“EV’s – Electric Vehicles”

Even if politicians can push us all into e-vehicles, they will have to be small and scarce to achieve emissions goals.

“The Impossible Dream” is the title of a new report on electric vehicles from the Manhattan Institute’s Mark Mills. After reading the particulars one wonders whether that title is too optimistic. One issue that probably hasn’t received enough attention is that even if politicians can manage to force all of humanity out of cars with internal combustion engines, it will still be extremely hard to meet political emissions targets unless the surviving electric vehicles are small and scarce. What also may not be appreciated given all the alleged innovation surrounding EVs is that production of the minerals needed to make them may become less environmentally friendly, not more.

Big government mandates are forcing the national transition to electric vehicles. Consumer demand doesn’t appear to matter.

Government is doling out billions in special loans and subsidies to select companies and twisting tax policy to make EVs appear cheaper. At the same time, heavy-handed mandates are making traditional, reliable cars more expensive and harder to produce.

The U.S. electric vehicle market is growing, but not fast enough during the latest quarter to prevent unsold EVs from stacking up at some automakers’ dealerships or to allow Tesla to avoid new price cuts, according to analysts and industry data.

Rising inventories and price-cutting could represent only a short-term pause in EV market growth. But they could be signals that boosting U.S. EV sales above the current 7% market share level will be more costly and difficult than expected, even with federal and state subsidies. Automakers North America have billions of dollars in EV-related investments riding on how the next several quarters play out. If production of EVs continues to outpace demand, automakers will have to choose between slashing prices and profit margins, or slowing assembly lines.

EV’s have a niche as a status symbol for now. Once their many drawbacks become more widely known they will be avoided based solely on their impracticallity.

In a rare show of solidarity, American automakers and the unions representing their employees are begging the Biden administration to back off on its aggressive efforts to force Americans into electric vehicles in the name of combating climate change.

Leaders of the United Auto Workers union asked President Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency to water down a proposal to make upcoming emissions standards for internal combustion engines much stricter by 2027. The new standards would effectively require that two-thirds of all vehicles sold in the United States be electric by 2032.

Brown-John: Electric vehicles may come at substantial cost

… Another concern pertains to Ontario’s electrical grid which at the moment does not have sufficient capacity to service thousands of EV chargers. Don’t forget we’re also shifting away from natural gas to produce electricity.

The Ford government has been adding natural gas generators as a stop-gap measure to meet immediate needs. But this could preclude Ontario from accessing federal government carbon reduction incentives intended to reduce carbon emissions.

So, the obvious question is how in the long run does Ontario generate sufficient electricity to service thousands of EV chargers?

A good article illustrating the Cloudcuckooland inhabited by Trudeau and the like.

Before you hitch an Airstream to your electric truck and set out to circumnavigate the country, you need to understand this: With the largest available battery pack, a fully charged 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck has less energy onboard than a regular F-150 with four gallons of gas in its tank.

Consider how far a combustion-powered F-150 would tow at max capacity on four gallons of regular unleaded. Thirty five miles? Maybe 40 if you drive slowly?

The video below was the first to let the world know of the very limited capacity of the Lightning as a daily driver work truck.

h/t Mauser

With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford throwing our money at Volkswagen Group and Stellantis-LGES to build electric vehicle battery plants in Ontario, it’s probably a bad time to mention Volkswagen is cutting back on the production of EV vehicles in Germany, due to “strong customer reluctance in the electric vehicle sector.”

Only stupid people and grifters are on board with EV’s.

The US is in the middle of an electric car revolution. This week, Tesla announced a record surge in sales in the second quarter of the year – delivering 446,140 cars worldwide in the three months leading up to June, outdoing its own prediction of 445,000.

Business has been bolstered in the US by federal tax credits for electric vehicles that have made them more accessible than ever for Americans.

Electric cars are much more expensive to buy, but usually cheaper to run – as maintenance and fuel costs can fall substantially with an eco car.

Non-Tesla EV drivers couldn’t go from Thunder Bay to Sault Ste. Marie much of June

Some electric vehicle drivers in northern Ontario say the charging network between Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie is failing those who don’t drive Teslas.

CCS and CHAdeMO fast chargers in Marathon, White River and Wawa were down for most of June; the Ivy location in White River has been out of service since mid-April.

Tesla chargers in the region were still working, according to reports on the forum PlugShare, where drivers update each other on charger status, but they are not currently compatible with non-Tesla vehicles.

Electric cars that sustain minor bumps are being kept 15 meters apart in repair yards over fears they might explode, adding to insurance bills.

Government guidelines recommend electric vehicles with damaged batteries should be “quarantined” from other vehicles due to the risk of battery fires. Damaged batteries pose a risk of “thermal runaway” where the energy stored in the battery releases rapidly, creating temperatures of up to 400C.

Politicians are forcing electric cars on a public that doesn’t want them

The electric car revolution is stalling, of that there can no longer be any doubt. It has left the big global carmakers floundering, uncertain of how to proceed in a race they reluctantly entered in the first place.

Electrification was initially met with fierce resistance. But once politicians held a gun to the heads of company bosses with a series of cliff-edge deadlines for phasing out the combustion engine, carmakers had little choice but to go all-in.