Layoffs at Tesla reveal the need for fresh ‘green’ thinking

Tens of billions of dollars in subsidies for electric vehicles. Billions more coming to subsidize charging stations. Non-stop jibberjabber about “sustainable” this and “Green New Deal” that.

Endless moral preening from the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Overbearing corporate arm-twisting. 

And the bestselling vehicle in the United States in 2023 was the Ford F-150 pickup. No. 2 was the Chevy Silverado pickup. No. 3? Ram pickup. 

Perhaps you are seeing a trend. 

So there’s gold, silver, bronze . . . whatever you get for fourth place . . . and then you come to Elon Musk & Co.

His Tesla’s Model Y came in a respectable No. 5, right between the Toyota RAV-4 and the Honda CRV, two small SUVs beloved by people who cannot afford bigger ones.

Thanks to Uncle Sugar, the Model Y’s sales were goosed a bit in 2023 by the return of a $7,500 federal handout and state and local giveaways such as the Bay Area’s Clean Cars 4 All program, which will put up to $9,500 in your pocket if you swap an older gasoline or diesel vehicle for an electric one.

That’s a lot of money — and a lot of market-distorting economic intervention — to push a $50,000 status symbol for affluent urbanites into fifth place. 

Juicing the markets is expensive — and it works only up to a point. 

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