales of passenger vehicles in July, 90.9% sold still internal combustion lol

 

EV sales soar as Trump axes $7,500 tax credit: ‘People are rushing out’ to buy, analyst says

Consumers are racing to buy electric vehicles before a fast-approaching deadline to claim tax credits worth up to $7,500, according to auto analysts.

Legislation championed by Republicans on Capitol Hill and signed by President Donald Trump in July eliminates the tax breaks — available for new, used and leased EVs — after Sept. 30.

The Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act had originally offered the tax breaks to consumers through 2032.

“We’re expecting Q3 may be [a] record for EV sales because of the tax incentives going away,” said Stephanie Valdez Streaty, a senior analyst at Cox Automotive.

“People are rushing out” to buy, she said.

Consumers purchased nearly 130,100 new EVs in July, the second-highest monthly sales tally on record, behind roughly 136,000 sold in December, according to Cox Automotive data. The July figures represent a 26.4% increase from June and nearly 20% increase year-over-year, Streaty said.

The share of EV sales in July also accounted for about 9.1% of total sales of passenger vehicles that month, the largest monthly share on record, according to Cox.

“We’re seeing significant volume in new EVs,” said Liz Najman, director of market insights at Recurrent, an EV marketplace and data provider. ...

 

Population-adjusted total-vehicle-miles-traveled in the United States is lower in April 2025 than at any point in the Obama depression and is down almost 9% since the April 2005 peak twenty years ago

 

The average price of a new vehicle in 2024 ran ahead of inflation from 1978 by about 75%

 

The average price of a new vehicle in 1978 was about $5,780.

Adjusted for inflation to 2024, that would be about $27,852. 

The actual average price in 2024 was about $48,724. 

The $3.45 average price of gasoline in 2024 was not quite 7% higher than the inflation adjusted price of $3.23/gallon from 1978

 Gasoline prices are moderating slowly in 2025 even as the inflation-adjusted price rises to $3.27.

Gasoline actually averaged $3.27 in the first half of 2025, dead on the money for what it should cost if it were only adjusted for inflation since 1978.

Gasoline retailers like convenience stores don't make their money on gasoline, with profit margins on gasoline in the 2% range. They make it on stuff like milk, the free-market price of which is a great mystery. AI thinks the unregulated price of milk right now would be about $4.00/gallon.

At the corner convenience store near where I live, a gallon of whole milk is a whopping $4.99, but eight miles down the road at my grocery it's only $3.45, so it's a mark-up of 45% for the convenience. 

But my grocery offers a routine discount coupon of 60 cents per gallon of milk, which brings the price down to $2.85, which Sam's can't beat at $3.23. Milk is my grocery's loss leader to get me in the store, like rotisserie chicken is a loss leader for Sam's and Costco, or like gasoline.

Gasoline this morning at Sam's is $3.01/gallon.

My momma told me, you better shop around. 

Meanwhile average fuel economy in 2023 is 27.1 miles on a gallon of gasoline, up from about 17.6 in 1978.

Seems like we should be doing better in that department. 

 

Adjusted for population growth, total vehicle sales in the United States in 2024 are down 35% since the peak in 1978

 At the same time, the average age of a vehicle on the road in 1978 was about 6.6 years, compared with 12.6 years in 2024, up 91%.

 

 

 

 

The average vehicle on the road is now 12.8 years old, a new record as of May 2025

 

This index of used car values is still up 39% from the pre-pandemic level of 150 in June 2025

 

Down she goes

 

Corvette chief engineer speak English goodier then evah

 

... “It brings performance, electrification and all-wheel drive to further enhance the unthinkable ZR1,” said Josh Holder, Corvette chief engineer. “It brings learnings from the ZR1 and the E-Ray, and combines them to create an unbelievable driving experience.” ...

Moar. 

Total bs about Tesla from CNBC relying on Business Insider, lying by omission

 

Tesla stock slips after report EV maker is halting Cybertruck and Model Y production

... The pause, which is for maintenance on production lines, would be the third such shutdown at the Austin facility in the past year, according to BI. ...

GM will not produce EVs at Orion Assembly Plant in suburban Detroit as the company moves production of gasoline vehicles to the US from Mexico to avoid 25% tariffs

 GM to invest $4 billion in U.S. plants amid tariffs for Mexican-produced vehicles

... GM said the investment will add assembly of the gas-powered Chevrolet Blazer and Chevrolet Equinox that are currently produced in Mexico to two other plants in the U.S. and convert a large idled plant in Michigan — formerly expected to build all-electric trucks — to make gas-powered SUVs and trucks in 2027. ...

 

New RAM CEO admits retiring the V-8 Hemi engine for RAM 1500 truck was a mistake, brings it back this summer

 

... Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis, who unretired from the automaker late last year, admitted the decision to cancel the Hemi engine for its popular consumer-focused Ram 1500 was a mistake.

“Everyone makes mistakes, but how you handle them defines you. Ram screwed up when we dropped the Hemi — we own it and we fixed it,” Kuniskis said. “We’re not just bringing back a legendary V-8 engine, we’re igniting an assertive product plan and expanding the freedom of choice in powertrain for our customers.” ...

Ram’s sales have been struggling for years amid price increases and production mishaps, as well as the automaker killing off the Hemi engine — a staple of the automaker and its predecessors since the 1950s. ...

More.

Burning cargo ship bound for Mexico from China with 800 electric vehicles on board abandoned off the coast of Alaska lol

 

... Fires across all vessel segments hit the highest level in a decade in 2024, according to insurer Allianz Commercial. ...

More.

Gee, I wonder why.

Don't park one in your garage.

 

Update Wed Jun 25, 2025:

She sank, 16,000 feet under lol.

The ninth car-carrier in ten years the video says.

 

 

 

Car manufacturing jobs, so-called good jobs, already don't pay enough to enable these Detroit auto workers to buy their own homes and have families, and they fear layoffs because of the tariffs

 The Wall Street Journal doesn't mention it here.

This guy's been working for the company for 10 years and he's still renting.

... Daniel Campbell, who maneuvers steel auto parts around a Stellantis factory north of Detroit, says he and many of his colleagues are worried about layoffs.

“I’m scared,” he said from his brick bungalow on the west side of Detroit, which he rents with two roommates. “We’re complaining about gas and eggs now. Who is going to be able to buy these cars that are already $80,000, and then you make it $90,000?”

The 46-year-old UAW member, who makes about $30 an hour, and one of his roommates have talked about trimming their spending, including eating out less and cutting clothing and electronics purchases. 

“There’s going to come a time where we’re not going to be able to go and spend,” he said. 

 At work, the assembly lines have been running faster in recent weeks as Stellantis has tried to stockpile parts ahead of the tariffs, Campbell said. He and his co-workers are running out of room to store the parts. ...

Just as 9.7 million of 43 million student loan borrowers become past due again, cars they can't afford to buy anyway soar in price due to tariffs, a one-two punch alienating the youth vote from Trump

 Over 9 million student loan borrowers past due after bills restarted, Fed estimates

... A new student loan delinquency can cause a borrower’s credit score to drop more than 150 points, the Fed warns.

Trump’s auto tariffs will likely push car prices up thousands of dollars

... The tariffs will kick in at midnight on April 3, and Trump has said they will be “permanent.” ...

#RecessionIndicator: Young Americans are losing confidence in the economy — and it shows online

... A spokesperson for Klarna acknowledged to NBC News that people needing to pay for meals on credit is “a bad indicator for society.” ...

Greg gets it

 

Just my experience but Nissan drivers have always stood out to me as more reckless and aggressive than others