Automakers have saturated the demand for electric vehicles from early adopters and must now refocus on winning over mass-market consumers, according to Bev Goodman, CEO of Ford Motor Co. of Canada.
As Ford adjusts to this new phase of adoption, matching supply with “highly unpredictable” demand has proved particularly challenging over the past 18 months, Goodman said.“A year and a half ago, we couldn’t build enough EVs. Now there are some cases where inventory is building up on selected vehicle lines, and there’s some cases also where we have the wrong inventory in the wrong places.”
“I think all the early adopters have bought their shiny object,” Joe McCabe, CEO of U.S-based AutoForecast Solutions, told Retail Forum attendees in Toronto.Tech enthusiasts were willing to pay high prices and take delivery of their EVs “warts and all,” but mass-market consumers are more discerning, he added.
Ottawa plans to implement a sales mandate later this year that will require zero-emission vehicles make up 60 per cent of new-vehicle sales by 2030, rising to 100 per cent by 2035.