‘Some are parked here for a year, sometimes more.’
EV Hoot of the Day
Le Monde reports Belgium’s ports drowning under glut of Chinese electric cars: ‘Some are parked here for a year, sometimes more’
Due to China’s overcapacity in production – as it aims to capture a quarter of the European electric vehicle market – the ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge are inundated.
You probably need to see it to appreciate the challenges the automobile industry faces in transitioning to electricity. You also need to come here to understand how the Chinese industry’s overcapacity has flooded the European market. That morning, as the sun unexpectedly lit up the maze of highways leading to this remote arm of the port of Antwerp, Belgium, a huge cargo ship from the Norwegian company Höegh Autoliners unloaded thousands of cars at one of the terminals of International Car Operators (ICO), a subsidiary of the Japanese group Nippon Yusen Kaisha.
Alongside Swedish-Norwegian Wallenius Wilhelmsen, it is one of the main operators of the now merged port of Antwerp-Bruges, the world’s largest automotive terminal, through which the production of some 40 brands used to transit. But that was before the emergence of their Chinese competitors.
Car Parks
Quartz reports Cars are piling up at European ports at an alarming rate
Imported vehicles are seriously piling up at European ports, turning them into “car parks.” Automakers are distributors are struggling with a slowdown in car sales as well as logistical bottlenecks that make it hard to alleviate the buildup of new, unsold vehicles.
Some Chinese brand EVs had been sitting in European ports for up to 18 months, while some ports had asked importers to provide proof of onward transport, according to industry executives. One car logistics expert said many of the unloaded vehicles were simply staying in the ports until they were sold to distributors or end users.
“It’s chaos,” said another person who had been briefed on the situation.
This is another part of the escalating trade war between China and the rest of the world.
China Produces 55 Percent of All Steel, Biden and Trump Eye Tariffs
Yesterday, I commented China Produces 55 Percent of All Steel, Biden and Trump Eye Tariffs
On April 22, I cautioned A Big Deflationary Push From China But Will Biden or Trump Allow That?
China keeps returning to a well that has run dry, using exports as a means for growth. China is about to hit a brick wall, with global consequences.
Biden’s New Carbon Capture Mandates Will Cause Blackouts, Increases Prices
Finally, please note Biden’s New Carbon Capture Mandates Will Cause Blackouts, Increases Prices
The irony is staggering. Biden wants to force everyone into an EV, but it cannot be a cheap one. If has to be an EV that costs $50,000 or more. And the price of energy will soar too.
My #1 issue looking ahead to 2025 is a global trade war with serious repercussions.
Belgium is one of the most endebted states in the US of E. No surprise that Flanders wants to secede and join the Netherlands, which has a better economy than the pointless made-up country of Belgium.
Gosh, who would have ever guessed that expensive, difficult to live with lifestyle vehicles would have limited demand.
I was reading a story recently that car insurance in the UK is up to £1000 per quarter! Who can afford this on top of the cost of a new car?
“Refugees”? They are getting free housing and handouts, why not free cars too so they can commit crime more efficiently? Give them EVs, and they can make all that “reparations” swag nice and green too.
They should give them away for free. Since they are Chinese, like TikTok, they will collect your driving and location info and forward it to the CCP, so you will be getting a free car, just like free TikTok in exchange for your personal info.
Deal or no deal?
After the mega crash, and most of the parasitic investors are wiped out, some of the abandoned hardware and product will salvaged and cobbled into usable stuff.
…and the hordes of illegal immigrants will become Barbary Pirate level rapacious.
As the exploding inflationary depression crushes all new vehicle sales, and good quality, cheap Chinese cars are still verbotten in the US, this pileup is not surprising.
Cheap EVs should remain useful for limited range, urban environments where air pollution is a problem if not crammed full of digital deviltry that cripples them.
E drives with onboard recharging apparatus, physical steering and braking, and no deviltry should still sell for a while yet.
For me and many others, the Cuban solution will have to be the way to keep driving.
Good Quality?! Are you sure? Cheap? For whom? The indentured labourers of the CCP?
…have you seen the air and river pollution in China where those battery and car factories are, recently? The amount of coal used by China to manufacture “green products” cheaply, is staggering.
Did you go to the 2023 Munich Auto Show? Thought not.
AS soon as Europe halts Chinese EV imports, China’s economy will fall even faster.
Fast Eddy
One of my top 2 guys here. Love reading this guys comments and almost always in agreement …. it’s like you are my brother from the same mother. Is that you Simon?
