Electric cars are not all bad. But neither are they all good.
The problem is that most Americans – who have never driven an electric car – are mostly unaware of the bad, having been told almost nothing except the good. This is not unlike being told that sugar tastes good – without being told that too much sugar can give you diabetes, too.
What is good about electric cars? 
Well, they are extremely responsive – a better way to convey the meaning of “quick.” Even the ones not specifically designed to be particularly quick – such as Nissan’s Leaf and the Hyundai Kona electric I recently reviewed (here). Both get to 60 in about 7 seconds or so, which isn’t incandescently quick. Most run-of-the-mill family-type cars with four cylinder gas engines get to 60 in about the same 7 seconds or so.
But EVs like the Leaf and Kona electric are remarkably responsive, in that when you press down on the accelerator, they accelerate with an immediacy that is a function of electric motors not needing time to spin up to the point at which they make peak power. Electric motors make peak power immediately. Also, there is usually no transmission in between the motor and the wheels, which are directly driven by the motor. And there is no slippage – as would be the case with a clutch and is always the case with an automatic, which has a fluid coupling called a torque converter that allows the engine to freewheel while the engine is in gear and the vehicle isn’t moving. 
So, the electric car is more responsive – and more efficient, in the sense of power delivery. They also have fewer moving parts, not having engines with pistons and valves and crankshafts (to name just a few of the parts within an engine and not counting all of the other parts inside the transmission, whether manual or automatic).
The EV is also very quiet. So quiet, in fact, that the government has mandated that EVs be fitted with a device that makes noise when they are being operated at low speeds – as in parking lots – so that people walking in the vicinity can hear it approaching.
And – the big one – EVs can be “fueled” (recharged) at home, eliminating the need to stop at gas stations – or pay $5 per gallon for gas.
So much for the good. How about the bad?
If you make frequent use of the EV’s responsiveness, you will shortly have less of it available to use as using it frequently will rapidly deplete the EV battery pack’s charge. The same is true of load – as for example pulling a trailer with an EV. Or carrying a load of something heavy in the bed, if the EV is a truck.
This is the paradox of electric cars – and trucks. Use it – and lose it.
Literally.
They have tremendous power locked up in their high-voltage battery packs and monster torque immediately available, courtesy of their electric motors. But applying full power to the motors depletes the batteries so quickly you can literally see it happening, in the form of the range indicator telling you how little you’ve got left. A Tesla Plaid – the quickest Tesla, which can accelerate to 60 in less than 3 seconds – rapidly loses its ability to accelerate at all if that capacity is tapped repeatedly. Puling a trailer with an EV can reduce its range by 40 percent or more. Same as regards loading an electric down with a bed-full of rocks.
Weather – and use of electrically powered accessories such as the heater and AC – also negatively affects how far you can drive an EV.
Therefore, to get the advertised range out of an EV, it is necessary to drive it gently, which renders the EV’s responsiveness something akin to a piece of cheesecake you dare not eat more than a small bite of every now and then.
With electric trucks, the problem is worse – because the whole point of owning a truck is that it is capable of doing work. If it’s not, then what is the point of owning an electric truck?
It’s akin to a bodybuilder whose muscle are for show.
The above wouldn’t be a problem if EVs could be quickly refueled – and fully recharged.
It is not a problem for a “gas hog” car or truck because they can be back on the road – with a full tank of gas – in just a few minutes. It is a problem for electric vehicles because they take hours to get back on the road – if you are recharging at home, where the “fastest” charging option is 240 volts.
About 9.5 hours for the Kona electric I wrote about the other day.
If you are on the road, you can charge “faster” at a 400-plus volt commercial “fast” charger, but it still takes 30-45 minutes to recover a partial charge – 80 percent, not 100 percent, in order to not overheat the battery pack and possible damage it (or set fire to it which high-voltage EV batteries are more prone to than gas-burning combustion engines).
That means you have 20 percent less range, after waiting 30-45 minutes for a “fast” charge. And that means having to stop sooner for your next charge. You will have even less range if you use the heater – or the AC – even if you don’t use the responsiveness.
And if you don’t have a home – if you live in an apartment – where are you going to plug your EV in for a slow charge?
EVs do have fewer moving parts than gas-engined (and transmission’d) cars. But they also have more battery – and replacing an EV’s battery pack can cost more than replacing a combustion-powered car’s engine and transmission. It is also more likely that you’ll have to replace the EV’s battery at some point sooner than either the engine or the transmission in a combustion-powered car.
Engines and transmissions also eventually wear out, as all things eventually wear out. But batteries wear out faster, especially if they are used regularly. This is another paradox-liability of electric cars. Batteries last longest when they are used the least. When they are kept mostly charged up rather than heavily discharged – and then subjected to repeated high-load recharging, as at a “fast” charger.
What is good about capacity that wanes when used?
And what good is not having to buy gas when you’ve just paid twice as much to drive an EV? Even “inexpensive” models like the Leaf and Chevy Bolt cost about $10,000 more than non-electric equivalents, such as the Nissan Versa. And the EV is likely to cost more – to recharge – as demand for electricity waxes while generating capacity wanes. Here we arrive at another paradox-liability of EVs. That being, the more of them on the road, the more expensive electricity is likely to become – and not just for recharging electric cars.
Electricity already powers much of everything else – such as the lights (and AC) in your house. There isn’t much reserve capacity available for anything else. Without an increase in generating capacity to match the increased demand for electricity from all those EVs coming into service there will inevitably be more cost for electricity, applied generally.
Expect your power bill to go up even if you don’t own an EV. And if you do own one, expect to pay more electricity, in addition to all the other ways you’ll be paying.
. . .
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“What is good about capacity that waxes when used?”
I think you have a material typo there.
You would think that the EV “Good” column would include not having to worry about whether your car will start. Maybe not. From Epoch Times:
Thousands of Electric Vehicles Recalled in US Over ‘No Start Condition’
Thousands of Electric Vehicles Recalled in US Over ‘No Start Condition’
In the affected vehicles, it is possible that the high voltage battery main contacts may overheat, which can result in an open contactor or welding condition. Should the contactors weld closed while driving, a powertrain malfunction warning light will be illuminated on the next drive cycle, along with a no start condition,” the company said in a letter.
Ford spokesperson said Deep Nexstar the problem specifically relates to the vehicles’ “Direct Current told” fast charging, adding that there is a chance the better can overheat, which “may lead to arcing and deformation of the electrical contact surfaces.” That may lead to the car losing power while driving, Deep said, significantly raising the risk of an accident.
Ford’s letter added, “If the contactors open while driving, a powertrain malfunction warning light will be illuminated, the vehicle will display Stop Safely Now in the instrument panel cluster, and the vehicle will experience an immediate loss of motive power. The vehicle will coast to a stop,
NOTE: Most electric vehicle fires are caused by the thermal runaway of a damaged battery. Thermal runaway is the rapid and extreme rise in temperature and when it initiates the same reaction in adjacent cells it is known as ‘thermal runaway propagation. When thermal runaway happens, it can produce smoke, fire and even explosions.
