Posted on 01/30/2024 11:33:28 AM PST by george76
The fourth quarter of 2023 was not good for Electric Vehicles (EV). Multiple manufacturers decided to curb or halt production. Ford in particular decided to cut their F150 Lightening Truck series in half. Roughly 4,500 auto dealers signed on to a letter petitioning the Biden administration to “tap the breaks” on its aggressive EV push, on account of EVs stacking up on dealer lots.
The new year is already off to a rough start and we’re not even through the first month.
Hertz announced it will be selling off about one third of its EVs, which will amount to roughly 20,000 vehicles. This is a major reversal from their promise just a few years ago to dramatically increase its EV fleet. The money procured from selling them off will be used for the purchase of internal combustion engines (ICE) in order to “meet customer demand.” The car rental company isn’t too keen on the expensive repairs that accompany EV ownership either, which can cost up to twice that of ICE vehicles.
Mid-January saw a severe cold snap surge across many parts of the United States, greatly affecting the Midwest. Many Chicago-area EV owners found themselves unable to charge their vehicles, leaving them stranded. This is because on average an EV’s range can drop 40% and charging takes significantly longer in freezing conditions. Some motorists waited hours in line at charging stations that struggled to even charge vehicles, and long lines meant difficulty finding open charging stations. Other vehicles had to be towed. This can’t be good PR for the EV industry.
And now, a cheating scandal.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s fall study examines a rule in which EVs “improperly benefit from an erroneous interpretation by the U.S. Department of Energy of a series of laws” promoting alternative fuel vehicles, but “clearly excluding electric vehicles.” Carmakers can arbitrarily multiply the efficiency of EVs by 6.67, meaning a 2022 Tesla Model Y which tests at the equivalent of about 65 mpg in a laboratory is counted as having a compliance value of 430 mpg.
Environmental groups questioned the legality of the rule; the Wall Street Journal broke the story last week, claiming that such inflated numbers have “no basis in reality or law.”
With current regulations, automakers that don’t meet Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards are required to purchase credits from those whose fleets exceed them. Imagine the credits EVs can earn using a multiplier that boosts efficiency nearly seven times greater than gas-powered cars. It’s in the billions. Tesla alone apparently brought in $554 million from these credits just in 2023’s third quarter, representing a large portion of their overall net income.
The government is exploiting CAFE standards to drive the adoption of EVs.
If we’ve learned anything in these last several months about EVs, it’s that the government needs to quit manipulating the market through its massive subsidization of an unwanted “transition” and forcing consumers to purchase vehicles they don’t want. And now we learn automakers have been finagled into manufacturing EVs.
Blinded by their own climate ambitions, the net-zero crowd doesn’t see the writing on the wall. Nor do they seem to care that taxpayers are picking up the tab, particularly those purchasing ICE vehicles, which are artificially inflated to help companies recoup what they can’t charge EV buyers. Very few would actually pay the amount an EV really costs. Americans are bankrolling roughly $50,000 per EV over a decade, with the amount it takes to produce and keep them running.
The rapid push toward electrification is all way too much, far too soon. It’s crippling our economy and consumer wallets.
Centrally planned economies never turn out well; why would this be any different?
It’s past time to put consumers first, not the agenda of a select few. Like the letter penned by thousands of auto dealers across the nation said, “Many people just want to make their own choice about what vehicle is right for them.”
The #2 problem is that most EV owners buy one out of cult-like belief that it's saving the world from warmageddon.
If the only people buying EV's were the people for whom it meets practical use, there'd be few to no problems. But that's too much like free market thinking for the control-freak left.
Exactly. EV’s make a great sports car or daily commuter for someone who can afford a charger in a garage, and an ICE second vehicle. They do not work well for long trips or as your only mode of transportation.
repeal cafe
cafe kills
now it distorts the market
Battery fires inside your garage.. and
“tap the breaks” ????
The Lighting is more of a toy truck than the Raptor and cost about as much.
At least the Raptor has a real range of over 300 miles towing a trailer on pump gas.
The Lighting can tow a trailer about 100 miles.
With that kind of range do you want to go out on the road with your camper and just hope that you make it to the next charging station?
If you're a particular about the details and my real-world results of owning an EV and the practicality of it. Don't get an EV unless:
1) You're in the market for a new car anyway.
2) You're married and need two cars anyway so that one can be ICE to not be solely dependent on EV's.
3) The EV car in your marriage won't be the pickup.
4) You drive plenty of miles for the gas savings to more than offset the costs that come with the EV. (IMHO with gas and power prices in Alabama in year 2023 that's about 12K miles per year.) For my wife and me, we no longer say "her car" and "his truck". If we drive separately for the day and need two cars, whoever is driving the most that day takes the EV car unless that person needs the pickup for pickup chores, or the short driver is picking up an elderly person to ride and needs the EV because it's easier to get in, etc. In year 2023 we drove our EV a total of 26K miles, with about 16K miles charged at home.
4) You live in a home where you can set up a charger to charge at home (not to be confused with a Chargepoint or other pay as you go charger at some apartments because that can be as expensive as gas).
