“You mean, drive in hybrids, but not act like we’re better than everyone else because of it?” – South Park
If you buy an EV from Dodge®, you also get a Dodge Charger™. (Memes mostly as found)
Based on the evidence I’ve seen so far in news stories, I’ve come to a conclusion about electric vehicles (EVs). It’s this: If you keep your EV parked in the garage at all times and never, ever drive in the winter, it works perfectly.
And, no, I don’t have one – I don’t need to have one to view the evidence that’s piling up. I would believe that even the manufacturers would tell you that it’s pretty hard to charge an EV when it’s zero outside, unless you warm up the battery first.
They also have lower winter range for two reasons: they have to electrically heat up the interior, which directly robs range, and in cold weather the battery cannot discharge as deeply – the rate of chemical reaction that the battery requires slows in cold conditions.
I wonder if all those people waiting to charge their cars are listening to AC/DC?
The range of most electric vehicles is incompatible with a Real American Road Trip. Modern Mayberry has one big advantage over most places – it’s 100 miles from anywhere. The downside for that on an electric car is obvious – a round trip to Mt. Pilot is simply not possible during the winter, unless I find and use a charging station. The one in Mt. Pilot (there is only one) is not exactly in the best part of town, and it’s dozens of miles out of the way on any trip – a 100 mile trip now has another half an hour of driving added, plus the time required for charging.
Or, I could just bring a gasoline powered generator . . .
You can tell it’s not an Apple® car – it has Windows®.
Yes, I suppose that it’s true that an EV could replace most of my car usage. Most days I drive less than 40 miles. But in order for the EV to work, I’d have to own a second car just for the (not at all rare) trips where I have to go over 100 miles from home. The range of an EV is simply incompatible with the size of the United States.
I suppose that would make sense if owning an EV provided cheaper transportation.
It doesn’t. Insurance is much more expensive for an EV than an internal combustion engine car of the same value because they’re much more expensive to work on, even when they don’t catch fire. Hertz™ Rent-A-Car© found this out – they’re now ditching the majority of the EVs that they bought. Too expensive to run, too expensive to fix, too expensive to insure.
What happens when a Tesla® hits someone at a given frequency? It Hertz®.
A dirty secret that’s causing the value of EVs to drop on the secondhand market is that the batteries will die. If you use an EV a lot, the batteries will cycle and die. If you don’t use it, the batteries will age and die. If I had twenty-year old vehicle (and I do) I know that the hoses will break, I’ll eventually need to replace the clutch pad and brake pads. Stuff will eventually need to be replaced.
But every time Pugsley turns the key, it cranks over and he drives it to school. If it depended on twenty-year-old batteries?
Not thinking it would be a pretty sight if he had to depend on batteries old enough to vote. On a zero degree day.
If a crackhead stole the copper lead, would he be guilty of mis-conduct?
The biggest drawback to EV adoption is battery tech. It sucks. But let’s pretend that we could store five times the energy in a typical EV battery pack – move from a 200 mile range to 1000 miles. That would be awesome! Let’s forget that’s nearly an order of magnitude increase in capacity for a second.
Now, instead of 200 miles worth of electricity stored in a battery that you’re sitting on, it’s 1000 miles worth of electricity – five times the density. Did I mention that when an EV battery fails, it fails spectacularly? Like in a crash?
Yeah, my car has a lot of stored energy in the gas tank, but we’ve figured out how to (mostly) keep it from blowing up all the time after over 100 years of experience, and most car explosions are in movies where the hero tosses a cigar to blow up the villain. Of course, he does this and doesn’t look back, because it’s way cooler that way.
My dog exploded – he was half Irish setter, and half meth lab.
I’ve come to the conclusion that EVs are nothing more than a niche car for people who live in nice climates that never get really cold and are rich enough to have a car for each day of the week.
The gamechanger, for EVs is, of course, battery technology. Triple the energy storage and halve the charging time at a lower cost with more safety? Excellent. Atomic powered batteries that are crash resistant that only need charging every fifty years? Winner.
But I won’t hold my breath waiting for that. There don’t appear to be any breakthroughs on the horizon that will make this work. And if there were, there are other problems.
Where does all that electricity come from? Right now, the Texas grid is shedding load. And California, who can’t seem to generate electricity without creating wildfires would need to consume at least 50% more electricity to electrify all their transport. Since California has gone from NIMBY (not in my backyard) to BANANA (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything) it’s obvious that electric capacity would have to be built in Arizona or Nevada or in the orbiting Unicorn Fart Farm.
