Here’s How to Kill Electric Cars
The stories that shaped the week, and the big ideas behind them.
Five Things We Learned This Week
The electric car seems to be on an unstoppable trajectory. In the past five years, the number of electric cars on the road worldwide has soared to two million from basically nothing, the International Energy Agency said this week. But one nation is showing there’s a way to halt their popularity: Stop paying people to buy one. Electric-car sales in Denmark fell more than 60 percent in the first quarter after the government announced that tax breaks would be phased out. Tesla’s Elon Musk had traveled to Copenhagen and lobbied against the cuts, and now the Danish government has extended the tax breaks but still intends to reduce or eliminate various incentives. The phase-out plan “completely killed the market,” said Laerke Flader, head of the Danish Electric Car Alliance. “Price really matters.”
Bloomberg’s Toluse Olorunnipa has noticed something peculiar. In President Donald Trump’s world, everything is about to happen in two or three weeks. “The president has used two-week timelines to sidestep questions from reporters or brag to CEOs at the White House,” Olorunnipa wrote. “But his pronouncements have also flummoxed investors, Congress and occasionally even members of his staff.” A few examples: