The Detroit Auto Show is back after a three year pit stop due to COVID.
The big focus this year is electric cars.
American Road Trip is going to be fully electrified, whether you're driving coast-to-coast along I-10. Or on I-75 in Michigan. Charging stations will be up and easy to find as gas stations are now.
President Biden helped jump-start the electric fanfare, announcing $900 million to install EV chargers along 53,000 miles of U.S. highways across 35 states.
They'll need to be built quickly. EV sales are shocking analysts. They're up 60% in the first quarter of the year. They account for about five percent of the sales, but they only make up one percent of the 250 million cars on the road.
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But sales are kicking into overdrive. EV sales are expected to make up 30% of all car sales by the end of the decade, almost half by 2035 and the majority of sales in less than 30 years.
Whether you prefer a sports car, truck, or SUV, there's an electric version of everything.
The big auto makes, like GM, are focusing on electric and pledging to only sell electric cars by the middle of the next decade.
One of the big deterrents, though, is cost.
The average gas-powered car costs about $48,000 while the average EV costs about $66,000.
GM is trying to get cars into middle-class driveways, unveiling its new fully electric Equinox for just $30,000.
"We really think this is going to be a key point for EV adoption," Equinox EV Chief Engineer Matt Purdy said. And we’re going to see that we're priced right in the right segment with the right vehicle."
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All of the big automakers are betting big on electric.
GM is spending $7 million on new electric battery planes in Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. Ford is writing a $11 billion check for EV plants in Tennessee and Kentucky, that will employ 11,000 people. Meanwhile, Telsa is building a new plant in Austin, Texas. And Stellantis is dropping more than $2 billion on a battery plant in Indiana.
Ford basically split its company in half — half gas, half electric — and it's already paying off.
Last month, its EV sales jumped 307%, driven by its electric F-150 pick-up and Mustang models. It will sell 600,000 EVs this year and two million annually in just four years.
Not to be left out in the dark, Stellantis, which owns Jeep, announced its new hybrid Jeep Grand Cherokee.
But not everything is electric. This year, they will also debut the Farwell Edition of the Chrysler 300, which is a large gas-powered sedan.