Fires while the electric vehicle is stationary (an EV can catch fire even while parked, don’t sleep in it), this can happen from:
Extreme temperatures, both extreme heat and cold
High humidity
Flooding
Internal cell failure
ATTENTION: Overcharging or problems with the charging station (the EV can catch fire), don’t charge it in your garage, what if something goes wrong while charging?
During the first three months of ownership, EVs were 2.3 times as expensive to service as gasoline-powered cars. At the 12-month mark, repair costs were about 1.6 times what owners of gas-powered cars paid.
It’s Not Parts. It’s Labor
Why the extra expense?
Because EV problems took longer to diagnose and repair. Technicians spent 1.5 times as many hours working on EVs as they did on gasoline-powered cars. And those technicians cost more, to begin with. Working on EVs requires additional certifications most mechanics don’t have. Those that do charge about 1.3 times the average hourly rate.
Repairing Ev’s is a big problem now, nobody knows how to fix them, they are very dangerous to work on because of the very high voltage (lots of places won’t work on them for that reason), they are very complex compared to an internal combustion engine, they are new technology so people don’t understand them, so very difficult to diagnose.
https://carnewsdaily.co.uk/thousands-of-electric-vehicles-recalled-in-us-over-no-start-condition/
Back to the future. “Hand built” $200k electric cars from GM. Isn’t this exactly what Eric was talking about with respect to both cars generally and the earliest electric cars 100 years ago?
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/15/gm-investing-81m-to-hand-build-luxury-cadillac-celestiq-electric-cars.html
What a moron….lol
GM CEO Admits Electric Vehicle Is Charged On Natural Gas
Most electricity is generated burning hydrocarbons, how green is that?
90% of electricity is generated by burning coal, gas and oil, 5% is nuclear, solar and wind turbines are a joke, there is a small amount of geothermal and hydro, depending on the location.
Thermal efficiency of power plants using coal, petroleum, natural gas or nuclear fuel and converting it to electricity are around 33% efficiency, natural gas is around 40%. Then there is average 6% loss in transmission, then there is a 5% loss in the charger, another 5% loss in the inverter, the electric motor is 90% efficient so another 10% loss before turning the electricity into mechanical power at the wheels.
33% – 6% – 5% – 5% – 10% = 25% efficiency for EV’s.
(under not ideal conditions it might be 12% efficient).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf3PT-vBDsg
EV fake sports car
Everrati today announced specifications for its electric GT40. With two motors powering the back wheels
allows the car to sprint to 60 mph (96 km/h) in less than four seconds and onto a top speed of more than 125 mph….has a very short diff to make it quicker so it has a low top speed like all EV’s.
it has a range of more than 125 miles….if you drive at 30 mph on a flat road in warm weather….lol…..
A tesla at 10 tenths on a track used 80 miles range in 8 miles.
So this thing at 10 tenths will go 12 miles?…..lol….
Will Ford sue for copying GT?
https://www.carscoops.com/2022/06/everrati-now-offers-electric-gt40-restomod-with-800-hp-v8-noise-and-fake-shifting/?fbclid=IwAR27ujv4HzfEy5lVuqL4I7fH6LFK6jFLMQcRnL6MHtSqSa5JKThmSLaQh_M
In regards to Ukraine, the USG initiated the crisis by greatly expanding NATO and supporting the 2014 coup. The sanctions are un-constitutional and economically very harmful to the American people. They should be decreed un-constitutional and ended immediately.
As to EVs, I’m looking forward to the day when most people realize that EVS are deadly fire hazards and a source of dangerous levels of EMF. EMF exposure can be very dangerous. The EVs have higher EMF at all times than ICVs, and especially high when supercharging. No one should be sitting in an EV while it is supercharging, especially small children.
Not just EV’s catching fire/exploding, the Ebikes are too….lithium fire bomb batteries are great…
In October, Consumer Reports found that 75 e-bicycle fires ignited in New York last year, causing 72 injuries and three deaths.
from a news feed………
Explosion of e-bike battery caused fire, man’s death at Downtown Eastside rooming house
Twenty-five crew members were sent to tackle the blaze. One of them found the body of the 32-year-old man in the alleyway beside the hotel.
“It looks like the man had been sitting on the room’s window ledge and the resulting explosion caused him to fall,” said Connelly.
Police confirmed two others sustained injuries from the explosion.
https://www.timescolonist.com/bc-news/explosion-of-e-bike-battery-caused-fire-mans-death-at-downtown-eastside-rooming-house-sro-owner-5469404
Hi Anon,
Interesting (once again) that news of these fires – this many fires – is suppressed. I wonder why? It’s as if they don’t want people to know…
Hi Eric
a huge screw up, now the cover up….
more EV grief
Tesla Catches Fire After 3 Weeks Sitting at Wrecking Yard, Fire Dept. Has to Literally Dig a Pit to Put It Out
The self-immolation failure mode of Lithium Ion batteries has been known since their very beginning. The intense heat causes the battery to generate its own oxygen so trying to smother the fire doesn’t work.
One example: the flames on the Tesla were extinguished, it reignited again. Firefighters began hosing it down with copious amounts of water, up to 200 gallons per minute, but “that did not extinguish the flames,” according to the NTSB. At approximately 9:13 p.m., nearly three hours after the first alarm was received, firefighters had to pour out more than 600 gallons of water per minute. In the end the agency used 20,000 gallons of water.
Then the fire still isn’t put out……..Batteries can be expected to reignite after being put out because they still have stored energy. 15 hours later it catches fire again…
“Battery fires can take up to 24 hours to extinguish”….. the vehicle must be parked under “quarantine” for 48 hours, so that no new fire can break out.
Batteries are difficult to extinguish, and they can burst into flames again several hours later –ATTENTION: in some cases, right up to a week later…note in this example was 3 weeks later
In addition to crashes, some of the earlier fires involving Teslas were reportedly caused by debris in the roadway puncturing and gouging the undercarriage of the lithium-ion battery pack.
The damaged battery pack exposed the lithium, causing an exothermal reaction and subsequent fire. This hazard was thought to have been solved with the installation of a titanium cover encasing the battery pack, giving the undercarriage more resistance to severe damage. looks like they don’t work too well, remember this while driving your EV.
Most electric vehicle fires are caused by the thermal runaway of a damaged battery. Thermal runaway is the rapid and extreme rise in temperature and when it initiates the same reaction in adjacent cells it is known as ‘thermal runaway propagation. When thermal runaway happens, it can produce smoke, fire and even explosions.
Fires while the electric vehicle is stationary (an EV can catch fire even while parked, don’t sleep in it), this can happen from:
Extreme temperatures, both extreme heat and cold
High humidity
Flooding
Internal cell failure
ATTENTION: Overcharging or problems with the charging station (the EV can catch fire), don’t charge it in your garage, what if something goes wrong while charging?
Is that why so many charging stations are out of order? the software shuts them down over any little issue because they can cause fires.