How do you get Canada to support their electric grid? Say it’s transgender.
No. California won’t be going electric anytime soon. Sensible places like Alberta and Switzerland discourage or prohibit EV charging in cold winter months, and they aren’t governed by Grabbin Nuisance.
It’s weird when a society makes detailed maps about how it’s going to destroy itself. Well, at least people will soon be able to walk like an Egyptian.
The irony is this: if the Left was really serious about reducing greenhouse gases by using less gasoline, the answer is really simple. 35 to 45 mile per gallon cars were made in the early 1980s, and had sufficient power to be useful on the highway.
What happened? Additional environmental controls that addressed problems than 90% of the country doesn’t have. Nitrogen oxides? Bad in places that have smog. Out in the rest of the Midwest? Zero issues. Yet, every car is designed based on the problems of Los Angeles. In Fairbanks, they had a pretty simple emissions test, and wouldn’t let you drive a car in winter (when Fairbanks has smog) if it didn’t pass.
That’s too simple. Let’s make every car suitable for L.A.
Then there are the CAFE standards – the Corporate Average Fuel Economy imposed on the automakers. But CAFE excludes trucks and SUVs, so now everyone makes trucks and SUVs. What about the mighty Toyota® Hilux, the car voted most likely to be driven by a Middle Eastern Faction? Can’t sell it here, because of California and CAFE – small trucks have to meet silly standards.
We could save millions of gallons of gasoline tomorrow if we allowed sensible cars to be sold.
But no. That would lower the cost of a reasonable car with great fuel economy to about $15,000, and nobody wants that. I mean, Big Auto and Big Environment are in bed and agree, so who cares about the people?
Who cares? Toyota, apparently.
I think EVs combined with silly-expensive cars is a meme trap for the mass demobilization of the American people. And why not? They can go to 15 minute cities, as the World Economic Forum keeps preaching. And since almost half the world’s electric cars are being produced in China, is this a plan to offshore what remains of automobile manufacturing in America? I imagine a rhyme of the phrase utterd by Barack Obama, “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor” which will become “If you like your car, you can keep your car.”
If it was a good deal, and EVs were the solution, we’d see technological and price advances and not have to depend on silly government handouts to make them a reasonable purchase. EVs will stick around longer than they should, but, just like Joe Biden, they will never be the solution, no matter how the Left tries to force it.
But, hey, I hear that EVs work great in the garage!
A few years back a friend of mine got a new VW Jetta with a diesel. She claimed outrageous gas mileage on her cross country trip. Western society has developed the diesel engine to an amazing work of art and technology.
Then the EPA noticed, stepped in and smacked VW silly for daring to burn less fuel. It seems their computer control didn’t comply with what the EPA wanted. She had her MANDATORY update performed as our rulers at the EPA demanded. it cut her avg mpg in half. I understand and want clean air.
BUT, someone please explain to me how burning twice as much fuel results in less pollution???
MSG Grumpy
Curious. Were those real MPG, determined by the gas pump and odometer, or “as reported by the lying computer” MPG?
My prefixed Jetta routinely clocked a very real 55mpg. The post fix killed it to under 40.
I rented a Polo.TDI Italy a few years ago. It rang in 75-80 mpg.
This was one friends experience driving a known distance (1500 miles) and putting in a known amount of diesel gallons, simple math worked out to 78 mpg. I do not know how fast she drove or anything else except that she is Not one of the Ultra mileage people who put thin over inflated tires and never comes to complete stops just to have bragging rights on unreasonable mileage claims.
MSG Grumpy
It doesnt, the EPA is similar to all the other useless government bureaucracies, you are just supposed to obey
I hate all of em
Yup, diesel has a great number of Btus per gallon. It doesn’t make sense to do what they did. But they did.
Follow the money.
The electric car is the kind of idea that comes from people who believe their food comes from the grocery store, their clothes from the boutique, their morality from their income, and wisdom from their credentials.
Exactly none of them decline the thousands in subsidies and tax credits when they acquire the rolling Macintosh.
They are the type of people who are good at extracting wealth from a crooked system and so when they see themselves driving that car, they literally see themselves in that car.
Which is more fitting than ever since both the car and the beautiful ones so often “suddenly”.
Its ability to exist as an object of peak aspirational fiat morality that is only possible as a function of value harvesting and appropriation from the great unwashed is a very personal affirmation, a capstone event of their own subsidized trajectory.
