Elon Musk Believes It’s Foolish to Buy a Gasoline Car Because Electric Vehicles Are The Future
Elon Musk dropped another gem during Tesla’s Q3 2022 earnings call that could predict the end of the gasoline car era.
The world’s richest man truly believes that it’s foolish to buy a gasoline car at this point because the residual low will be very low as the world moves towards electric vehicles.
Elon Musk Believes It’s Foolish To Buy a Gasoline Car Because It Has “Low Value”
Martin Viecha, the head of Investor Relations at Tesla, read a shareholder question about Tesla’s ability to perform in a prolonged recession.
That’s when Elon Musk predicted the end of gasoline cars and the inevitable rise of the electric vehicle revolution.
Here’s the exact quote from Tesla CEO Elon Musk from Tesla’s Q3 2022 earnings call transcript:
So, I think the public, at large, realizes that the world is moving toward electric vehicles and that it’s foolish to actually buy a new gasoline car at this point because the residual value of that gasoline car is going to be very low. So, I think we have to be in a very good spot. But I wouldn’t say it’s recession proof, but it’s certainly risk — recession resilient because basically, it has — people both have large part made the decision to move away from gasoline cars to electric cars.
Global EV Sales Are Rising Every Quarter Since The Pandemic
How likely is the world to move away from gasoline cars in the near future? According to CleanTechnica, electric vehicles made up 6% of United States auto sales in Q3 2022 (Up from 2.2% in Q3 2021).
Electric Cars Auto Sales in United States By Quarter
| Quarter | Market Share |
|---|---|
| Q3 2022 | 6.1% |
| Q2 2022 | 5.1% |
| Q1 2022 | 4.7% |
| Q4 2021 | 4.1% |
| Q3 2021 | 3.7% |
| Q2 2021 | 3% |
| Q1 2021 | 2.5% |
| Q4 2020 | 2.3% |
| Q3 2020 | 2.2% |
It looks like Elon Musk makes a great point. United States EV sales are growing every quarter while there is a similar trend in Europe and China as well.
Companies such as Tesla and Nio continue hitting record deliveries each year to fulfill the growing electric car demand.
Elon Musk Thinks Gasoline Cars are Low Value
Elon Musk is a long term thinker that plays chess while everyone else is playing checkers. He believes gasoline cars are low value because the demand for ICE vehicles will be extremely low by the end of the decade.
An electric vehicle is really a smart car just like a smarphone when compared to a standard cell phone. You cannot compare the two or nobody wants to switch back to a boring, old school cell phone after they owned an Apple iPhone.
Who is going to spend their hard earned money on a gasoline car that’s using technology from the 1800’s in the future? It makes sense that smart consumers adopt electric cars ASAP so their EV will retain some value in the future.
Conclusion
Elon Musk has made many bold predictions that have come true in the past. He predicted that Tesla’s market cap would exceed $700 billion in 2017, which came true last year. He also said that Tesla’s market cap could be worth more than Apple and Saudi Aramco combined in the near future.
Tesla has grown in value so much because the world desperately wants electric vehicles. I wouldn’t suggest betting against Tesla or Elon Musk at this point.
It may be time to research your next electric vehicle purchase and prepare for the inevitable electric car revolution.
