Auto Industry Pulls Back On EVs As Consumers Hesitate Over High Price, Inconvenience

Automobile manufacturers are pumping the brakes on investing in the future of electric vehicles as car buyers think twice about buying them because of the high cost and need to keep charging them.

Ford Motor Co F announced on Thursday it would refit a plant in Canada to make large gas-fired pickup trucks instead of electric sport-utility vehicles originally planned for that facility, the New York Times reported.

On Wednesday, General Motors Co GM said it planned to cut back this year’s production of EVs by 50,000 units to a range from 200,000 to 250,000 vehicles.

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Even Tesla, Inc. TSLA, the leading producer of electric cars that created the EV market, is pulling back on investment in battery-powered vehicles. The company backed off on plans to build an electric car factory in Mexico and canceled a meeting in April between CEO Elon Musk and Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, to discuss a new plant in that country.

General Motors and Ford expected to be able to manufacture more than 1 million EVs a year by the middle of the decade, but General Motors CEO Mary T. Barra said this week it will take longer to reach that capacity because EV sales have slowed.

Price Actions: At market close Thursday, Ford gained 0.48% to reach $14.55, while General Motors slipped 0.50% to $49.65 and Tesla went up 0.29% to $249.23.

Exchange-traded funds that hold shares of Tesla, which has a market capitalization of $781 billion, had gains and losses on Thursday.

• T-Rex 2X Long Tesla Daily Target ETF TSLT edged up 0.68%.
• Direxion Daily TSLA Bull 2X Shares TSLL gained 0.64%.
• The Meet Kevin Pricing Power ETF PP slipped 1.16%.
• Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund XLY fell 1.02%.
• Direxion Daily Consumer Discretionary Bull 3X Shares WANT shed 3.24%.

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Photo: Ford F-150 Lightning, jluke via Shutterstock.com