5) You don't live up north where the cold winters greatly reduce the efficiency of EV's.
6) Whatever road trips you usually take and want your new car (the EV) to be on, research before getting the EV to make sure most of your trips have good road-side charging options. You don't want to have to talk your old ICE pickup on every trip.
7) When on road trips your wife wants to stop every 150-200 miles and walk around for 10-15 minutes. LOL This is conducive to charging stops if you researched in step 6 above to confirm that the chargers you need are at least 150kW (most I use now on trips are 350kW).
I agree wholeheartedly. IMHO it was a major mistake for the big automakers to try EV trucks with full size. Most people who get trucks that size need them for real man pickup chores.
IMHO a small EV pickup like the old 4-cylinder Ford Rangers or Chevy S-10's would be practical use cases for EV pickups. For example, when I owned a small truck like that it was mainly my commute for work and college, with an every now and then use for small load pickup chores (like throwing dirty yard working tools in the back). If EV pickups had existed then and were small like my old 4-cylindar pickup, I might have considered an EV pickup. But not after I got older, with a family and volunteered more in church. Since then I find myself using a pickup for chores that are too large for either a 4-cylinder pickup or an EV pickup.
'They do great work for our customers': UAW members at GM to receive $12,250 profit-sharing checks
Since money is fungible, three guesses where GM got the money to do this.
“”If the only people buying EV’s were the people for whom it meets practical use, there’d be few to no problems.””
Long before today, an EV use and culture developed that still thrives today. Rush Limbaugh and President Trump made it even more famous. That culture is called.....Golf.
Hmmmmmm? Now there is a possible business. Converting EVs to golf carts. According to recent reports, there are thousands of EVs in the car dealerships that are not selling. Eventually, the dealers have to make room for cars that will sell. Selling them to a golf cart shop at a very reduced price is better than no sale at all. Hertz Rentals announced that the sale of used EVs is difficult.
For the wankers who think their Tesla provides status, a Tesla on the golf course would balloon their ego even more.
GM Reports Highest Commercial Fleet Sales in US
What a racket...
Folks, follow the money.
Government Motors is a fitting moniker.
EVs are great, but they have been grossly oversold.
They are greatly upgraded golf carts, good not only for picking up your hot date at the Villages, or riding out to the street to hit the mailbox - they run like real cars, on real roads, and you can commute a reasonable distance and go home on a single charge.
I got an all-electric snowblower this year, and it’s great.
But the idea of replacing ICE vehicles en masse, or especially mandating their use? It’s just ridiculous. For many reasons, supply of that much electricity on demand for one thing, and (speaking from central NH) WINTER for another.
If you live in Rhode Island and take your road trip vacations in the summer and never leave the state, an EV will work. Any larger place, fuggettaboutit.
Here in Texas I have seen more Ford Lightnings being towed on a trailer than I have seen on the road. I have toyed with the idea of getting the wife a hybrid Rav4 (not a plug-in) to run errands with. And while my Colorado pickup gets good mileage, for most trips of over 100 miles or so we take the Tahoe. So the Rav4 would get better mileage for running around the county.
Battery-powered EVs are a technological dead end, suitable only for niche applications, and pretty much a rich man’s toy.
Forget “carbon neutral”, that is a pipe dream and an unattainable objective. The answer was ALMOST right with the hybrid vehicles that are still available, utilizing an on-board electrical generation system, driven by an internal-combustion engine, and teamed up with electric traction motors, whereby the engine power was transferred with a minimum of drivelines and transmissions to provide a variable torque output.
Diesel-electric locomotives have been in use for the last eighty years or so, and the technology is well developed, and is scalable to road vehicles, beginning with heavy trucking. But the on-board power generation system is still going to have to be in place, batteries just will not do. This will be able to be scaled even further down to very oompact vehicles.
This should be relatively easy. Take away all the subsidies for EVs and then Let the market decide which technology succeeds.
My wife and I recently drove our EV car from Alabama to West Massachusetts then New Brunswick and back to Alabama. The only problem we had was having to wait in line once for 30 minutes in Pennsylvania (something we haven't ever had to do with road trips in the southeast).
To your point, our road trip was in the fall, not the winter. Thus I wouldn't get one if I lived in the cold north. But as far as "never leave the state" of Rhode Island, at least from my experience that wasn't an issue.
But that'd probably be very much be an issue if you live or are traveling to or through a very sparsely populated area like Wyoming or West Texas. There are a couple of good apps that help trip planning for EV charging and have forum features for EV users to enter their real world experiences at various chargers (i.e. fast charging, but nowhere to use the restroom at night, or well lit and a fast food place to get a quick bite and use the restroom while I waited the 12 minutes it took to charge, or this is the only charger within 50 miles and it's a slow 50kW charger that took 2 hours, etc.) So far we haven't wanted to go on a road trip with poor charging options.
But that's because before getting the EV I looked up the charging options on various trips we've made and planned to make in the near future to make sure our new EV car would work for what we wanted. And I told my wife if we get the EV there may come a future trip where our only option is taking the old ICE pickup. She agreed and I'm sure that day will come.
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