Electric cars are losing advantage: their purchase and maintenance are becoming more expensive every day

The unstoppable rise in electricity prices has dealt a blow to the popularity of electric vehicles. For example. in American California, the cost of charging is already close to the cost of filling up gas for an ICE car, based on mileage per unit of energy. Electricity rates in California are rising much faster than in the rest of America. Last year, electricity prices grew 1.7 times faster than the average American, and housing prices - 2.7 times.

The rise has already spooked state residents who wanted to swap their internal combustion-powered cars for electric ones, and experts predict energy prices won't come down anytime soon as inflation is at its highest level since the early 1980s.

In addition, the price of a new electric car like the Tesla is no longer affordable for most Americans and continues to rise as the price of metals used to make batteries rises. For example, lithium for batteries has risen in price by 400% over the past year. Previously, it was argued that electric vehicles only get cheaper over time, as technology improves and production flow expands. Until recently, this was the case, but in 2022 this rule has changed. Three large electric car manufacturers in China at once, Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto, raise prices for their models by 10-20 thousand yuan ($1.6-3.2 thousand dollars). Moreover, Nio also temporarily closes its factories, as anti-coronavirus quarantines in China previously stopped the factories of the automaker's suppliers.

Thus, two main advantages at once - the efficiency of electric vehicles compared to traditional cars and the constant reduction in prices for new electric vehicles - stop working.

This means that the total transition to electric vehicles is postponed until better times.