Suncor Energy Inc T.SU

Believe it or not

[lifeisgood1010]

Naturally, as a SU shareholder, i am a beleiver of this article published on
the Business Insider web site.But i can understand that some may not.

With the 17% increase of retails sales (CDN Tire deal), i don't think Suncor will be much affected buy the EV adopters.

Staying long.

EVs are running out of customers — and some dealers don't want them anymore.

• More dealers are saying they have to turn away EVs as demand cools.
• Without early adopters, EVs are a tougher sell.
• As EV growth cools, dealers are the ones left in the lurch.

More electric vehicles are being pumped out of car factories than ever before – but some dealers don't want them.

Electric car inventory has been piling up on dealership lots this year as companies up their EV production, leading some dealers to say enough is enough. Some are telling automakers they don't want any more until they can sell what's sitting, several dealers told Insider.

"We have turned away EV inventory," said Scott Kunes, COO of Kunes Auto and RV Group, which sells Detroit brands as well as Nissan and Mitsubishi in the Midwest. "We need to ensure that we have a good turn on it."

Automakers are "asking us to make a large investment," Kunes added, "and we're just wanting to see some return on that investment."

Plug-in vehicle availability is increasing rapidly, a sign that the EV adoption growth curve is about to hit a serious slowdown. A switch from enthusiastic and wealthy early adopters to more apprehensive and budget-minded car shoppers is throwing the electric car transition for a loop, forcing car companies to change their outlooks and pull back on ambitious EV-production goals.

 

It's not just that these vehicles are expensive – which they are. We're talking about a much more nuanced lifestyle change," said Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions. He pointed to differences in the EV ownership experience, including charging and range anxiety, as stoppers for many buyers.

"It's hard for the average customer to make that leap while spending an extra $10,000," Fiorani said.
 

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Electric car inventory has been piling up on dealership lots this year as companies up their EV production, leading some dealers to say enough is enough. Some are telling automakers they don't want any more until they can sell what's sitting, several dealers told Insider.

"We have turned away EV inventory," said Scott Kunes, COO of Kunes Auto and RV Group, which sells Detroit brands as well as Nissan and Mitsubishi in the Midwest. "We need to ensure that we have a good turn on it."

Automakers are "asking us to make a large investment," Kunes added, "and we're just wanting to see some return on that investment."

Plug-in vehicle availability is increasing rapidly, a sign that the EV adoption growth curve is about to hit a serious slowdown. A switch from enthusiastic and wealthy early adopters to more apprehensive and budget-minded car shoppers is throwing the electric car transition for a loop, forcing car companies to change their outlooks and pull back on ambitious EV-production goals.

 

 

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These are the hardest and easiest EVs to find at dealerships right now

• Some electric vehicles are flying off dealer lots, while others have been harder to sell.
• Cloud Theory tracks car make and model data and dealership inventory.
• Here's which EVs might be easiest to get your hands on right now, and which are trickier to find.  

Some electric cars are flying off dealer lots, while others have been harder to sell.

That's according to data from Cloud Theory, a data analytics firm that tracks dealership inventory across the US.

As automakers ramp up production of electric vehicles, some are having a harder time getting them off dealership lots than they did a year ago, Cloud Theory found. 

For example, while Hyundai has more than doubled the number of Ioniq 5 EVs in dealership inventory from 2022 to 2023, the turn rate (or the number of these cars that leave dealer lots within a 30 day period) has declined. Last year, about 82% of Ioniq 5's left lots within 30 days, but this year, only 37% have, according to Cloud Theory.

Volkswagen, which has about four times as much inventory of the ID.4 on average in a given month this year than in 2022, was selling all of its ID.4 inventory within a month last year. This year, about 70% of ID.4's leave dealer lots in that time.

The sale pace for Ford's Mustang Mach-E fell from 95% sold within 30 days last year to 64% selling in that period this year.

Why this is the case

A year ago, car companies were churning out fewer EVs, creating a perception of scarcity and sparking a bit of a supply-and-demand rush. Customers interested in going electric snatched the only Mustang Mach-E or other EVs they saw on the lot. High gas prices had even EV-curious customers taking the plunge.