Fires in gas powered vehicles is far easier to put out compared to an EV and doesn’t take 24 hours to put out. (it is very very difficult for a diesel powered vehicle to catch fire, they are by far the safest)
they soon will ban far safer gas powered vehicles and the best and the safest by far diesel powered vehicles, throw a match in diesel, it won’t even catch fire……..
What happens when 2200 Ev’s (a new complex in planning stage will have 2200 parking spaces….imagine 2200 lithium fire bomb EV’s parked), are parked in underground parking at an apartment block or office tower and they catch fire? You can’t take propane into underground parking, but you can take a fire bomb lithium battery car underground. ….ask your fire department about this……
https://www.westernjournal.com/tesla-catches-fire-3-weeks-sitting-wrecking-yard-fire-dept-literally-dig-pit-put/?fbclid=IwAR0H31fnFJq4sFXTaxh5b3D20dyv6PVrt7t7GZ0K-GT8H1ziiGNSvFXfVaU
All the anti IC nuts act as if their fuel is free.
Here are the numbers.
A Gallon of gas with c 10% ethanol has about 120k BTU’s
A Kilowatt hour is 3412 BTU’s
So a Gallon of gas is 35 kilowatt hours.
My State Md avg price per KWH is 13 cents.
A gallon of gas’s worth of electricity costs $4.57. Not much difference in reality.
The savings come in the efficiency of usage, not the cost of the energy.
What’s the mileage you get on 35 KWH’s?
A Tesla has a capacity of 95 KWh’s so a recharge in MD costs $12.40 so if they do 200 miles it costs 6 cents a mile which is the equivalent of 76 mpg.
Imagine what we could be getting out of diesels if Mr Musk had put his mind to it.
EV owner uses 4 gallons to go 100 miles, that is 25 mpg, lots of ice cars get better fuel economy.
ice gas vehicle economy example that gets far more then 25 mpg……
Fiat 500 0.9 lt. gas 8V 51 mpg city, 69 mpg highway…
A Tesla owner shared on Twitter the Supercharging rates from the Los Angeles area and indicated that they roughly doubled in the past years. To be sure, the $0.58/kWh rate is for the peak hours from 11 am to 9 pm, with half that outside this interval. Twitter users across the U.S. have indicated similar rates, with averages of $0.40 becoming the norm.
travelling 100 miles in an average EV uses 1.03 gallons equivalent of fuel = 34.7 kwh of electricity @ $0.40 per kwh = $13.88, that is the net amount, but….at the power plant 4 gallons of fuel were burnt to get a net 1 gallon of fuel equivalent 34.7 kwh used by the EV.
There is an additional cost for the EV owner: the tesla $22,000 battery is used up, worn out in 100,000 miles. this works out to $22.00 per 100 miles it is costing you for the battery. Total cost: $13.88 plus $22.00 = $35.88
travelling 100 miles in a 50 mpg diesel uses 2 gallons of fuel @ $4.00 per gallon = $8.00
If they paid the full cost it would = $16.00 for the fuel…. 4 gallons@ $4.00 a gallon
(under not ideal conditions this can easily double = $32.00)
Example: under ideal conditions but at top speed a mercedes EV used 90 kwh of electricity in 100 miles which = 3 gallons of gas….back at the power station = 12 gallons burnt….
Under not ideal conditions the EV efficiency drops a lot, might use twice as much energy to go 100 miles. Using the electric heater and the rear defroster and wipers in an EV reduces range. In very cold conditions the battery range can drop 50%. If the range drops 50% it costs twice as much to go 100 miles
travelling 100 miles in a 50 mpg diesel powered car uses 2 gallons of fuel….no need to waste all that fuel.
Most electricity is generated burning hydrocarbons, how green is that?
90% of electricity is generated by burning coal, gas and oil, 5% is nuclear, solar and wind turbines are a joke, there is a small amount of geothermal and hydro, depending on the location.
Thermal efficiency of power plants using coal, petroleum, natural gas or nuclear fuel and converting it to electricity are around 33% efficiency, natural gas is around 40%. Then there is average 6% loss in transmission, then there is a 5% loss in the charger, another 5% loss in the inverter, the electric motor is 90% efficient so another 10% loss before turning the electricity into mechanical power at the wheels.
33% – 6% – 5% – 5% – 10% = 25% efficiency for EV’s.
(under not ideal conditions it might be 12% efficient).
An Ev is 25% efficient in turning original source of energy, petroleum in this example into mechanical energy to push the car down the road.
So to end up with 34.7 kwh of electricity which is equivalent to 1.02 gallons of gas to push the EV 100 miles down the road 4.08 gallons of fuel were burnt to generate the electricity in the power station, remember net 25% efficiency. 100 miles using 4 gallons = 25 mpg, where is the better fuel economy?
Why are they pushing EV’s that get 25 mpg when there is a fuel shortage?
Should be still selling these:
the all-new 2014 Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion diesel, capable of a claimed 88.3 mpg imperial, or 73.5 mpg U.S….. 100 mile fuel consumption = 1.36 gallons
An Ev is 25% efficient in turning original source of energy, petroleum in this example into mechanical energy to push the car down the road.
So to end up with 34.7 kwh of electricity which is equivalent to 1.02 gallons of gas to push the EV 100 miles down the road 4.08 gallons of fuel were burnt to generate the electricity in the power station, remember net 25% efficiency. 100 miles using 4 gallons = 25 mpg, where is the better fuel economy?…….. 100 mile fuel consumption = 4.08 gallons
VW diesel 100 mile fuel consumption = 1.36 gallons
EV 100 mile fuel consumption = 4.08 gallons
so this VW diesel gets 3x better fuel economy then the 25 mpg EV….so what do they do?….they ban the diesel and force you to buy the EV…..why?
Your government is pushing EV’s? Why?
China has infiltrated all levels of governments, taken control, (check out the leftist/communist takeover), your politicians bought off, paid to push the EV agenda.
Anybody pushing EV’s is a paid ccp shill.
Who benefits the most from the EV vehicle conversion? china does.
All the most important components in the new EV’s are all made in china. Then you are dependent on china for replacement parts, etc., in effect they take over the whole vehicle supply chain. Vehicle production then centralized in China.
China has already taken over canada, they bought all the mines and real estate, infiltrated the government at all levels, they have a communist/fabian ccp controlled leader running the country. In the U.S. brandon is a ccp puppet.
china benefits more from cv19 then any then any other country
China behind the bioweapon injection
zhang yongzhen was the chinese scientist that released the genome data for the so called sa…rs co…v 2 vir….us, this data was used all over the world to put in place masking, lockdowns, destruction of small business and now forced extermination injections and to make, concoct, manufacture the vac……ci,,nes (extermination injections).
This faked data was fed into another software program that produced the mrna vac..ci,,ne in one weekend. ATTENTION: Made in one weekend, zero tests for safety (but the government said 24/7 safe and effective), Normal vac…..cines take 10 years to develop, test, produce.
ATTENTION: The problem was he used fabricated manipulated data, scientific fraud to fabricate the sars co…v 2 vir…us genome, he used their megahit software program. no controlled experiments were ever done.
