Why it still might take decades for EVs to achieve dominance in the U.S.

By Trey Thoelcke Updated May 23, 10:16AM EDT · Published May 23, 4:09AM EDT

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Why it still might take decades for EVs to achieve dominance in the U.S. — © chrisp0 / E+ via Getty Images

(A native of England, veteran journalist Matthew Diebel has worked at NBC News, Time, USA Today and News Corp., among other organizations.)

She’s almost 19 years old and oh, so beautiful. No, she’s not a budding supermodel or a college freshman. Instead, she’s my 2004 Honda CR-V, currently getting dinged on a nearby New York City street with nearly 200,000 miles on the clock and not having had a problem (except a bust AC) in her lifetime. My wife says I will go into deep mourning when she dies, a notion that is not too far from reality.

And I am not alone in hanging on to my antiquated auto. People in the U.S., influenced by the fact that modern cars are much more reliable, a fading of the I-must-have-the-latest-model-in-my-driveway mentality and other factors, are keeping their wheels longer, with the average age of vehicles now being 12.5 years, according to S&P Mobility, with 2022 being the sixth straight year of increase in the average vehicle age of the U.S. fleet. “There are almost 122 million vehicles in operation over 12 years old,” said Todd Campau, an associate director at S&P Global Mobility, which also noted that sales of new cars fell 8% from 14.6 million vehicles in 2021 to 13.9 million in 2022, the lowest total of new car sales in over a decade…

Subscribe to Callaway Climate Insights to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

About the Author Trey Thoelcke →

Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.

Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community. He previously oversaw the 24/7 Climate Insights site, managing editorial operations and content strategy, and currently oversees and creates content for My Investing News.

Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.

Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, overseeing a long-running critique group and moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions. He lives with his family in an old house in the Midwest.