by Rebecca Reese
Europe is framing EVs as a cost-saving solution. China is framing them as an industrial strategy. The U.S. is framing them as politics.
That difference may help explain why global EV momentum is diverging so sharply.
This morning, two headlines reinforced the contrast. In Europe, rising fuel prices tied to ongoing Middle East tensions are driving demand for lower-cost EVs. In China, passenger car exports jumped nearly 85% in April, led by a 120% surge in EV and hybrid exports.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., where AAA pegs the national average gas price above $4.50, automakers are pulling back on EV investments as consumer demand softens.
I think part of the problem is market dynamics. But part of it is also a storytelling failure.
The U.S. retreat
Two stories from last week tell you the shape of it.
Nissan pulled the plug on its planned $500 million U.S. EV expansion. Two electric SUVs slated for the Canton, Mississippi, plant got canceled. Production is shifting back toward hybrids and gas-powered vehicles.
And it’s not just Nissan. GM is investing more than $6 billion in U.S. manufacturing this year, including roughly $4 billion for new internal combustion engine (ICE) projects. The dollars are following the demand, and the demand is following the profitability of trucks and SUVs.
The broader pattern across the industry is the same. Aggressive EV targets are getting walked back as demand softens after the end of federal tax credits, and consumers pivot toward hybrids and gas.
One company taking a notably different messaging approach is Toyota, which just launched a marketing campaign promoting its all-electric lineup with practical, everyday, lifestyle-driven storytelling. They are doing the work of making the transition to electric feel simple and relatable. They are trying to build consumer confidence rather than lean on incentives that no longer exist. That’s a different play than most of the category is running.
The Framing Problem
Here’s where I think the U.S. comms conversation has gone sideways.
In Europe, EVs are being talked about as a personal-finance answer to fuel prices. In China, they’re being talked about as an industrial-strategy and export-competitiveness story. In both cases, the framing is rooted in something concrete that the average person or country cares about — my fuel bill, our economic competitiveness.
In the U.S., EVs got politicized. We talk about them as an environmental issue, as a regulatory issue, as a tribal-identity issue tied to a specific CEO. We rarely talk about them as a personal-finance answer to high gas prices.
For many EV owners, the day-to-day economic benefits are real and immediate: lower fuel costs, less exposure to volatile gas prices, and reduced maintenance over time. But those practical benefits rarely dominate the U.S. EV conversation.
The technology challenges are real. But the industry has also done a poor job framing EVs in ways that feel practical and relevant to everyday consumers.
What this means for original equipment manufacturers and the brands around them
The consumer fatigue showing up in surveys and dealer traffic reflects the slower-than-expected EV demand many U.S. automakers are now facing. The slowdown in EV demand isn’t necessarily a rejection of the technology itself. It’s a mix of numerous factors:
- The federal incentive went away, and the personal-finance math feels less obvious to a first-time buyer.
- The conversation got attached to political identity in a way that’s exhausting for most buyers.
- Charging infrastructure isn’t where it needs to be. Anyone who has driven up to a public charger and watched it fail to work knows this is real. (That’s a piece in itself.)
- State-level EV mandates are also running into a basic consumer reality: people do not like feeling forced into major purchasing decisions, even when the long-term logic makes sense.
None of those issues exists in a vacuum. Some are infrastructure problems, some are policy problems, and some are market realities. But many have been amplified by the way the category has been framed publicly.
The frame that’s working
If you’re a comms leader at an OEM, an EV startup, or a supplier anywhere in this ecosystem, here’s what I’d be paying attention to.
Right now, affordability is outperforming sustainability messaging. Toyota’s new campaign stands out because it leads with practical, everyday, not planet-saving. People will make the climate calculation themselves, but they need to make the wallet calculation first.
National security and economic competitiveness are the right frames for the upstream story. China exporting 120% more EVs and hybrids in a single month isn’t a clean-tech headline. It’s an industrial-strategy headline. American battery, EV, and charging companies that frame their work as part of U.S. economic and security competitiveness will earn coverage that “saving the planet” pitches can no longer reach on their own.
Reporters are tired of category-language. They are not tired of stories about people. Character-driven storytelling lands in any beat, and this one is no different. The brands that can put a person at the center of their pitch — a wallet, a household, a daily commute — are the ones that will move category narratives.
The bigger question
The thing I keep coming back to: gas is a non-renewable resource. At some point, not this year and maybe not this decade, the country that built its consumer transportation strategy entirely around it is going to have a problem.
The rest of the world is solving that problem now. The U.S. is having a different conversation, and we’re falling behind in real time.
PR and comms alone will not determine the future of the EV market. But the stories this industry tells over the next two years will shape how consumers, regulators, and investors think about the category.
If the conversation stays political, adoption will stay political. If the conversation shifts toward affordability, energy independence, economic competitiveness, and everyday usability, the market has a much better chance of expanding beyond early adopters.
This is a story I’m going to keep watching. The mobility and EV space is one of the categories Kickstand has been deep in for years, and we’ll have more on it in the months ahead. Our content hub is the easiest place to follow along.