Around the world virologists used 49 different software programs and could never duplicate his results. nobody seems to care………..
All the ingredients for these shots are made in china
the germ was the marketing campaign to suck you into the bioweapon shot
china supplies all the materials used to make drugs and vaccines for all the world so china will make huge profits from the cv19 hoax.
armies of Chinese bot accounts on Twitter were instrumental in promoting early lockdowns in countries like Italy while bombarding political figures who refused to order strict lockdowns, such as South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, with criticism and abuse.
travelling 100 miles in an average EV uses 1.03 gallons equivalent of fuel = 34.7 kwh of electricity @ $0.40 per kwh = $13.88, that is the net amount, but….at the power plant 4 gallons of fuel were burnt to get a net 1 gallon of fuel equivalent 34.7 kwh used by the EV.
There is an additional cost for the EV owner: the tesla $22,000 battery is used up, worn out in 100,000 miles. this works out to $22.00 per 100 miles it is costing you for the battery. Total cost: $13.88 plus $22.00 = $35.88
As a comparison – something seldom considered is the power tool market which, has more time-use history than almost anything rechargeable — other than consumer electronics like cell phones.
Since cell phones do not require torque we can eliminate them.
Rechargeable power tools have been in use for over 50 years and they have improved greatly. Yet, they still fall woefully short and do not have long the term torque available from plug-in or “fueled” tools.
Sure there are a few high-end tools that will come close to traditional tools but, in the long term they still don’t hold up.
Their pluses are portability and reduced clearance applications.
Note:
Californica is soon going to mandate outdoor power equipment be rechargeable or electric powered.
I suspect Californican legislators have driven themselves mad with battery powered devices…Just sayin’.
The best and most expensive electric trimmers and mowers can barely keep up with standard model gas powered models.
I’ve also owned high end rechargeable trimmers and mowers – and neither work as well as ICE units.
Sure they take off quickly and they also need to take a nap quickly. And the more you use them the quicker they’ll give up.
I’ve got a garbage can full of dead rechargeable drills, saws, and miscellaneous battery operated tools headed for re-cycle. Not cheap ones – all brand name – all dead either dead or requiring batteries that cost more than they are worth.
I still have/use rechargeable power tools but I know they are limited.
And I’ve got eight plug in drills, six types of power saws, two gas powered trimmers, a lawn mower, a chipper shredder and two chainsaws that are 15 to 60 years of age – and they all work.
The hydrogen fuel cell makes a lot more sense then an EV Tesla. And there’s green hydrogen using solar to do the electrolysis. The Saudis have built a huge facility and America has lots of SW desert to do the same. For some crazy reason the O’Biden administration wants EVs. I’ll stick with a 50mpg hybrid gas engine until DC comes to its senses.
Buy an old GEO Metro, use a motorcycle engine like the original Honda Civic had, 47 mpg ain’t all that bad, or the 3-cylinder Izuzu engine overhauled to like new again, drive it forever. Make it new interior gadgetry.
Place a bank of wet-cell batteries in the front end, another 400 pounds of usable pure electric energy harnessed to electric motors driving the drive-train, you can get somewhere for a few hundred miles before you need to charge each one, somehow, one way or another, it can be done. Still will be worth 25 dollars exchange for new, recyclable, and more on the way, the way to go for an electric vehicle. Why waste 22,000 dollars on a new throw away battery made of lithium that can self-immolate?
Studebaker had an electric vehicle in the very beginning. Didn’t have too many problems, apparently, Henry Ford’s wife drove an EV. Not much to it, but it worked. Conestoga wagons by Studebaker gouged the Oregon Trail’s ruts still there to this day. Dry weather conditions help.
Wear out the auto industry to a useless vestige, a swollen appendix needing emergency surgery. IOW, don’t buy the shtick, the electric shock and awe will be too much.
only fair….lol
North Carolina Republicans Want To Ban Free EV Chargers Unless Offered With Free Gas and Diesel
https://jalopnik.com/north-carolina-republicans-want-to-ban-free-ev-chargers-1849057951
The tone of the writer of that article and the comments could be fodder for a week’s worth of Eric’s posts. So much crazy. They just don’t get the irony.
Anybody pushing EV’s is a paid ccp shill.
Good article on the many things to consider with EV that most people don’t consider or understand.
ADD ANOTHER ISSUE: How much “range” lost occurs in mountainous/hilly conditions?
IS range calculated on flat surface only or all grade conditions? I would like to do see the %age drop when climbing up the grade. Even a 1% grade is enough to consume massive power.
I doubt that climbing a 5-6% grade (US Interstate maximums) for 5 miles will leave you with much “range” leftover to keep going when you get to the top of the grade.
And they are pushing EV commercial trucks?
Hi Toasty,
I can speak to this – having driven several EVs in mountainous terrain (I live in SW Virginia, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway). The range plummets ascending from the valley floor at roughly 1,200 feet to my place at 3,000 feet. Now, granted, going down the mountain, you use little energy and can even recover some (via regenerative braking). But even so, whenI drive an EV home back up the mountain, it is tired by the time I get home – which means I have to wait for it to recharge, if I want to leave home again, soon. Or even within a few hours. No such issues with even the gas-hoggiest old truck, which I run down to fumes and be back to full – and on my way – in less than five minutes.
Interesting, I live in the Lewis-Clark (Clarkston) valley. Elevation 800 ft. It’s a big hole.
Any exit of over 100 miles – North, South, East or West requires a climb of about 2,000 ft.
And there ain’t many current bushes along the way.
Yep, their advertised “range” is ideal conditions sorta like how EPA does fuel economy rating.
I have driven due to work or pleasure all thru US and Canada and there are many places worst than the Appalachian ranges where you live. Yes I crossed VA west to east and it is bad. Try the WV Turnpike (I-77) or PA Turnpike (I-76) or the worst, I-80 thru PA. Hundred of miles of up and down. Try out west with an electric car. Donners Pass from Sacramento is almost 7000ft climb.
But it doesn’t matter when you have ROLLIN BLACKOUTS as we are experience RIGHT NOW in OHIO, Columbus is at one time 50% down and still out where I live. My neighbour and I are running the generator, been out for 24+ hours and no storms.
Our power company AEP is claiming “we can’t explain” and heads are starting to roll but that still doesn’t explain “why”. They won’t say, but the system is overloaded. They want a rate increase. Good luck.
If this is how summer is starting, it is going to be bad.
The commercial trucks also face another challenge, besides the mere size increase and corresponding magnitude/impact increase in fire risk. The batteries are heavy, and commercial vehicles are capped with max gross weights without special permits. Effectively, in addition to reduced range, increased turnaround time (for charging), and up-front cost, the realistic payload capacity would be reduced by the inclusion of the batteries (and any associated structure) in the vehicle design.
It’s idiotic. Not **quite** as idiotic as the same fad as transposed onto aviation, which is even _more_ sensitive to design and payload weights, but still thoroughly idiotic.
