Everyone knows that EVs take much longer to recharge than it takes to fill up a gas tank. Also that most EVs don’t go as far on a charge as most cars with engines can go on a tankful. But these aren’t the fundamental problem with EVs.
The fundamental problem is not their tetheredness. It is their connectedness.
EVs are the apotheosis of connectedness. When you plug into a so-called “fast” charger (the term is Orwellian in that it is fundamentally deceptive; yes, it is faster to charge at a commercial “fast” charger than it is to charge at home but it is still much slower than filling up a gas tank) you are plugging into – to borrow term that is useful because it conveys the reality – the matrix. Everyone knows what the matrix is, because everyone has either seen the movies – especially the first one, which was by far the best one – or has heard the word used to convey what the movies were about.
It is a working synonym for the corporate-government entity (the order of priority is intentional because it is accurate) that seeks total awareness and thereby, total control, over everything we are allowed to do.
The word is italicized because that’s exactly the thing. What we are allowed to do. The time of rights is almost ended. They exist perfunctorily, where they are allowed to exist at all. Everything is conditional. Permitted use. Not the right to use. The public right-of-way, for instance – which was once just that. The public – meaning, everyone – had an acknowledged right to freely travel on the roads, which were considered open to all. It is true that these roads were not paved and travel was by foot, horse and carriage – but the point is no one owned the roads in the way that the state now owns them – and exerts its ownership by laying down terms and conditions of usage. Note that the state says it is a privilege to drive. Privileges are not rights. They are what you are allowed to do. Implicit in that is the always-dangling-over-your-head threat that the privilege will be revoked.
How do EVs tie into this?
Well, they literally tie into it – whenever you plug one into a “fast” charger. It is not like buying gas, which can be done anonymously, for one thing – by paying cash for it. You cannot use cash to buy electricity at a commercial “fast” charger. It is credit/debit card/app-only. It is also something else. The electricity is electronically controlled. Gas pumps use electric fuel pumps but that it not the same thing in that the pumps in the underground tanks aren’t tied into the matrix. The “fast” charger kiosks are. They know who is buying electricity whenever electricity is bought because you use electronic means to pay for it – and they can control how much you’re allowed to buy. This has not yet been implemented, in the sense that – for now – no one is prevented from buying electricity – or only allowed to buy some – perhaps because of some “emergency” or perhaps because you are Disobedient.
But the infrastructure for doing just that is already there. It is just a matter of . . . implementation.
You can, of course, avoid the commercial “fast” chargers – assuming you have a home where you can plug in. Even so, unless you are not plugged into the matrix, the power you are allowed to use is still controlled by the matrix.
If you live in an apartment, you do not have that option.
Regardless, the EV is still always subject to being controlled – because it is connected. Gas-engined cars made recently – since about 2010 – are also connected in that they receive over-the-air “updates” and transmit “data” to the matrix, but EVs are even more connected and in a way that gas-engined cars aren’t. A real-world example will perhaps make the point. A few years ago, when a hurricane was bearing down on Florida, Tesla graciously sent out an over-the-air “update” increasing the driving range of Teslas owned by people who lived in the path of the Hurricane, so as to enable their owners to escape the hurricane. This was taken as beneficent of Tesla – and perhaps it was – but consider what’s implicit in this. If an EV’s range can be increased via an over-the-air “update,” then it can also be decreased. It can be reduced to zero – and there is essentially nothing the putative “owner” of the EV can do about it.
Other-brand EVs are just like Teslas in this respect. They are all scaled-up iterations of smartphones, which “update” whether you like it or not and which can and do emit “data” about you that is sent to the matrix. The phone – and the EV – can be altered or bricked at any time via an “update.”
The tragedy is that EVs could be the least connected vehicles. The early EVs – such as the Baker electric that was available more than 100 years ago – were just that. They had simple, user-swappable deep cycle batteries that could be charged at home (and that, today, could also be easily charged at home, not necessarily using grid power, either) and electric motors that weren’t computer controlled. It is interesting to observe that while it is necessary – for effective emissions control as well as good drivability – to use a computer to control the operation of engines, it is not necessary to control an electric motor that way.
It is just more complex and expensive.
Imagine a modernized iteration of those EVs of a century ago. Simple, cheap – and practical, as urban/suburban conveyances. Without any connectedness along for the ride. Why aren’t such EVs available given how appealing that seems?
The question pretty much answers itself, doesn’t it?
. . .
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One just needs to remember when MUSK’s TESLA removed VIA the WWW the battery maximum capacity in order to allow modern moron slaves to FLEE the Hurricane!
“Tesla has issued temporary over-the-air software updates to increase the driving range of specific Model S and Model X vehicles for owners fleeing Hurricane Irma (2017), Hurricane Florence (2018), and Hurricane Michael (2018). This measure unlocked the full capacity of 75 kWh battery packs that were previously software-limited to 60 kWh or 70 kWh configurations, adding approximately 30 to 40 miles of range to help drivers evacuate. ”
How NICE of him!