Do a DNA test! [lol]
Having been in the port, transport, logistics business for the vast majority of my adult life, I can tell you that we have seen this movie before. There was a time that Hyundai’s and Kia’s sat at American ports, including those that sat over 1 year. Yes, there is global excess capacity in EV’s and China is right now, the leader of the pack. But certainly not alone. What is happening is very much consistent with new entrants that lack both the dealer network, the logistics know how to match supply with allocated demand (known sales) etc. We have a tendency to look at the port pics and say that the EV market has come to its knees. Maybe so, at the moment. But the Chinese are not going anywhere and to the degree that there is a market, not disported by tariffs and other barriers, we should look to the Chinese for EV pricing disinflation over time. This looks ugly now. I just hope that the Ports/import auto logistics companies are charging for the excess storage. In the auto sector, there has been repeated opportunities to make a lot of money for parking, as long as you have structured your port leases accordingly.
Those Hyundai’s and Kia’s can be filled up with fuel in just a few minutes just around the corner from any port. They could be serviced by virtually any repair shop. Also very cheap to buy and operate.Home charging a bit of an issue. Euro cities are filled with Apartment blocks and residences with no off street or underground parking – you can park a Hyundai and Kia anywhere you can find a space. Existing ICE vehicle dealers could absorb Korean ICE vehicles into their own networks without the need for specially trained service personal and service facilities.
ICE vehicles are easy to dispose of when their service life ends. The logistics of dealing with OLD EV’s haven’t even been worked out yet.
All very good points — thanks for sharing. I’d add that the distribution network in Europe is changing almost on a daily basis. For example, Stellantis announced last week that it will be selling Chinese EVs (Leapmotor) at its dealerships beginning in September.
With the wild overpricing and non-competitive batteries of the premium brands (Mercedes, BMW, Audi), this is huge opportunity to make money for European carmakers to simply sell and service advanced products that they don’t have the expertise or supply chain to manufacture.
US is backtracking on EV now because they realize it’s the end of the big 3. The only way EV can happen in the US is if the big 3 rebadge Chinese EVs and are relegated to just taking a middle-man cut. Americans are broke so they can’t afford to buy anything made in the US. We cannot even make fast food competitively in the US, so how are we going to make EVs?
How about using all those illegal immigrants to manufacture them for free?
China missed the shot. The mine gold is in making cheap and spacious prefab houses. USA and Europe need them by thousands.
Too many people and too much building in one area and the land may not be able to support the weight!
—-
Nearly half of China’s major cities are sinking, researchers say
By David Stanway
April 18, 2024
SINGAPORE, April 19 (Reuters) – Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released on Friday.
The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found 45% of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3 millimetres per year, with 16% at more than 10 mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables but also the sheer weight of the built environment.
…
link to reuters.com
Apparently the cars building up in the lots do not have any dealers or companies buying them or not taking delivery. Looks like the Chinese loaded them on ships and sent them over without worrying if there were buyers or not. That probably falls under “Dumping” clause. Chinese car brand market share in Europe has actually slightly decreased this last quarter.
Why would a port accept a delivery with no forwarding address?
“My #1 issue looking ahead to 2025 is a global trade war with serious repercussions.”
And there will be serious profits for those well positioned and then we’ll have serious but childish pouting & whining. It’ll be hilarious if Trump wins and institutes tariffs all over the place that causes inflation to spike to the moon. Then again, I expect inflation to go to the moon whoever is president anyway.
EV car panic is bad enough that Costco/Polestar is leasing EVs for $299/month with 1K down, 27 month lease. Not a bad deal if you drive a car. I’ve seen others for $199/month elsewhere. Too bad cars are money pits, I might get one otherwise.
Price rises aren’t inflation… you have to have increasing lending into the economy by commercial banks that is at a faster rate than GDP growth… tariffs are more likely to stymie GDP growth, and the debt pile is so large that lending is constrained, these are recipes for global deflation, reduction in global trade, and layoffs, how do you get inflation of that? You don’t. Price rises depend on demand v scarcity… where is your demand in a deflationary tariff-laden scenario like that, where scarcity is created by tariffs?!
Mish, you should watch this recent video about EV car sales. This guy is pretty sarcastic in this and his other videos.
link to youtube.com
Can’t push a string.
Even Adam Smith and David Ricardo justified protectionism.
It was a necessary requirement for a nation to become the global specialist supplying a product or service. If a nation’s sole means of income disappears, then a country is destroyed without using military force. At the other end of the spectrum, if a nation were completely self sufficient, then it could withhold products and services from other nations. Smith was looking for perfect balance. Smith was wrong the world could exist in a static state, and that everyone would accept their profession against their will.