All these ever-increasing costs are getting me to start thinking of a more cost-effective alternative. It isn’t just the EV’s anymore. I just tossed another check for almost $1,400.00 to my insurance agent so I can drive my two vehicles for another year.
The truck costs almost $120.00 to fill up now so I’m hardly driving either one of them anymore. The boat costs well over $600.00 to fill its tank and I can burn through that in a day trip over to the Bahamas and back.
If I eliminate these expenses along with license and registration, and sell everything (for what I paid, perhaps even more than what I paid for them in the first place!), and simply hire some high school or college kid to drive me around for $10.00 or $12.00 an hour, I’m going to end up with quite a bit more money in my pocket and NONE of the headaches of owning these money pits.
Anyone with driving skills will require $20+/hr plus milage. You cant buy a $500 shitbox and maintain it on a budget. 18 year olds will have to pay $300+ per month for insurance.
“he government has mandated that EVs be fitted with a device that makes noise”… in the meantime they have mandated soft limiters and noise limits on ICE cars !! Its almost as if they’re control freaks looking to regulate anything they can for shits and giggles !!
Electricity markets in ev areas are already sky high. Since california and hawaii are heavily reliant on solar power, they have more power when the sun is out ie when you are doing 90% of driving around, so as fossil fuel generation goes offline, night time and winter power rates will go up. Meanwhile superchargers & 25-50kw mall chargers have a convienence pricing which last I checked was 4.5 higher than residental power. And california is subject to frequent blackouts especially when you need to go places like during wildfires and stuff like that. Imagine fleeing danger in an ev. If the car even makes it out of danger, you will have hundreds of evs waiting for 120v extention cords at the hotel or emergency shelter, and when your car is at 5% you must flee again cause some damaged battery pack explodes in one of the cars
The “typical residential customer in the Ameren Illinois service territory is expected to see a 54% increase in their energy bill starting in June of 2022,”
Won’t those high energy prices and brownouts shrink the economy? All the better, as many on today’s left see things. “De-growth” is a movement in itself among many green activists, as cheerily described in The Nation.
Government regulations kill another manufacturer
Super 7 clone maker goes under…..
It’s with a heavy heart that PH can report Westfield Sports Cars Limited – along with its Westfield Autonomous Vehicles subsidiary – has entered administration. The affairs of the companies are now being handled by MB Insolvency.
Faced with increasingly stringent safety legislation, emission restrictions, and, in the fullness of time, electrification, there is probably no low volume carmaker in the UK that can claim to see nothing but plain sailing in its near- to long-term future. Significant change requires significant investment, and that can be difficult to come by in the best of times. Which these categorically are not.
https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-britishcars/westfield-sports-cars-enters-administration/45800
This benefits now Japanese owned Caterham
https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-spottedykywt/caterham-csr-r500-superlight-for-sale/45805?utm_campaign=enews%2520bulletin&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Newsletter%20Send%20Smart%20List
It takes digging up 500,000 pounds of earth (250 tons) to get enough specialty minerals, especially critical lithium, to make one standard EV battery. Lets multiply that by 10 million EV’s…well my calculator burned up. Never mind the tons of pollution all this “digging” and “excavating” and “transferring” takes. I wonder why they never use electric trucks for all this?
That tells the whole story. Isn’t it much cheaper and cost effective to just drill a relatively small hole in the ground and expand on that with fracking extensions? Green energy has nothing to do with efficiency or “better for the planet” nonsense…it’s all about control and destruction. It’s basically built on hate for the oil, gas and coal industries…not on the love of windmills, solar panels and EV’s.
A short term problem, as battery recycling is rapidly coming on line, and will recover 97+ percent of the elements, to be directly used to build new batteries from. As more batteries are delivered, and more batteries become exhausted, less mining and refining will be needed.
Hi Grim,
Perhaps – but this is an assertion rather than a fact. And it doesn’t address the foundational criticism – that EVs are energy hogs as well as money hogs. They decrease mobility – and flexibility. If the free market were allowed to operate, EVs would either have to be at least as versatile as non-electrics and cost about the same to own/operate for them to ever be more than a niche curiosity vehicle. But thanks to government forcing them on the market, people are going to be forced to pay substantially more for cars that reduce their mobility and waste their time.
Perhaps – for some, but not for all. With a BEV, solar panels on the roof, and a Tesla PowerWall+, you may never pay a dime in electricity to drive, unless you go for a trip exceeding your normal round trip range. Additionally, battery technology is making advances reducing the time to charge, increasing the range, and eliminating the danger of battery fires.
I am dead set against government mandates, and I can’t believe I come down on the same side as it does, but I clearly see BEV’s as being the future, even with all the detractors with vested interests who will lose out in the process
Hi Eric
Only 5% or lithium batteries are recycled. Someone also mentioned a $4500 recycling fee, lots will get thrown in the bush….buy an EV….lol…..
100% of lead acid batteries are recycled, they are green….. should be the only ev batteries approved……
Hi Eric
Info on Ev range, longevity, cost, reliability, fuel economy, safety, fire hazard, convenience, charging time, etc., is all lies.
The whole government narrative on EV’s is a huge lie, pushed to fill their WEF agenda 2030.
Your government is pushing EV’s? Why?
China has infiltrated all levels of governments, taken control, (check out the leftist/communist takeover), your politicians bought off, paid to push the EV agenda.
Anybody pushing EV’s is a paid ccp shill.
Who benefits the most from the EV vehicle conversion? china does.
All the most important components in the new EV’s are all made in china. Then you are dependent on china for replacement parts, etc., in effect they take over the whole vehicle supply chain. Vehicle production then centralized in China.
yea the Chinese have infiltrated the US govt. not the jews
Six of one evil, half a dozen of the other.
look north……….China has already taken over canada, they bought all the mines and real estate, infiltrated the government at all levels, they have a communist/fabian ccp controlled leader running the country. In the U.S. brandon is a ccp puppet.
JK, in Australia there is a cattle station up north where the owner’s residence is a 2 hour drive to the nearest road. Imagine having an EV there. No bitumen road, just a dirt track. No lane markings for the sensors to monitor to keep the car “on the road”.
Hi to5,
“… in Australia there is a cattle station up north where the owner’s residence is a 2 hour drive to the nearest road. Imagine having an EV there.”
I think that’s just the point. They – those pushing all of this – want to make life as difficult as possible (if not impossible) for people such as the above. For all of us.
Hi Eric
nobody will answer this……..What happens when 200 Ev’s are parked in underground parking at an apartment block or office tower and they catch fire? You can’t take propane into underground parking, but you can take a fire bomb lithium battery car underground.
The fact that dildos are lining up to buy vehicles that 1) take a hell of a lot longer to recoup a FULL charge, 2) are sensitive to (real) climate changes, 3) lose capacity over time, 4) cost more up front AND 5) are WAY more fire prone than IC-powered vehicles, means that humanity MUST have a death wish. But hey, at least the dildos can show the world how “green” and “eco-friendly” they are, as their remains are being used for plant food!
