While chatting with a friend this week, a funny idea came to me. What if this year we wrote a 2023 Car Guide, concerning only the vehicles that you will actually be able to have in 2023? We could save a lot of time, energy and paper, since many models are simply unavailable!
Over the past few weeks, I will indeed have dealt with this subject from different angles. But this time, let’s go concrete. Because automakers are holding out to us a reality that is increasingly non-existent, insofar as several of the vehicles that we are testing recently are downright unavailable.
This is particularly striking in electric cars, in particular because of the rise in fuel prices, but also because the production of these models is certainly more limited than that of mass-produced vehicles. Note that there are a few exceptions despite this, since you will have to wait 9 to 12 months to get your hands on a Toyota RAV4 hybrid. Not to be confused of course with the RAV4 Prime, plug-in hybrid, for which there is talk of a 30-month wait. Ridiculous…
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Mysterious customer
Before writing this article, I chose to randomly “disturb” a few salespeople at different dealerships, as if I were shopping for an electric car. I would also like to apologize to those who received a call this week from a certain Guillaume Tremblay (my fictitious buyer name), which nevertheless allowed me to have the time fair, without being dangled to me with a slightly biased reality.
A call to Kia first confirmed to me that I would not be able to buy an EV6 before the summer of 2023. By forcing, however, the seller mentioned to me the possibility of obtaining a Niro EV SX (the most equipped) d end of the year. As for the Soul EV, he was also talking to me about 2023. At Hyundai, even worse. I was told July-August 2023 for an IONIQ 5, spring 2023 for a Kona EV and maybe a slim chance for the little IONIQ by the end of the year.
For its part, the Volkswagen dealer with whom I spoke reported a minimum of 18 months of waiting for the new ID.4. And this, regardless of the version I wanted to order. You could also feel the discouragement – even the disgust – in the sound of his voice, leading me to believe that the calls were multiplying as well as the negative responses.
At Ford, being very little capricious on the version, it seems that it is possible to get your hands on a Mustang Mach-E by the end of the year. But beware, the four-wheel-drive Premium version (the most coveted) will take longer, about a year.
Of course, Chevrolet cannot yet guarantee a specific delivery time for the Bolt EV and Bolt EUV, although a minimum of 12 to 18 months is reported. In this particular case, we will soon resume the delivery of new models parked for months on which it is necessary to replace the battery… A long and arduous process which discourages more than one buyer.
On Toyota’s side, it seems that the 2000 units of the new bZ4X allocated for the Quebec market have not all been sold yet, but it will only take a few weeks for them to be. Several hybrid models are also very rare, to the point where, in some cases, we are also full for 2022.
My last two phone calls were to Nissan and Tesla. For a Leaf, it’s already too late. All the models available for 2022 have already been sold, and it would be surprising if an order made today could be delivered before next spring. As for Tesla, we managed to defend ourselves with a delivery in mid-May 2022 for a long-range Model 3. The wait time will however be extended for a basic version or for a Model Y, which brings us towards the end of the year.
So, by writing a 2023 Car Guide, should we include all those models that will not be available within 12 months of release? Obviously, this question is not serious, since our team will continue to analyze everything that the industry markets. However, it is not impossible that the “availability” factor is seriously considered there. A new data which, unfortunately, illustrates a new reality of the market.