Why Impressive Speed Won’t Be Enough To Sell EVs In The U.S.

EV’s have quicker acceleration than gas cars and reaching higher top speeds. Once the “green choice,” they have now put a tremendous amount of power at the feet of even ordinary car owners. CNBC drove three of them at M1 Concourse in Pontiac, Michigan – a Kia EV6 GT-Line, a Porsche Macan 4S Electric and an Audi RS e-tron GT. The experience proved what insiders say – EVs, in many ways, are superior machines. Yet, with the disappearance of federal support for them, automakers are pulling back on production. U.S. sales lag the rest of the world, and they may fall further now that incentives have dried up. Here’s why EV’s are more powerful than their gas counterparts, why automakers have still struggled to replicate Tesla’s success and what is needed to sell them now.

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:28 Chapter 1: From green to mean
5:15 Chapter 2: How we got here
8:12 Chapter 3: Declining sales
12:05 Chapter 4: What's next

Producer: Robert Ferris
Editor: Nic Golden Henry
Camera: Sean Baldwin, Graham Merwin
Animation: Emily Park, Jason Reginato, Mallory Brangan
Senior Managing Producer: Tala Hadavi
Additional footage: Alex Roy, Audi, BMW, Ford, Getty Images, GM, Hyundai Motor Group, Nissan, Rimac, Rivian, Stellantis, Tesla, Toyota

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Why Impressive Speed Won’t Be Enough To Sell EVs In The U.S.

Post from CNBC on November 18, 2025

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