Gabrielle Coppola brings us a new story with a great headline as she reports that Mercedes has delayed the EQC electric SUV for 1 year, until late 2021:

Mercedes-Benz is putting off the U.S. debut of its first electric vehicle by a year in the latest sign of just how difficult a time automakers are having replicating Tesla Inc.’s success.

Bloomberg

Success?!? What are you talking about, Tesla is a zero!

Daimler AG’s luxury brand will start sales of the EQC crossover in 2021 rather than early next year.

Bloomberg

“Hey, Boss –– did you know we apparently told people we were going to start selling electric SUVs in America in Early 2020?”

“Crap, that’s like in two weeks… shit… tell them we’re delaying it until 2021”

The world’s top-seller of premium autos has touted the EQCand the series of battery-powered models it has planned under the EQ sub-brand as an answer both to Tesla and its traditional rivals. But the initial electric vehicles Jaguar and Audi introduced in the U.S. market this year have underwhelmed on the sales charts, failing to keep up even with Tesla’s years-old Model S and X.

Bloomberg

Mercedes just watched Jaguar and Audi try and take a bite of the US EV market and immediately shit their pants in front of everyone. Can you blame them for saying they’re kind of full right now?

Daimler has at least 10 purely battery-powered cars planned through 2022 to help meet tougher emissions rules around the globe. But while regulatory pressure is picking up, U.S. demand has been tepid for models other than Tesla’s lower-priced Model 3. Consumers continue to harbor concerns about limited driving range, long charging times and high sticker prices.

Bloomberg

Most EVs still suck.

Jaguar has sold 2,418 I-Pace SUVs in the U.S. this year through November, while Audi has delivered 4,623 e-tron crossovers, according to InsideEVs. By contrast, the website estimates that Tesla has sold about 111,650 Model 3 sedans.

Bloomberg

Tesla killer?

Luxury-car makers’ biggest retailers are divided over the outlook for electric cars in the U.S. In February, the president of Sonic Automotive Inc., the fifth-largest U.S. dealership group in the country, wondered aloud on an earnings call whether Tesla had built a cult following for its cars and said the brand needed to be taken seriously by BMW and others.

But in October, Roger Penske, the chief executive officer of Penske Automotive Group Inc., said the I-Pace hasn’t sold as expected and that consumers have been canceling orders for the e-tron.

Bloomberg

It doesn’t sound like they’re divided about the outlook for electric cars. Just the ones made by legacy auto. Who could have guessed people would cancel orders for a crappy EV that Audi literally branded “The Turd”?

“They’re expensive, and everyone has range anxiety, and to me, what’s going to be the residual value at the end?” Penske said during an earnings call. “The growth is going to be slow.”

Bloomberg

The biggest problem legacy auto has in the EV transition is car dealerships. They will kill the OEMs and leave a new set of players to rule the Earth.

What happened to those Tesla killers? Mercedes delays EQC 1 year to late 2021 after the failure of the I-PACE and Audi’s étron @elonmusk @tesla

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Read the full story at Bloomberg