Hi Blue,
I think much of the EV frenzy is based on the fact that almost no one owns one. The EV “fleet” is still only about 2 percent of the total and most of those are owned in CA and urban areas, by affluent people, who can afford to absorb the cost in both money and otherwise. When working and middle class people come to understand how their mobility will be limited by EVs – assuming they can afford to spend what it takes to own an EV – then the rubber will meet the road. It is ridiculous – I think – to think that most working and middle class people will just accept being told they will have to pay a 30-plus percent up-front premium for their next new car and will then have to plan their driving lives around recharging the things.
It is like believing people will willingly pay 30 percent more than the cost of a steak for a smaller piece of chicken.
Never underestimate the gullibility of what H.L. Mencken termed “The Great American Boobsie”.
How many of those EV owners have them as their SOLE ride? I’ll wager damned FEW. Typically it’s some virtue-signaling, spoiled rich frau with her head up in the clouds, the same one that annoyed everyone with her holier-than-thou attitude when she bought a Prius. “Quagmire” (also voiced by annoying libtard Seth MacFarlane) was right…driving one does NOT make you “Jesus Christ”! Odds are that EV is garaged in a $3.5 M Bay area home, alongside a hulking SUV or crossover, and likely “hubby” has something like a pickup or a Dodge Challenger to “play” with as well. The interesting thing is that this couple likely pulls down in excess of $300K a year, so the tax subsidies they got pay for more toys or help finance THEIR investments. Hardly the same situation that some 24 y.o. kid, a year or so out of college and on her first job, paying $1,500/month to SHARE a cramped 2 bedroom apartment in the same town, who like does NOT itemize on her returns and so wouldn’t get the tax credits for buying the virtue-signal-mobile.
But these are the same idiots that line up for a half hour at the local Starbucks to get a “venti” of a revolting mixture of rancid coffee and spoiled milk, served up by some surly kid who expects a three-buck tip for holding the cup under the dispensing machine, squirting some Reddi-Whip on it, and putting a plastic cap on top. BTW, thanks to a daily habit of these “lattes”, not only is the struggling young lady perpetually broke, her skirt’s too tight on her ass.
Any wonder people get sold on such idiotic things?
Hi Eric
When they ban ice in 2030? it will be higher then 2%, but the rich only will buy them, the poor people will walk…
“-then the rubber will meet the road.”
Nowhere mentioned is the much higher tire wear from the extreme weight of the EVs. Put on the silly ultra low profile tires that cost easily more than double of a better riding mid-profile that would suit most any ones’ driving needs.
you are forgetting that one half of the people out there have a 2-digit IQ.
In the final analysis, electric cars have a long ways to go to match ICE vehicles.
If you want to buy an EV with bitcoin, you better act fast. Bitcoin has lost over half of its charge and the battery is being depleted faster than you can say Jack Robinson. Bitcoin is gettin’ its legs cut off, that’s the way it goes moving west.
Everybody is dumping stocks right and left today. The exits are crowded.
The bubble is deflating.
Lots of problems with EV’s
Worldwide 80% of electricity is produced by oil, gas and coal. electric cars aren’t zero emission they are remote emission. In China most teslas are coal powered. In the U.S. 40% are coal powered.
The new gas powered cars run so clean they have very very low emissions, very close to zero like .00001% contaminants. The exhaust coming out of a modern diesel is cleaner then the air in a big city.
The emissions at the power plant are far higher then what comes out of the exhaust pipe of a modern ics vehicle. ICE engines will be banned because they are not zero emission, .00001% contaminants is too high, this is insanity.
EV’s pollute more
NOTE: The biggest pollutant emitted from new cars because they have so low emissions are from tires wearing out while driving, tire particles.
ATTENTION: Electric cars weigh 30% more than gas powered cars so have higher tire wear, so EV’s pollute more.
Below 90% charge EV performance keeps dropping, at 10% charge it is down quite a bit. ICE cars on a quarter tank are quicker because they got lighter.
EV highway driving consumption
The advertised range that many manufacturers brag about is the average or city driving figure. However, the highway range is much smaller, sometimes up to 50 percent less.
operating Li-ion batteries outside the safety zone (i.e. 20%–80%) state of charge, a loss in conductivity can be observed
You can only use 60% of the advertised range, in cold weather subtract up to 50% more, so what is the real world range?
ATTENTION: Only 5% of electric car lithium fire bomb batteries are recycled, a huge pollution problem.
Green EV? The only sort of green electric cars, are the ones that use lead acid batteries, 98% of lead acid batteries are recycled, only 5% of lithium batteries are recycled. One small business converted small pickup trucks to electric power using lead acid batteries, backyard mechanics would convert ice cars with broken engines to electric power, if a 60 mile range was adequate they worked.
In their entire life cycle including manufacturing, electric cars in total pollute far more than gas powered cars, people don’t seem to understand that the vast majority of a car’s carbon footprint is made during manufacture and scrapping. Running the car, not so much. EV’s pollute far more,
Most electric cars are designed as performance cars so they use far more energy and resources than they should. (the government regulations don’t allow the manufacture of small light electric cars which would make more sense, china does).
Recharging costs:
The grid can’t handle large numbers of electric cars recharging, if all cars are electric the grid capacity has to be increased 500%. There is already power shortages, blackouts in many countries with electricity costs rapidly rising, when electricity prices go up 400% your old ice vehicle will look cheap to run.
Open pit lithium mining for battery manufacture, often done with child slave labour, is worse then tar sands mining.
The biggest problem…….EV fires:
Enormous amounts of water are required: tactically, this may mean using a master stream, 2½-inch or multiple 1¾-inch fire lines, to suppress and cool the fire. Vehicle fires don’t typically call for surround-and-drown tactics, but these are not typical vehicle fires. so you need multiple fire trucks to put out the fire, this is insanity.
One example: the flames on the Tesla were extinguished, it reignited again. Firefighters began hosing it down with copious amounts of water, up to 200 gallons per minute, but “that did not extinguish the flames,” according to the NTSB. At approximately 9:13 p.m., nearly three hours after the first alarm was received, firefighters had to pour out more than 600 gallons of water per minute. In the end the agency used 20,000 gallons of water. these should be banned from the road…..
Then the fire still isn’t put out……..Batteries can be expected to reignite after being put out because they still have stored energy. 15 hours later it catches fire again…
“Battery fires can take up to 24 hours to extinguish”….. the vehicle must be parked under “quarantine” for 48 hours, so that no new fire can break out.
Batteries are difficult to extinguish, and they can burst into flames again several hours later –ATTENTION: in some cases, right up to a week later
ATTENTION: EV’s can’t replace ICV’s because………global capacity for the materials for EV batteries can’t replace even 3% of fossil fuel vehicles.
Electric cars are expensive, they are only for the rich, but they are heavily subsidized by the government with taxpayer’s money, including taxes from the poor, the poor subsidizing the rich. the poor can walk. electric cars, toys for the rich.
NOTE: The first people to buy electric cars were the most sold on the idea, the biggest believers, 20% of them are switching back to ice powered cars because of the inconvenience factor, the charging time hassle.