A nation’s “income” is only relevant if or when it wants to import, via a global financial system. Countries aren’t destroyed by loss of export income, unless they have insufficient internal resources and an insufficient internal market – like China.
Imported vehicles are seriously piling up at European ports, turning them into “car parks.”
For some reason, the photo reminds me of those empty apartment buildings that were overbuilt in China.
The cars stacking up at the European ports is the free market replying after the autocrats spoke. It is a perfect example of how centrally planning an economy just does not work and the unintended consequences are humorous as well as costly in terms of wasted resources
Prescient response!
Ive mentioned before that Biden is doing very little to justify WHY we must buy and use EVs when gasoline is so much more available and familiar. And the “why” for the White House continues to be “climate change.” But in reality, peak oil and the finite amount of oil on the planet is the real reason. The question then becomes “do you want to drive using electricity or not drive at all?” NOW you have the reason why we must consider electrics. But someone forgot to mention that you cant go 100% EV in a year. You need an in-between vehicle that also runs on gas — for now. Normally I look to capitalism to solve these probs, but I dont think you can with electric vehicles just yet.
EVs are powered by and manufactured with fossil fuel electricity. In addition EVs are less energy efficient than internal combustion engines. Climate change is a hoax. Oil is a renewable energy that continually escapes the iron carbide core of our Earth.
Oil was produced on this planet during two periods of global warming 90 and 150 million years ago. At great cost you can make oil (the Nazis did it with slave labor) from coal but basically oil is finite — there is only so much. And there will always be oil available — but at what price? So, we’re back to the question: “electricity or no transportation we can afford?”
Bahahaha!
Hilarious Fossil Fuels FUD.
Now Tell me how COAL is going to make a comeback because Black Lung Disease is Soooo good for humans!
Whale OIL had its time. That is Done.
Coal had its time. That has ended or ending in the Advanced Economies
OIL was dominant for a hundred years in Transportation and now entire countries have moved off OIL / Gasoline / Diesel for New Vehicles…and others are following suit.
Those eventually replace ALL the Old ICE Vehicles.
BIG OIL’s time is ending too. The largest Auto Market in the World is changing to EVs at a rate that makes the US market mostly irrelevant. The US is becoming a smaller and smaller portion of the Total Global Auto Market. US companies ICE sales are collapsing in China and ICE sales will almost completely grind to a halt there in LESS than 5 years.
This isn’t a “Stick Your head in the Sand” and keep huffing the poison fumes your oversized SUVs are spewing from your tailpipe kind of thing.
The Auto Parts Makers are rapidly transitioning AWAY from ICE Vehicle Parts and many of them are based in China or Mexico.
As the number of ICE vehicles sold per year goes down, the costs of those ICE Parts goes up. DIS-Economies of scale is REAL for ICE vehicles as that market collapses Globally.
Deal with the changes Dinosaurs.
There will still be a use for gas engines. Perhaps airplanes, railroads, heavy trucks. But supply and demand says oil price will be higher. It doesnt have to be an either-or. Hell we waste half the oil on pointless trips. A modest conversion should have started 30 years ago. Just reduce some of the oil and we buy ourselves another 20 years …
DavidC is mentally ill, Scott; assuming he’s not one of your sockpuppets.
If robots can flip burgers and drones can fly there is a good chance that a drone robot can mine a seam of coal.
The pollution problem is 8 billion people. The solution to pollution is contraception.
Asteroids… Hydrogen Fuel cells… Ammonia powered ships already exist.
“..doing very little to justify WHY we must buy and use EVs..”
It has never been for any other reason that the US cannot compete at building real cars. Heck, the US can not compete at building anything.
Hence, making up something obviously plainly stupid for anyone who can count, then telling the gullibles of the captive indoctrinati that this hyped-up nonsense is “like,the future! and, like, dumb little you can be a visionary!!”; for awhile changed the competitive dynamic: It was no longer about producing high quality product efficiently. But instead just about who could get “inveeeeestment” from the reliably retarded idiot classes that The Fed has robbed everyone else in order to enrich. And THAT, is the one thing the US is any good at, at all.
But eventually; the guys who can tie shoelaces and other advanced stuff; of course quickly learned to play the idiot-game as well. And they quickly learned to play it better. Just as they play everything better. By now much better. Which was, after all, the reason the US could not compete at real, useful cars and hence chose childish hucksterism instead, to begin with.
Any other attempted made-up “justification” for BEVs, is just a sales pitch. It was never about anything other than a crass, obvious attempt at tilting the playing field, since “we” could not.