Geebus all you Paranoid A-wipes,
This EV Shit can be handled EZ!
Just build a great surge protector and a special lighting rod/battery “Surge Absorber”..
And…Fuk It, go harness nature’s free energy with the near nightly VE Catatumbo Lightning show…!!
Read about it..
The differences you point out between EVs and ICE vehicles may have been real in the past, but they are becoming less and less so as time goes on.
There are many fuel pumps now that I’ve seen in Europe, but also in New Zealand and elsewhere, that are fully automatic & self-service with no human operator present, so you can only pay by credit card, not cash. In many cases they also require an ‘app’ before you can use it – for ‘convenience’ of course, because your CC is then tied to the app – just like the EV chargers.
You pull up, pre-pay whatever amount of fuel you want to buy, at which point the computer unlocks the bowser and turns on the pump. Driving away without paying is no longer possible.
As far as the creeping computerization and ability for the vehicle to be ‘always on’ with mother ship, feeding it data and receiving back commands that you’ve zero idea about, you have driven enough new cars to know all that is a standard ‘feature set’ these days.
Just like all those saaafety features.
So, it’s just a QUICKER way to control you? That’s the kind of efficiency only a leftist Demoncrap politician could love.
Please stop calling it The Matrix, the term so played. It was a movie ffs, not reality.
Idiocracy was a movie also, and know look around.
Yo Jimmy Boyo,
Big Y just “smote” youse…It’s Full Steam Ahead to IDIOCRACY..Case Closed!
This Perfect Day by Ira Levin wasn’t a movie but the book laid it all out.
Chris Martenson and Mike Adams have been talking about low cost solar panels, solar batteries and EV’s.
https://x.com/HealthRanger/status/2067837652796055651
What EP has not factored in here is the price plunge in solar panels down to under $100 for 500w or more.
10 panels, a 5kwh battery, a chinese inverter and mounting hardware can be purchased for under $5000. This is sufficient to charge up to 50kwh into an EV on a clear summer day, especially in SW USA. This would easily power an efficient EV for 200miles.
A Libertarian must understand that autarky is one of the building blocks of Libertarianism. It is hard to reject government control when you are dependent on it for handouts.
The technology keeps advancing and costs keep declining, apparently somewhere close to what Moore’s law predicts. V2H (vehicle to home) is being rolled out by many manufacturers (Kia and Polestar seem to be out front) where you could use your EV battery to even power/heat/cool your house on cloudy winter days.
So for a family with 2 cars and the possibility of building a solar energy system to power EV would seem to me to be a no brainer. I am already there.
Sure, a Tesla may not be optimal for escaping a hurricane, but there are many other scenarios where self generating power for transport counter balances this disadvantage.
Also, BYD and some Tesla model 3 IIRC are using Lithium Iron technology that is much safer and longer lived (6000 cycles) than the older Lithium batteries.
Hi Brosi,
Yes, that is intriguing. My main concern would be the durability/longevity of the solar stuff. If that $5k investment buys a system that lasts at least five years, eliminating both gas and electricity bills, then I can see the sense in it. The savings would work off the higher buy-in cost of the EV itself (and perhaps also the depreciation).
But will it? And then there is the shorter service life of the EV – of its battery pack – to take into account. If you need to buy a new EV every eight years or so, the math might not be so good.
The newer solar panels are coming with 20+ year guarantees.
These older Trinas have 25 year guarantee:
https://www.trinasolar.com/us/n-445w-tsm-ne09rh-05/
6000 battery cycles is a full charge cycle every working day for 30 years. EV’s are have little or no maintenance especially when powerful 4wd electric motors act as generators to do the braking. Brake fluid changes become a formality.
The bigger risk is obsolescence if Moore’s law applies indefinitely. But if it does ICE engine manufacturers are toast anyway because EV range will be a thousand miles within a decade.
In order to fully eliminate your household bills, you’d need to substantially overbuild your system in relation to your average daily consumption needs, because solar outputs can vary drastically not only between the seasons – which obviously will be more relevant the further you are from the equator – but also just on cloudy, overcast days.
If you get lots of cloudy weather, which is common even in the tropics during the ‘wet season’ (summer), you’ll be falling back on a gas or diesel generator quite often.
Having spoken with people living off grid in northern Australia and on several Pacific islands – by necessity, because there is no conventional power supply available, they also consistently say that you end up having to live ‘according to the weather’ rather than how you want to.
Which means doing the washing when the sun is shining, rather than when the basket is full.
I also find it very, very unlikely that a $5,000 system ‘with’ any battery can be built that would allow you to go truly off grid. Unless you were happy to run the generator most of the time.