With the alt-reality bugmen, it’s always very personal.
The highest and best use of a tesla appears to be as a mobile sound stage for shooting TikTok videos. Or perhaps as a fertility aid in producing grand-fur babies.
Had a college roommate who literally thought that electricity just came out of the wall. Never occurred to him that those power lines were there for a reason. How he got into college was beyond me.
I think we do a disservice to our kids by not making the go on a field trip to see the nearest power plant. Only way to dispel that silly notion of green EV’s is to watch all those rail cars delivering coal to the boiler.
The bugmen really are the problem – and grand-fur babies won’t make the world a better place.
Good post. Don’t forget that one of the key perks of EVs is the virtue signaling and air of superiority for the owners.
Yep this and what sir lawrence said.
Absolutely – they may not stop smog, but they certainly encourage smug.
Bottom line Boeing is being destroyed by government mandated DEI, and the auto industry is being destroyed by EV. We could not put American made boots on a drafted army. All planned to solve the Americans have too much problem.
Why are we allowing them to change their stupid acronym?
They have called it DIE until it was made fun of.
Let’s keep calling it DIE, as it certainly is appropriate.
Yup – and it’s all planned.
I missed the part where we discuss the EV owners cheating by not paying any road tax? If you buy “red fuel” and put it in your diesel powered vehicle, and get caught, the IRS imposes a hefty fine. Because you are not paying any road tax.
They don’t pay the tax, which just encourages more surveillance state where they install a GPS to charge road tax. On everyone.
Music to my ears. Let these hypocritical, tree-hugging, “Progressives” freeze to death at their charging stations. Karma. It’s what’s for dinner.
Epicaricacy, it’s what’s for breakfast.
Whenever Govt. decides to elbow it’s way into a business, like cars and trucks, the siphoning, the graft, the payoffs, rip offs, and stealing by all concerned, foul up what was once a viable, and helpful product, industry, etc. Unless and until Govt. gets out of business, we’re just going to see more of the same, and on, and on, and on. The problem is not the vehicles, it’s Govt.
Agreed – and I keep looking at where the Constitution allows any of this . . .
It’s right next to the part that says we get to hang them on the statehouse lawn on the 4th of July if they don’t obey the rest of the Constitution.
Now that is an excellent adder to the Constitution!
The government does not want the mpg to go up, think of the lost taxes. I think the auto companies would sell a cheaper higher mpg car if they could make a profit but the regulations prevent that
Yes, lower taxes aren’t their friend, but they have to pretend that they want that to happen . . .
Exhibit #1: Toyota Hilux.
Driving back from Canada in bitter cold I saw what looked like a brand new Tesla sitting on the side of the road abandoned and I laughed, and laughed. I perhaps even guffawed.
Bet there weren’t any flashing lights . . . muahahaha
I drive a 2010 Toyota Tundra. The Mrs. drives a 2007 Toyota Avalon. I don’t understand the problem.
Yup, no problem with those, or with my car. Or The Mrs. But I’ll keep fixing this one rather than buy a new one . . .
Yep. Same here. Running mine until I can’t get gas or tires. My daily driver is a 2000 AWD sedan that’ll probably break 300000 mi this year – and no end in sight. Runs like a champ. The heated seats don’t work anymore (I can live with that – but it would sure be nice on Monday morning when it’s forecast to be 10deg), and there’s no cigarette lighter socket to charge phones and other things that can run games for grand-kiddos during long drives. I dealt with that by buying a couple of ‘L-ion power bricks’. I can drive all day using WAZE for navigation and not use a quarter of the charge. Lighter socket? Who needs ’em? 😉
Exactly. Tires, gas, and belts. Just replaced the engine in my 2010, so it should be good until 2039.
A thought that JW touched on on the article – charging time. That’s affected by the battery chemistry etc, but also how much power the electrical grid can distribute at the charging station.
A gallon of gas has roughly 33.4 kW hr of energy. If I dispense that gallon over a minute – slower than most gas pumps I frequent – it’s feeding stored energy into my car’s gas tank at around 2 MW. At most pumps it’s probably closer to 5-10 MW equivalent.
A big 20-pump station can put out the equivalent of a small electrical power plant all by itself.
Unless EV charging can come close to this level (even granting somewhat more efficient energy use by EVs, etc.), no matter how energy dense the battery is, recharge (or “refill”) time is going to be a killer.