Fast forward to this year, and production is getting closer to full swing, meaning more of these cars are available. At the same time, more automakers are launching product — spreading the wealth in terms of customer purchases. And the broader economic environment, coupled with sky-high interest rates, has a lot of prospective buyers holding off on making a substantial purchase.

"Vehicle movement — the way that we capture sales — is growing," Rick Wainschel, industry analyst and Cloud Theory VP of data science and analytics, told Insider. "But it's not nearly keeping pace with the rate of inventory growth. You've got pressure on those manufacturers that are selling those vehicles and introducing new ones and adding production to the existing ones all at the same time, all by the way, while Tesla is the 800-pound gorilla in the space."

"A year ago, the overall inventory situation in the marketplace was very challenged," he added. Now, "There's this glut of new models to choose from for consumers, and it got diluted when you look at the turn rates across all of those manufacturers all doing that at the same time."

Cloud Theory's numbers indicate which EVs might be easiest to find right now, and which might still be in short supply. To gather the data, Cloud Theory indexes dealership inventory via their websites, as well as collects diagnostic information like how long a vehicle was on their site. Cloud Theory does not get data for Tesla as the company does not sell through a traditional dealership model.

"The train is going down the tracks" with electrification collectively, Wainschel said, but for individual automakers with an EV to sell, it's a lot harder.

Here's a look at some of the easiest-to-find and hardest-to-find electric cars for many of the EVs that saw inventory availability increase from last year to this year. 

See More

 

"It's not just that these vehicles are expensive – which they are. We're talking about a much more nuanced lifestyle change," said Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions. He pointed to differences in the EV ownership experience, including charging and range anxiety, as stoppers for many buyers.

"It's hard for the average customer to make that leap while spending an extra $10,000," Fiorani said.

 

 

Related video: Autotraders 10 Best Electric Cars 2023 (KTLA-TV Los AngelesLoaded: That's an about-face from the last several years, when it was often difficult to even find an EV to test drive, let alone take home and buy.

Automakers weren't yet producing EVs at scale, meaning supply was limited, and customers sat on long waitlists just to get their hands on one.

All of those challenges created a lot of hype and an apparent supply-and-demand crunch. While the overall share of EVs in the US market is low – around 6% – it has grown rapidly in the last few years as hype for these vehicles heightened and brands like Tesla made electric cars a status symbol.

Today, EV inventory isn't the problem. Automakers are shoring up their factories to churn more of these cars out. But demand isn't growing at the same pace.

Even with record EV sales month after month, sales are plateauing as automakers try to target buyers beyond the early adopters: more mainstream consumers.

As a result, one East Coast Ford dealer previously told Insider they were only declining allocation of electric cars from the automaker. Another in the Midwest said Lightning orders were piling up uncompleted, leaving those customers with time to pick a different EV. One Hyundai dealer, on the West Coast, said they were also passing on EV-specific allocation, while another Hyundai dealer told Insider he anticipates having to turn away EVs soon.

While Adam Lee, chairman of the board at Lee Auto Malls in Maine, said he's still taking all the EVs he can get, but his electric Toyotas are the slowest to sell.

"The only Toyotas I have that aren't presold are the electric ones, the bZ4X, and that's a little bit of a challenge," Lee said.

In the EV plateau, dealers are left in the lurch

In this round of growing pains for the electric car market, dealers are set up for the most trouble. Car companies are likely to continue churning out the EVs they promised to investors, leaving dealers to figure out how to sell them to a new set of customers.

But the most savvy executives will heed this first warning from dealers about where the demand pendulum is swinging, analysts say.

"Dealers know in real time with real-time feedback what the market is doing," Karl Brauer, an automotive analyst for iSeeCars, previously told Insider. "They have always acted as the first warning lights on the dash for the automotive industry."%

 

 

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EVs have gone from shortages to near over-supply

Car shoppers can find plenty of electric options on dealership lots — while there was about 54 days' supply of vehicle inventory overall at dealerships earlier this summer, EV inventory was nearly double that.