The figures I’ve seen for a truly sufficient system have been closer to $30,000. And even with that, you wouldn’t be charging your EV very often.
Solar is inefficient and not really cheap. It only appears so because of deliberate government policies to increase prices energy from conventional sources like coal.
Apart from all that, using cheap Chinese parts, you may well end up with your house burning down.
I have built my system up in southern Spain over several years using Victron (UK/Holland) electronics with 10kwh of MPPT, a menage of 28 panels of around 14kwh (I am ~1.4 overpanelled), 8 x 200ah 12v AGM lead batteries, and in the last few years 30kwh of Pylontech (Chinese) lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4 / LFP) batteries.
The panels and Pylontech batteries have gotten cheaper every year. I would bet I have spent over $30K over the years on the system, but I did most of the work myself. I could probably make an equivalent system today for less that $20k in material, even less if I used chinese instead of Victron electronics.
I had an electrician install a 3-way breaker style switch so I switch between on and off grid in a second. The solar system is “off grid”, I don’t sell power back to the grid. I still have to pay €20/mo to remain connected to the grid even if I use no power.
As you say, the only problem is in winter. In summer much of the solar is clipped.
Spanish electricity in the countryside (Endesa) is not very reliable, which is one reason I started building the system a decade ago.
My wife and I find “having to live ‘according to the weather’ rather than how you want to” to not really be a big disadvantage, although we can and sometimes do switch to grid power when there is insufficient solar energy hitting the panels for an extended period of time. To us, adapting our lifestyle to the weather is similar to eating various produce when it is in season.
This is one reason I find the V2H (vehicle to home) EV systems to be so intriguing. I am a retired boomer, so I can defer my transport energy demands without major problems, and could easily keep a charged up V2H capable EV with 70-100kwh battery for use as a form of “bad weather reserve”. I would enjoy setting it up and learning how it all ties together.
Currently my main form of transport is a 1.5l Renault diesel powered Dacia Lodgy that I call “my Campo Pickup”. I am watching the V2H market develop and would consider upgrading to a BYD Seal or something similar once their V2H capability is fully implemented and prices drop.
My biggest concern is all the “safety” and “driver assistance” that von der Pfizer is imposing on the EU. I really don’t want to have her watching me pick my nose while I drive.
Thanks for the clarification, John –
I suspected as much. If that’s the case – if a viable solar system costs in the vicinity of $30k – then the cost is disproportionate to the benefit. Especially when you add in the cost of an EV. Even if you were to buy a used one for say $15k, that’s still $45k “invested.” Meanwhile, my old truck is nearly cost-free to operate because it’s paid for. Even if I bur through a tank per week, that’s only about $200/month at current prices – so about $2,400 annually. After ten years, $24,000 – still not as much as the “$30k” solar array – nevermind the cost of the EV, which after ten years will be needing a new battery, probably.
Eric,
It most certainly does NOT cost $30k anymore for a proper solar electric system, at least if you DIY. I will reiterate that the system I’m installing cost about $6k for 4.5kW worth of panels and 30kWh in LiFePO4 batteries. I bought used panels, BTW, so they might not last 25 years, but they still put out above nominal capacity when tested. This will theoretically fully charge my GFs Chevy Bolt in a couple of days, or a day and a night if the solar batteries were previously fully charged.
We have been doing fine with 2kW in panels and 15kWh in batteries for the past few years. The only supplemented energy has been the propane for the heater in winter, but that’s because we’re still living in an RV for the moment and that cost will be eliminated when we build a house with insulation.
I had a friend and her husband install solar panels on her house. It is nice-now-as it saves her a lot of money on her otherwise exorbant electrical bill. However, she admitted it took ten years of use before she broke even financially.
Panels and other solar hardware has drastically dropped in price while electricity has dramatically risen in price. Don’t get me started on these new data centers hoovering up all the cheap electricity.
So there is a good chance she could amortize the investment in few years today, maybe even less.
Out in the world not everyone lives in a house with a roof that they own. Its a partial solution at best for those with homes and capital.
Millenials and Zoomers are inheriting a world of overbearing Noahide empire control. Jews don’t want Goyim to be independent and self-sufficient. Jews want Goyim to be over-indebted and addicted to social media and “sports”. Jews are flooding every province of the Noahide empire with unskilled and uncivilized invaders who, like the Jews, resent everything that European civilization has created over the last several centuries.
Millenials and Zoomers need to wake the f. up and stop being mind controlled zombies. The Boomers and now X-ers are not going to deal with the J-question.
I was reading the other day about plug in solar setups where the panels are plugged into an outlet in the house and don’t require any complicated setups. Seemed interesting. Unfortunately, they are illegal in most states, but it seems that’s starting to change. A few western states have legalized it as well as Virginia and Maryland. Seems the big utilities don’t like it.