And “we” still can not. So now, “we” are no longer producing much in the way of BEVs. Instead, “we” the perennial can-nots, are now onto equally trivially obviously nonsensical “self driving” and “AI”. Which, just like last time, is not a useful business at all. But instead, again just like last time, just another waste for the; just as reliably retarded as last time; Fed welfare recipient idiot classes to be told stupid little them are “like,visionaries!!!” by, like, inveseeesting in the hyped up drivel.
Par for the course with China. They did the same thing with that wall. It didn’t do much for defense but it did keep their massive population busy with heads down.
They also gave you $200 55 inch TVs and cheap laptops and clothes and a MILLION other things over the previous 20 years.
US Automakers, outside of Tesla, are DYING in China because they can’t sell ICE vehicles there.
This isn’t a thing that will pass…GM sells half its Global Sales in China (or it did two years ago). That means GM’s size will plummet..so will their scale and Economies of Scale.
Junk
EVs are the most expensive vehicles to operate over 1,000 miles, according to iSeeCars
link to news.yahoo.com
It’s raining EVs!!!!! hahahahahaha… They would struggle to give them away.
Where are all the Tesla Fan Boys???? The Teslarati… the idiots hahaha the suckers!!!!
Hilarious dude!
Except EV sales are UP about 25% Globally so far this year.
They will continue to go UP Globally and ICE sales will continue to go down as Economies of Scale decrease the costs and smaller and more affordable EVs continue to grow in quantity and availability.
It’s already happening and will continue to happen.
car sales never rebounded from the 40% nose-dive in 2008.
But they are not going up anymore … have you noticed that Tesla has now laid off again — approaching 20% now hahaha…
And the legacy automakers are chopping their EVs big time
I was at a Lexus dealer in early April – the salesman half heartedly tried to sell me an EV – then he gave up and told me they have not sold a single EV since Jan 1 hahahahahahaha
The CCP likes them, because of the potential for granular control of individual citizens.
Rather than just sitting there and depreciating, perhaps they can attach a cheap Chinese-made solar panel to the roof of each car (use the car’s battery for storage) and power a nearby city?
Don’t give Elon any ideas……
…and a wind turbine, with an activist glued to the roof to scream into it and turn the fan?
They only need insects to live on, so they don’t need to stop screaming much.
Let me add to the joy we are feeling!!!
The electric car crash will rival the dotcom bubble
The problem for ministers is that most consumers just won’t buy EVs
link to archive.md
Jeff Green – have you sold your collection of increasingly worthless EVs?????
And YET EV sales are UP by about 25% GLOBALLY so far this year. Guns ICE sales in China are plummeting and they will lose about 1/3 of their total Global sales over the next three years.
Consumers are NOT buying ICE Vehicles in China and many countries in Europe and now South East Asia. These markets Dwarf the US auto market, which is now only about 20% of the Global Market.
Keep believing FUD articles and Fiddle while your OIL burns.
Past performance is not an indication ….. etc….
EV sales are now crashing… cuz they make no sense. The more they sold the more this message spread…
You get people realizing that they can’t be charged in the cold… that the tires wear out rapidly… that insurance costs more… that repairs cost more etc etc…
And word of mouth spreads about all these problems… and the only buyers who remain … are the die-hard cultists who believe driving a coal powered car is saving the world.
Get it?
There is no current data about EV sales in 2024, and limited data for 2023.
It is NOT factual to state that “EV sales are up globally by 25%”.
The IEA projected growth at that level, 55% in China, forced by the CCP.
In reality, best data suggests current growth of around 20%, and declining. Most of the sales are in China, and that’s due to the CCP, which owns the factories, and owns the bank accounts of the consumers.
Some countries in Europe have tiny declines in sales in ICE cars. Mostly this is in a few large urban centres where there is infrastructure and relative affluence, as well as sticks and carrots, but they are not practical outside of major urban areas.
Some countries in SEAsia have tiny declines in sales in ICE cars, but ICE car sales outside cities are buoyant, because 4WD are essential, and there’s simply no infrastructure or demand or disposible income for such things – they are luxury goods that you only see in handful of luxury locations in Asia – and I am in Asia, so I know what I see.
“How dare you!”
What will the economic Temujin be? Tariffs? Demographics? Lying flat?
Mostly the last two, I would say… for young CCP-controlled Chinese… the 25-35 age group, the situation for them is pretty bleak. What’s worse is that they are policed and censored so much, that they are broken as a generation, CCP life is not worth living.
Automobiles, EV or ICE, do not have an infinite shelf life. They need to be either driven regularly or treated like showroom pieces. These cars in the photo are getting neither.
I’ve read elsewhere that these Chinese EVs are priced 2x-3x for what they are sold in China. All markup. The Chinese can undercut the prices of European manufacturers and price gouge at the same time.
