Once serious critical mass begins with electric vehicle sales—how are hundreds of millions of people around the world going to get rid of their internal combustion engine vehicles when no one wants to buy them anymore?

Question

Once serious critical mass begins with electric vehicle sales—how are hundreds of millions of people around the world going to get rid of their internal combustion engine vehicles when no one wants to buy them anymore?

In: Economics

Answer 1

Supply and demand tends to take care of this sort of thing.
If you need a car, but don’t really mind what you have, the total cost is probably the most important factor. If more people want electric cars and less want old petrol cars, then the price of petrol cars will decrease, which will make them a better value so more people are inclined to by them.

In economics this is known as market clearing.

(Note, once a car become cheaper to scrap than repair they usually are. This is true regardless of new types/features etc).