Good morning.
The age of electric vehicles is coming, but it is not coming nearly as fast as expected a couple of years ago. I spoke last week with two CEOs who are in the middle of the transition: Chrissy Taylor, CEO of Enterprise Mobility in St. Louis, and Masahiro Moro, CEO of Mazda in Hiroshima, Japan. Both cited lack of charging stations as a major reason. Taylor, who drives an electric car, said this:
“Quite honestly, the demand has always been low. It’s just slow. It’s not where it needs to be. The demand is low because the infrastructure is low.”
Moro echoed Taylor’s comments.
“EV is absolutely important technology, and we are developing it. But [in the U.S.] EVs last year [were] about 6% of the market. This year it is 8%. And out of that 8%, 57% was Tesla. Other EVs are not taking off, inventory is piling up.”
Egged on by the success of Tesla and facing pressure to act on climate change, big auto makers like GM and Ford set ambitious targets for their electric vehicles. Two years ago, General Motors CEO Mary Barra said GM would only produce emissions-free vehicles by 2035. But smaller players, like Mazda and Enterprise, are taking their cues from the market. And the market isn’t on track for hitting zero in 2035. Said Taylor:
“For us, it is an evolution, and the customer has to drive it. We have not put a goal on it. We will move as fast as the customer. We never want to surprise them with new technology.”
Moro said much the same:
“How we get to zero is up to consumer choice and social infrastructure.”
That balance between driving the energy transition forward, and meeting consumer demand will be a hot topic this week at both the Fortune Global Forum in Abu Dhabi, which begins today, and the COP 28 confab in nearby Dubai, which begins Thursday. The setting is symbolic: the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company is a major global oil and gas producer, yet Abu Dhabi is also making huge investments in alternative energy to ensure its place in a post-oil economy—whenever it comes. Accelerating the energy transition is one of the goals of this year’s COP meeting, but companies can only move as fast as consumers allow them.
By the way, I spent Sunday evening watching Max Verstappen win his 19th F1 race of the season at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Hard to imagine when this speed-, sound-, and adrenaline-filled spectacle will switch to electric.
I’ll be reporting more from here all week. Other news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