Another problem EV shares with new ice powered vehicles: Electronic components have a limited life, even if you do not use them. It’s the nature of the P-N junction that forms a transistor.
During the first three months of ownership, EVs were 2.3 times as expensive to service as gasoline-powered cars. At the 12-month mark, repair costs were about 1.6 times what owners of gas-powered cars paid.
It’s Not Parts. It’s Labor
Electric cars depreciate over two times faster than their internal combustion engine counterparts, a serious black mark when it comes to tallying up your actual yearly cost to run your vehicle!
So the new electric vehicles like the new computerized ice vehicles will have a limited lifespan, when these electronics fail the car will be scrap, too expensive to fix, more recycling and waste. Only buy cars with no computers.
A 1913 Bugatti type 22 is 108 years old and daily driven. A Tesla is scrap after 10 years.
I’ve got a good friend with a Chevy Bolt… One thing he mentions is that the chargers are often out of service or just plain broken. The electronics/adapters in this outdoor chargers are simply not that durable or reliable. Oftentimes charging will commence only to turn off several minutes later while my friend has gone shopping or to work or whatever. There are apparently many failsafes in these charging stations that often falsely trip.
GM and others beg gubbermint to keep $7500 credit for companies with sales of more than 200k EVs. Only GM and Tesla have exceeded that number.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/13/ceos-of-gm-ford-and-others-urge-congress-to-lift-ev-tax-credit-cap.html
Once again people also need to be reminded that electricity isn’t free. Might be cheaper (equivalently) right now than $5/gallon gas but you’ll pay up for all the beefing up necessary for the grid to handle all that additional load. Not to mention that solar panels and windmills aren’t going to cut it for base load. Gonna need some nukes and gas-fired turbines, unless you like living in a cave. These effing uber-greenies are doing a fine job of turning the USSA into a third world hellhole.
Hi Mike
Increased electricity prices coming now…..
Since forty percent of the electricity produced in the USA comes from coal power plants, therefore forty percent of electric cars on the road are coal-powered. 80% of all electricity is from burning coal, oil and gas.
Oil was $75/bbl pre-Ukraine, then held just above $100, now $120. Natural gas from normal $4-$5/mbtu… since Ukraine $9/mbtu, burnt to make electricity…. The May increase in fuel oil, plus 16.9%. May utility natural gas, up 8% in the month.
The Coal normal price, $50-$100/ton… today coal price $395 per ton, that is where your electricity comes from, burning coal…..lol.
What happens when the price triples to charge your EV?
Truly “throw-away” vehicles after the lease is up and the eco-cerned used car buyer has to replace the battery pack.
Well, EVs and Nissans with bum CVTs needing replacement are truly throwaways.
What a waste.
I have always held that no car is a throwaway vehicle unless one treats it that way.
I replaced a well-worn 170 Slant Six in my Valiant in 1988. Still running fine in 2022. Owned 40 years.
The only engine I have replaced in 50 years of driving.
If you live in San Francisco where the weather is 65 degrees year-round and it never snows and you commute eight blocks to work at a gay art gallery or coffee shop and leave the car plugged in all day, I’m sure that an EV is for you.
Just don’t force it on me and make me drive it 200 miles in a blizzard in 12 degree temperatures, or go off-roading through the mud to cut cordwood or go hunting with it.
Whatever happened to our commitment to “diversity”?
Plus I doubt if you’re parking on the street in San Francisco at your gay art gallery or coffee shop that there are many, if any, chargers. Even in the corporate owned and ‘secure’ huge parking garage I park in, there are 8 chargers for some 8,000 people(well, when we used to work onsite)….
“Diversity” is code for “No Peaceful Heterosexuals Allowed”.
EVs fit a very narrow window of users. Those who don’t travel far, or often. In other words, people who can’t afford them in the US market. People who CAN afford them, buy them as an extravagance. Either to signal their virtue, or because they are unique. While not giving up their ICVs. Yet. The only way that the power grid can accommodate a full conversion to EVS is that fewer people will be driving. Not only would generating capacity have to be increased. but the size of wires carrying that load would have to be increased. I’m talking about trillions of dollars.
I’ll say it again, having worked pickup trucks for most of my 50 years of working life, I cannot imagine a more useless piece of machinery than an EV pickup. OK for goat ropers, who panic over a scratch in the bed, but not for the rest, who expect a truck to do work. Of course the goat ropers have driven up the cost of pickups so high that they border on not being cost effective. Once upon a time, in my time, a pickup could be bought cheaper than a car.
Eric,
When someone says a car is responsive, I tend to think of its handling characteristics? Does it handle like it’s on rails? Does the car do what I want with little more than the mere THOUGHT of it? If yes, then it’s responsive. Responsive != quick acceleration.
As for charging, an EV at a fast charger can take more than 80%, but it’ll need as much time to go from 80% to 100% SOC as it did to go from 20%-80% SOC. That’s because the charging curve is logarithmic. Even at a fast charger, an EV can be charged to 100%. However, with the time involved and chargers being more numerous and thus closer together, the extra time taken to reach 100% SOC is not well spent; IOW, it’s not normally necessary to go beyond 80%, as that will be more than enough to get you to either the next charger or your destination.
Hi Mark,
In re: “… it’s not normally necessary to go beyond 80%, as that will be more than enough to get you to either the next charger or your destination.”
That depends on the destination! Especially if you don’t want it to be a charging station.
And regardless, it is more convenient to fuel to full than to partially recharge, isn’t it? I only need to gas up my truck once a week. I don’t need to think about fueling for days at a time. Any EV that is driven regularly will require its owner to constantly have to think about – and spend time waiting on – recharging.
I circle back to the elephant in the room – which is the obvious fact that EVs bring with them less convenience/versatility as well as much higher cost. Which leads me to ask… why, exactly, are we being pushed to replace our more convenient/versatile and much less expensive combustion-powere cars with electric cars?
Eric,
Easy. They don’t want you going when and where you want. They don’t want you driving, period. They want to push us into “public” transportation, which they own, and so can deprive you of at will.
Eric,
I never said that EVs were more convenient than ICEVs. For now, I think that ICEVs are better than EVs; for a whole host of reasons, they’re easier to live with.
I think it’s important though that, when we make arguments, that we’re correct; in the eyes of the opposition, we’re wrong and to not be listened to if we’re wrong or incomplete in making our argument, e.g. saying that an EV can only fast charge to 80%. Indeed, even if we’re totally correct, they may ignore us, but they’ll at least do so without justification; they can’t say that we have our facts wrong and are therefore to be ignored. This especially matters to third persons (who are on the fence WRT EVs vs. ICEVs) watching or listening to us make the case. They’re the ones that need to be won over.
As for whether one would have to be more careful when driving locally when driving an EV, I don’t know; EV owners normally charge at home every night, so their car normally has more than enough juice for typical business. The only time one has to be concerned is traveling out of town, something I don’t do very often. I could live with an EV, particularly a Tesla, on a road trip; my bladder won’t let me last longer than a charge anyway!