The Cars in the Photo are NOT in Europe. They’re being loaded onto a Ship for export.
EV Sales are UP 25% Globally this year overall. They will continue increasing this year Globally. JUST LIKE they have over the previous decade.
GM is losing about 1/3 of its Global Business because they can’t sell ICE vehicles in China anymore. The same is happening to European Brands that make ICE vehicles there.
Most Chinese cannot afford EVs. The CCP is using debt and creative accounting to roll out their use in the major cities as a way to control, monitor, and police people.
EV sales growth in China is falling, since the CCP ended subsidies for buyers in 2022.
I get charged $20/hour to have my car at the airport and if I overstay a parking meter anywhere I get an even bigger charge. Perhaps the ports need to charge a similar amount for those thousands of cars that park beyond a set time limit. Then the importers will move them quickly and not send any more from China until the supply pipeline is functioning efficiently.
BTW there are even more unsold EV cars rusting in China. Who is paying to make so many unsold cars?
Did you not read the articles — NOBODY WANTS THEM. There is no way to clear them … even if they give them away for free
Some people want them, and I think the EV market can stabilise about 15%, whilst the technology and infrastructure improves. The major constraint is obviously cost, and the global deflation that is reducing disposable incomes.
But in EUROPE the Prices aren’t coming down much for now . . .
If Tesla and other name brand EVs are unreliable junk, how bad are the Red Chinese products?
I would challenge that, as Chinese manufactured goods can be competitive with Western ones. Some large Volvos and Buicks sold in the US, for example, are actually made in China. And I have a couple small pieces of power equipment with Chinese-made motors that are excellent little engines.
For me, Chinese manufactured goods are like the Japanese imports of the 1960s. They were cheap and junk. And then they got to be good, then very good, and then sometimes even the standard.
True. But an EV is an EV regardless of the country of origin. Expensive Junk … powered by coal (saving the planet though)
Coal is collapsing as an Electricity Source and will be replaced almost completely in the US and other Advanced Economies. Battery Storage and Solar and Wind and other renewable sources continue to increase while Coal continues to plummet in usage and will continue to do so.
Many EV owners have Solar and battery storage systems installed. The Tipping Point for Coal shutdowns in the West has already happened and is rapidly accelerating because of battery storage capacity.
Coal continues to plummet – because government increasingly prohibits coal.
. (- Or maybe we can export coal to China or India.)
I think the C in DavidC stands for Chicken Little.
Let me introduce you to Reality:
Global primary energy consumption by source
link to ourworldindata.org
And then there is this hahaha link to reuters.com
I agree with you comments on Japanese Vechicles and namely the 1969 Honda 4-Cylinder Bike, the CB750.. THEY CHANGED IT ALL.
My Dad and his pals were all Norton/BSA/Triumph Riders (the hot bikes of their times) and they LAUGHED at a neighbor when he bought his CB750 – – until My Dad rode it and he came back totally blown away by the Smooth Power, the POWER itself and the brakes.
Detroit marveled at the Honda-50cc and Honda-90cc motor bikes that achieved 40 & 60 mph. They broke down the tiny engines to find the magic. The magic was precision engineering. And the rest is history. I have never purchased Detroit iron.
Season 4 Episode 5 Mad Men
Your commented reminded me of the fact of world-sourcing by manufacturers. Most name-brand motorcycles (Honda, Triumph, etc.) that are 300cc or less are made in Thailand.
I think Chinese cut corners much more than Japanese, culturally, Chinese do not have Japan’s “honour” system, and Chinese culture tends to be much more mercenary on prices, deceptive on quality, and exploitative of labour.
Yep Tesla is near the bottom of Consumer Reports for reliability — and one of the most expensive vehicles to repair.
EVs are doomed
We’ve heard how “Doomed” Tesla is since 2008. STILL NOT “Doomed”. Still sitting on Tens of Billions in Cash. Still moving forward and better prepared for the future than GM, Ford or other ICE manufacturers in the largest Auto Markets on the planet.
The thing is … EVs never made sense… it just took a bit of time for folks to realize this…
And now they are no longer hip… therefore Tesla is collapsing…
Check it out link to msn.com
Ford has MORE Recalls than ANYONE. ICE vehicles are junk and are losing ground Globally as EV Sales are UP 25% this year so far.
ICE vehicles are being killed in China and Globally, as more and more countries tip over to more EV sales. Watching any biased reporting on one port or one company ignores the fact that more EVs were sold last year than the year before. And MORE EVs have been sold this year than last year Globally. And how rapidly ICE vehicle sales are collapsing.
No David, it’s YOU who are collapsing – go and get some help.