It never will, unless they end up with a battery-swap solution. Which they won’t.
Two years ago, gave the older grandson my 2014 Jetta TDI Wagon, 300K+ miles by now. 40 MPG. Still runs great.
So, when Cali goes EV in 2035, then GM, Ford, et al, can get back to efficient car design? I doubt it.
Just like Trump will nix the diesel & the 2026 “Erratic Driver” mandate(s).
I’ll trade in my 2022 Tundra for a ’25 Tacoma. Better MPG.
Probably – and I wouldn’t bet on Trump to stop the control.
Be like Greta and buy 3 cars, a Tesla, electric BMW and a hybrid Toyota. All it takes is some big bucks and what might be the size of the mansion attached to the garage that houses them cars?
I coulda had a V-8! Oh yeah, I do have a V-8 that’s over 20 years old.
Yup, I have a V-8, a V-6, and a pair of 4 bangers. All older than Control Mandates. Not interested in upgrading.
As one famous California resident used to say, “Just the facts, ma’am.”
Kilowatt hours (KWh) required to recharge a Tesla Model 3 Long Range ($46K MSRP, 380 mile range) : 75KWh – delivered in 8hr 15 min from your 11 KW installed AC garage charger or in 30 minutes at a 250KW Supercharger station.
(See: https://evbox.com/en/electric-cars/tesla/tesla-model-3# )
Number of cars in California: 14.3 million
(See: https://www.statista.com/statistics/196010/total-number-of-registered-automobiles-in-the-us-by-state/ )
Cost of electricity in California: 0.283 dollars per KWh
( See: https://www.solar.com/learn/how-much-is-the-average-electric-bill-in-california/ )
Electricity and cost to recharge ONE TIME ONLY a California-sized fleet of Tesla Model 3s:
75 * 14,300,000 = 1,072,500,000 KWh at a cost of $300 million.
Annual kWh electricity production in California: 287,200 Gigawatt hours = 287,200,000,000 KWh
(See: https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/california-electricity-data/2022-total-system-electric-generation )
Number of times per year the current California Power Grid can recharge a replacement fleet of Tesla S3s:
287,200.0/1,072.5 = 268
Conclusion: Even if California blacks out ALL other current (heh-pun) uses of electricity in the State, they’re gonna have to ration electricity and say you can’t recharge your Tesla 2 days per week.
You wanna discuss how to MORE THAN DOUBLE the current California power grid by 2040 to accommodate all the current power users plus everybody driving Teslas, using only sunbeams and breezes, well, that’s a different set of calculations. Probably involving imaginary numbers.
Some docs at my last job had EVs. I’d always call them “your coal-powered car.” Likely one of the reasons it was my last job.
I bought a Hyundai Sonata last year. Not a hybrid, just a nice car. I paid extra for th3 options – seat butt warmers (oh, the luxury!), backup camera, remote start (I’m looking forward to using that!). It was worth it, I’m old and like my comfort.
Surprisingly fuel efficient. I don’t like the electronic-dependence, as I have nightmares about EMPs. But, should such an event occur, I’m pretty sure Billy Bob, redneck mechanic, could bypass that sufficiently to get her back on the road.
Given the temps this week – single digits – EVs are NOT in my future.
Hahahahaha! Awesome – wish you would have taken pictures of their faces.
My garage is directly under the bedroom. I don’t think I want an incendiary vehicle.
Oh, the insurance companies know. And they charge more for cars, soon enough they’ll ask if you have an EV in a garage . . .
Bought a Toyo light truck off the lot in the eighties, six grand cash. Closing the deal, for some reason the Finance Manager frowned at me a lot!
Put slightly under a bazillion miles on the doggie until a semi totaled it. Replaced the plugs now and then. Washed it. High mpg.
Electric cars sound like a right sparky idea I could get behind. For my enemies. Thanks Elo-no! You keep after it now, you scamp.
A couple weeks ago I took a photo of the painted icon affixed to the sole charging station in the nearest village. It was very enlightening! Never know when the King will throw ya another bon-bon. Will forward the shot to you if possible.
Please do forward it! EV – it’s just a meme.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/35946babdd20870eec33fdc7679f468097723645d4cd659d81fd615faf950ae0.jpg
— spawny’s space
Ha!
I do so love how they all laugh when dear leader laughs. Except the dood with the heavy ribbonage, he only laughs at funerals.
