"Coronavirus pandemic ruins outlook for a world of electric and autonomous cars" (TSLA)

For more on Elon and the Ventilators* (not going on tour any time soon) see after the jump.

From Yahoo News who seem to be doing a lot more original reporting:
April 1

With Detroit’s Big Three automakers and Elon Musk’s Tesla making ventilators to support the coronavirus pandemic relief effort, no doubt the shift to electronic and autonomous cars has suffered a major setback.

For one, electric and hybrid cars aren’t being made right now as plants are shut down to support social distancing. Who knows when auto production restarts. Moreover, it’s unclear what demand will be like for these often more expensive cars when consumers try to catch up on bills later this year after being laid off this spring.

Meanwhile, automakers have temporarily halted investments in the technology designed to power the cars of the future (not to mention a good chunk of their advertising for them).

And last but not least, the plunge in oil prices — which has sent gas prices to below $1.00 a gallon in some parts of the country — makes it more attractive for people to own a car with a good old fashioned gas engine.  

Take all these factors together, and you see a vastly different road ahead for electric and autonomous cars looking out the next several years.

“There has been a setback,” TPG Global senior advisor and former Ford CEO Mark Fields said on Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade. Fields is credited with putting Ford on track to play aggressively in the electric and autonomous car future as CEO from 2014-2017.

Add Fields, “This is going to be another casualty, if you will of COVID-19, in which an environment where you have consumer purchasing power severely impacted. And the fact that electronic cars are still viewed as luxury items because they are more expensive than internal combustion engines.”...MORE

This was the point of our March 30 headline, "If The Electric Vehicle Business Ever Comes Back This Could Be Big".

*FT Alphaville, April 2: "Elon Musk promised ventilators. These are BPAP machines.".

For victims it is a big distinction, see: "How Ford Is Using Seat Ventilation Fans to Build Thousands of Respirators". For Elon it is a PR/ comms disaster.

Previously from Alphaville's Jemima Kelly:
Cuomo says New York is experimenting with having two patients share one ventilator; Canada Says Ours Go Up To Nine, Eh?
(Could a bunch of internet denizens give us more ventilators?)