Battery Derangement: Electric vehicles won’t save the planet and won’t survive without subsidies.

City Journal ^ | October 10, 2019 | Mark P. Mills

[karpov]

Electric vehicles stand at the center of every “green energy” initiative. Multiple jurisdictions mandate and subsidize the inevitable transition to “clean” transportation. Some policymakers have gone further, setting deadlines for outright bans on the internal-combustion engine (ICE), and Green pundits regularly issue forecasts promising the imminent dominance of electric vehicles (EVs).

The EV is central to the notion that we’re on the cusp of a grand shift to a “new-energy economy.” In addition to its putative environmental benefits, the EV, we’re told, is a better machine than an ICE. It’s easier to manufacture, uses less labor, and will—eventually—cost less. Since consumers will soon demand an all-EV future, we should embrace policies to accelerate the transition.

Rarely have so many claims about a product been so wrong. The only unequivocal fact in the EV narrative is that more EVs exist today—approximately 4 million—than ever before. Lithium-battery chemistry—the inventors of which received the 2019 chemistry Nobel Prize—along with advances in power electronics, has made it possible to build practical, if expensive, electric cars. But everything else in the popularized EV storyline is deeply misguided. Advocates claim that EVs are far simpler machines than combustion engines. But the essential “engine” for both is similarly complicated. While the EV’s electric motor is simple, its battery is a half-a-ton electrochemical machine with thousands of parts and welds, along with wiring, electronics, and cooling. It’s every bit as complex as—and far more expensive than—the combustion-mechanical drivetrain that it replaces.

Manufacturing automotive batteries is surprisingly labor intensive. Tesla’s gargantuan battery factory in Nevada produces about 1,000 propulsion batteries per year per 12 workers. Meantime, a modern engine and transmission factory produces about 1,000 mechanical-propulsion systems per year per four workers. EVs don’t reduce total labor requirements; they simply outsource American labor.

[cgbg]

Electricity grows on trees—just ask the folks in northern California and they will explain it to you!

[SERKIT]

Here's another spin.....

Electric cars are RASSISSSS and bad for the planet!!!!!

The materials for the batteries are mined in- and many of the batteries are manufactured in- countries where swarthy minorities are forced to work in poor conditions under less-than-ecologically-correct conditions.

Otherwise, electric cars are actually fueled by coal.

[Dilbert San Diego]

True, what the heck are they doing in parts of California with electricity cut off ? How can they recharge the electric cars?

It would he a big irony, if people there use diesel or gasoline powered generators, with the power being cut off.

[Vaquero]

Rush ran a story about some schlub who needed to get new batteries for his Tesla. The price? $33,000.

[al baby]

Nope they have electric eel ponds

[TexasGator]

I own battery powered:

Mower
Edger
Blower
Chainsaw
Pole saw
Drills
Lanterns
UPS

[Moonman62]

True, what the heck are they doing in parts of California with electricity cut off ? How can they recharge the electric cars?

...

How can they pump gas?

[Moonman62]

For an opposing point of view:

Is Tesla Model 3 The Next Toyota Camry?

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/10/09/tesla-model-3-next-toyota-camry/

[TexasGator]

“Rush ran a story about some schlub who needed to get new batteries for his Tesla. The price? $33,000.”

That was about an Australian Leaf.

Undocumented.

Nissan sells that battery for less than $10k.

Get your facts straight.

[Pontiac]

Having abandoned direct subsidies, China will now simply require that EVs make up 3 to 4 percent of all domestic car production. Policymakers in democracies and autocracies find mandates appealing because they are a de facto hidden tax wherein industries, rather than government, get blamed for resulting higher costs.

Hey! That sounds a lot like the US and ethanol in gasoline!

[fproy2222]

I have been thinking about getting an electric truck. The more I learn, I would do more harm to the earth by going electric. It moves the air polution to where electricity is made.. It also moves the polution from now on the highway to what to do with the batteries at the end of there life.
Like we are now having trouble with the blades on the big wind turbines that have reached the end of there service life.

[phs3]

Are you happy with the battery powered mower. I have a pretty small lawn.

My craftsman is dying after 25 years of service. I think my son bent the drive shaft hitting a stump.

[TexasGator]

“I have been thinking about getting an electric truck. “

Yeah, really ...

[ctdonath2]

That story was about someone getting a new battery for a 2012 Nissan Leaf - a small-production car 8 years old with very limited parts availability. Most owners would have gotten a new 300-mile Tesla 3 for about the same price instead of paying for a hard-to-find battery.

Battery life for new Teslas is pushing 1,000,000 miles, along with the rest of the drivetrain.

[DannyTN]

If manufacturing batteries is labor intensive now, that means their is a lot of room for improvement. And that will drive the cost down.

We're at the beginning of the experience curve for these types of batteries. Automation will follow. Design improvements will follow. New battery technology will follow.

My issues with EV are:

• Range?
• If they are lighter what does that imply about safety in car wrecks?
• Am I going to get covered in battery acid in a car wreck?
• Recharge time?
• Am I going to get electrocuted in a car wreck?
• Cost of new batteries?

[TexasGator]

“Are you happy with the battery powered mower. I have a pretty small lawn.”

Very Happy.

80v with 2 batteries. One battery easily does my small lawn.

It mostly runs in slow speed but will speed up on longer grass. Wish I could hack it to keep in high speed.

Keep is to keep blade sharp. Easy to access as it stores up-ended.

[dhs12345]

Last winter we lost power for a whole day —however, we were still able to heat our house and cook meals with natural gas — our fireplace and our stove.

[ctdonath2]

Likewise. Switching out for all-battery tools as sales come by.

Bought a compatible battery-powered lawnmower. Love it. Takes about 4 batteries (accumulated from other purchases) to mow the whole lawn, but easy to swap and easy to recharge. Don’t need gas, don’t worry about oil, whole thing is cheaper to replace than fixing the gasoline mower.

And had an EV as well. I don’t get the visceral hate for electrics. All my electric tools/cars are quieter, cheaper to buy & run, easier to “fuel”, and downright more fun than the gasoline & wired counterparts.

[Pontiac]

Having abandoned direct subsidies, China will now simply require that EVs make up 3 to 4 percent of all domestic car production. Policymakers in democracies and autocracies find mandates appealing because they are a de facto hidden tax wherein industries, rather than government, get blamed for resulting higher costs.

I have some serious doubts about that.

I don’t see how an electric truck is going to pull my RV or boat cross country.

With a full tank of gas my truck will go 600+ miles and that tank can be filled in 5 minutes. How does an electric truck compare?