The purpose behind EVs is not to replace ICE vehicles and infrastructure. The purpose behind the push is to provide political cover and justification for ELIMINATING ICE vehicles and infrastructure. The criminals behind
this plot KNOW as well as any rational person that EV technology can never do what gas/diesel can do.
The true purpose for this insanity is the END of privately owned transportation. Eventually, and it won’t be that
long, criminals in power will BAN the use of ICE vehicles and drastically cut the number of gas stations in America. The on!y acceptable use for ICE will be for official government purposes. Once that happens the inevitable outcome will arrive.
The grid won’t be able to provide enough power for EVs, the price of replacement batteries will be
prohibitive ad EV technology will wither on the vine. Leaving us peons 100% dependent on public transportation…
which the criminals in power control. This ENTIRE fiasco is driven by the ONLY thing criminals in office care about….control. Only the very wealthy and those in power will be able to travel at will. This really isn’t complicated. Evil, but not complicated.
Yes, the end goal is to end freedom. Wonder why?
Can’t wait to see what Billy Bob and Bubba can do with dead Teslas. Maybe downhill races like the soapbox derby! Also, those electric motors can be repurposed. Should be fun to watch.
And don’t forget that they can use the batteries on the 4th of July.
The parasitic energy loss to heating the cars in cold weather is overrated. Just put a heating blanket under the battery (and power it off of the battery). As the battery gets warmer, it will provide more current making the car run better. You can then bleed off some of this power to heat the battery a little more which will make the battery perform even better. Continue this vicious cycle a few more times and you eventually have your own perpetual motion machine.
Seriously though….when is Tusk going to follow in the car’s namesake and just beam the dang power over the airwaves?
I’ve always thought this was a con so Elon could fund the real issue: space. Yeah, EV is a joke.
The last time they “asked” us to lock down and stay home, a lot of people didn’t. Most in fact did not. So they are actively closing that loophole that allowed us to disobey; the gas powered vehicle. With “connected” cars, next time, they won’t be asking. They will just flip that switch.
And be able to track us every inch that we move.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-electric-car-cheating-scandal-subsidy-rule-efficiency-falsehood-2798b4ab?mod=djemalertNEWS
Interesting article, sold my 2014 Cayenne Diesel when it had 150K on it. Miss it, but repairs were starting to bite.
BTW, Boyden Gray is a Heavy Hitter. His grandfather, Bowman Gray, was RJ Reynolds right-hand man. As in the Wake Forest Bowman Gray School of Medicine.
Boom.
We are doomed if we don’t start overthrowing the governments of the West ASAP.
Time to take them back.
I seem to recall seeing in a movie – the only thing necessary to do this:
The will to act.
It’s getting closer.
I’m just waiting for when women find out they can’t run the heater in the winter because it reduces their range so much they can’t go anywhere.
Also, when women find they are stuck in the cold for an hour (again without heat) while the thing charges.
It’s happening now. And is sort of hilarious.
True, and all the more hilarious because it’s a trivial problem to fix:
Add ‘warming’ equipment for the battery packs and alter the charge controller programming to divert part of the charge current to bring the batteries to closer to ideal charging temperature *first*, then proceed with charging. Same for keeping the frozen driver warmer – divert enough power to cabin heat to at least make the charge-time wait more tolerable. Extend the charge time? Of course. However, my gut feel is: not by much.
I fact, warming the batteries first should actually SHORTEN total elapsed charge time (vs. leaving them to warm only as a by-product of the charging process). But – not my monkeys, not my circus. 😉
Way near the top of comments, Anon, points out that that power consumed by the charging stations is already power plant sized. To heat a car adequately would likely need more than than 5kW, since a good mechanic told me the ac in my truck was a 5 ton equivalent (=5kW power usage). Supercharging stations deliver 75 to 250kW (I understandthe bigger chargers are rare and the smaller ones are frequently broken).
This estimate says that running a heater increase wait and costs to charge by 5 to 10%. The times are already long.
Wonder when the criminals will figure out EV owners are sitting ducks?
While conversing with friends, acquaintances or family, always refer to electric cars as “ coal fired cars.”
Yes. More of this. Yes.
You could deliver the news of an impending asteroid collision with the asteroid in sight and make me laugh. Also wanted to ask you about the charging station in Siler City. Is it in a worse section than the Mt Pilot one? Or just further out of the way?
Much farther. Plus it’s near where Otis is.
And thank you for the compliment – none of us gets out of here alive, but we should enjoy what we can.