As for refueling, I do it every couple of days. I try to keep my tank full in case I have to evacuate or something; I normally refuel at 3/4 a tank. I never let it go below half. I’d like to have the fuel just in case, so I keep it as close to full as I can.
Hi Mark,
Yes, I agree. But I don’t think I was incorrect when I stated that EVs can only fast charge to 80 percent at a “fast” charger; i.e., that the remaining 20 percent to full is not “fast.” Correct? So, if it takes say 30 minutes to recover 80 percent charge but another 15 to get the remaining 20 then the actual time to fully recharge – a fair comparison vs. filling up a non-electric car – is much longer than advertised.
Imagine if non-electrics were so greasily marketed.
Markey,
Having grown up in the late ’60s early ’70s, and not being wealthy, I could never afford power. I could learn how to drive what I had at it’s limits, and I did. Later, when I could afford a sports car, without all that power, I fell in love.
John,
Giving me a high performance vehicle is like giving a drunk the keys to the liquor store! I had a Kawasaki ZRX1100, a fast, powerful bike. It’s a miracle I didn’t wind up in jail… 🙂
Same, that’s why I drive a 4cyl s10, and have big cruiser bike, fast things get me in trouble
My battery powered push mower will shut down occasionally bc the battery gets too hot i.e. mowing grass that’s a bit thick or tall. It’s inconvenient as hell but not the end of the world. But that’s just a lawn mower, not like it’s life or death. Can’t imagine having a for real emergency but being stranded bc of a stupid EV battery.
Same happens to me with my battery powered chainsaw. Nothing to do until the battery cools down.
Charging an EV probably isn’t much of a problem if you live your life on a schedule. If you wake at the same time, work at the same time, hit the gym at the same time, go to sleep at the same time, shop on the same day, visit on the same day… you can work charging into your schedule. And, as long as nothing ever changes on that schedule you’ll be fine. But for those times when you want to break out of a rut, or have an unanticipated variation to the schedule, you might be left without a full battery. If it is an emergency that might not be good.
I live on the Gulf Coast and even though we’re inland, evacuations of our coast are a part of life. What happens when you’re in bumper-to-bumper traffic and the range display on your EV stares back at you like a skull’s hollow eye socket? I’ve seen the lines at gas stations outside the evacuated zone. Imagine that with an EV where 30 minutes is considered “rapid” charging.
But our betters really don’t give a damn about that. To them, the Gulf Coast is just worthless dirt people not worth a care. If you can’t afford one of these shitboxes, TFB. If you can’t afford your electricity now that millions are plugging in their cars at night, TFB.
Dr mantis,
Hurricane Michael was called the forgotten 5 for a reason. The news dropped coverage of the removal of mexico beach almost immediately. Why drum up any sympathy for those white conservatives on the panhandle? You’d have thought they would use the complete destruction to push their climate catastrophe fairytale.
As for EV’s in a disaster, good luck getting out and if you were stuck here with one you’d have been lucky to recharge within a month of the storm. The danger of EV ownership only increases for the blue nutjobs on the peninsula.
dr_mantis – But a bunch of “our betters” insist on moving here when they retire. Eventually, they will outnumber the “worthless dirt people not worth a care”. Then watchagonnado? I’m lucky since I am a really old fart. I will be checking out before most of them check in.
By the way, ARYLIOA stands for A Repentant Yankee Living In Occupied Alabama. (Since 1968) I guess I am one of those Damned Yankees to a lot of folks, but I had the Damascus Road experience and my eyes were opened to all the lies they pumped into me as a kid in the Soviet State of New Jersey.
And these are the people who will have the shortest battery life, because the more time you spend pushing charge over 80% or letting it go below 50%, the more damage to the battery. If you can maintain a battery between 60% and 80%, and ALWAYS slow charge, you can get a very respectable lifespan out of it, though. But that’s only 20-30 miles per day.
A EE friend of mine does have that kind of lifestyle, and re-engineered his 120v charger to do exactly that — stop at 80%. He says his diagnostics show no decline in the battery over the last 3.5 years. But he also has a gas powered car for days when he has to travel more than what could be accomplished in 20% of battery capacity. He says only a fool would trash his EV by using it for things an EV is not good at.
Steve,
Keeping between 20 and 80% state of charge will indeed prolong the life of the battery however lithium ion cells will degrade significantly by the 10 year mark… An age I consider well cared for IC cars around half used. Time will tell if newer chemistry batteries will delay the age degradation but for the time being I highly doubt the added purchase price, electricity cost and battery replacement will ever show any savings over buying gas. Forcing us all to buy EV’s is like forcing us to all buy overteched Mercedes or BMW’s to save some green.
‘There isn’t much reserve capacity available for anything else. Expect your power bill to go up even if you don’t own an EV.’ — eric
In the inflationary 1970s (which rather rhyme with today), electric utilities got hosed with horrific cost increases on capital projects.
“Having paid only 2.2 cents per kWh in 1969, the average residential customer in 1977 paid almost double that rate — just over 4 cents,” recalls one history.
As regulated monopolies entitled to a profit, utilities can and will fully pass on cost increases to their captive customers.
Going off-grid with solar typically has a payback time of more than a decade — and the solar investment tax credit expires in 2023.
Hunkering down as the Biden eclownomy crashes and burns means keeping a low profile of electric use, not buying a damned EeeVee.
Hi Jim
travelling 100 miles in an average EV uses 1.03 gallons equivalent of fuel = 34.7 kwh of electricity that is the net amount, but….at the power plant 4 gallons of fuel were burnt to get a net 1 gallon of fuel equivalent 34.7 kwh used by the EV.
travelling 100 miles in an average EV uses 1.03 gallons equivalent of fuel = 34.7 kwh of electricity @ $0.40 per kwh = $13.88, back at the power plant 4 gallons were burnt to get the net 34.7 kwh of electricity. NOTE: 4 gallons were burnt to go 100 miles.
There is an additional cost for the EV owner: the tesla $22,000 battery is used up, worn out in 100,000 miles. this works out to $22.00 per 100 miles it is costing you for the battery. Total cost: $13.88 plus $22.00 = $35.88
EV owner uses 4 gallons to go 100 miles, that is 25 mpg, lots of ice cars get better fuel economy.
travelling 100 miles in a 50 mpg diesel uses 2 gallons of fuel @ $4.00 per gallon = $8.00 and it has a huge range……
Should be still selling these:
the all-new 2014 Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion diesel, capable of a claimed 88.3 mpg imperial, or 73.5 mpg U.S.
Since forty percent of the electricity produced in the USA comes from coal power plants, therefore forty percent of electric cars on the road are coal-powered. 80% of all electricity is from burning coal, oil and gas.
Oil was $75/bbl pre-Ukraine, then held just above $100, now $120. Natural gas from normal $4-$5/mbtu… since Ukraine $9. The May increase in fuel oil, plus 16.9%. May utility natural gas, up 8% in the month.
The Coal normal price, $50-$100/ton… today $395.
What happens when the price triples to charge your EV?