Citation?
under $5000?
not in this world
To successfully push 50 kWh of energy
into an electric vehicle (EV) strictly
during daylight hours:
Solar Array:
You need an 11 kW to 14 kW solar panel system.
The total average installed cost
for a 11 kW to 14 kW home solar panel system
ranges between $28,160 and $35,140
before any financial incentives.
A 5 kilowatt-hour (kWh) home battery
typically costs $5,000 to $7,000
for a fully installed, professionally
managed system, Not mandatory
Level 2 Charger:
a 240V charger is mandatory.
Minimum Amperage:
at least 32 to 40 amps.
Installing a 32-to-40-amp Level 2 EV charging setup
at home typically costs between $800 and $2,700
for the equipment and standard professional electrical work.
Your car must be at home charging
for five or six hours on a sunny day
You cannot use it while it is charging
While the car is charging
the solar energy cannot be used
for anything else in your home
Good luck charging on the cloudy day
From Malaga bricomart (like Homedepot):
– Pylontech 4.8kwh. Take 1 About $900:
” BATERIA LITIO 4.8KWH 48V PYLONTECH US5000 890 € IVA / Unidad ”
https://www.obramat.es/productos/bateria-litio-4-8kwh-48v-pylontech-us5000-25023721.html
– 535W 30y guarantee of at least 80% output. 98€. Take 10 for about $1000
PANEL SOLAR 535W JASOLAR N-TYPE BIFACIAL BLACK FRAME JAM60D42-LB 25Y
https://www.obramat.es/productos/panel-solar-535w-jasolar-n-type-bifacial-black-frame-jam60d42-lb-25y-25107149.html
– 10kw Huawei inverter
INVERSOR DE RED HÍBRIDO MONOFÁSICO 10KW HUAWEI SUN2000-10K-LC0 €1494
https://www.obramat.es/productos/inversor-de-red-hibrido-monofasico-10kw-huawei-sun2000-10k-lc0-25065112.html
– Support structures. Hard to determine requirements. Say $500
https://www.obramat.es/fotovoltaica/soportes-y-estructuras-panel-solar/
– Cables and breakers for Solar panels. Say $500
https://www.obramat.es/fotovoltaica/accesorios-instalacion-solar/
Total: 500+500+1500+1000+900=$4300
Call it $5000 with $700 reserve for extra costs.
10hrs sun in summer at 5350w = 53KWH
In Europe there is already 230v power. Most EV’s come with a wall power connector.
The 10kw invertor will handle up to 45 amps.
45 amps * 230v = 10,350 watts or 10kw. 10kw * 10hrs = 100KWH in one day.
QED.
It is DIY doable and not at $30K. I will also mention that this system is readily expandable and additional panels and batteries could be added by simply plugging in.
Good work, Brosi!
People need to know it’s not the same world it was even 10 years ago when it comes to energy self-sufficiency. Furthermore, people on the libertarian and/or “conservative” sides of things should seek to eliminate the stigma from solar/wind energy (damn dirty hippies and their BS magic Sun power…).
A $12,000 baseline is highly realistic
for a non grid-tied (off-grid) 14 kW
DIY roof system, provided you balance
your budget carefully between solar generation
and battery capacity.
if you assume every day is a sunny day
you might get by with 10 kilowatts of solar panels
A typical 10 kW (10,000 watts) home solar system
requires exactly 25 panels rated at 400W each.
Doing the installation yourself typically brings
your out-of-pocket costs to between $8,000 and $13,000
for a grid-tied system, saving you over 50% compared to a professional installation
Sourcing components via a DIY hardware kit cuts traditional turn-key installation costs by 50% or more, bringing a system of this size down from a standard retail price of $35,000+ into the low tens of thousands
NOT $5000 in the US
Few people would try a do-it-yourself solar panel project
If your DIY work causes roof leaks, compromises structural trusses, or sparks an electrical fire, your insurance claim will be denied. Standard policies explicitly exclude coverage for faulty workmanship, improper installation, and unpermitted electrical work.
Getting homeowners insurance is significantly harder if your roof is over 20 years old. solar panels must be removed and later reinstalled to get a new asphalt roof after 20 years
Firstly, Richard, wasn’t there a aphorism stating that “the person who says it cannot be done shouldn’t interrupt the person doing it”?
Secondly, fuck insurance. All the insurance I need in my off-grid life is to build things properly. It makes me sick that “insurance” runs so many people’s lives with the iron fist of fear. They’ll probably deny your claim anyway if they can possibly weasel-out of doing so.
Thirdly, “a new asphalt roof”… Asphalt shingles were devised by Satan to take down humanity. Never, ever will I again install asphalt shingles on any roof of mine. Many steel roofing panels are warrantied for 40 years and they’ll probably last even longer if you take care of them.
Lastly, “you might get by with 10 kilowatts of solar panels”? I’m “getting by” with 2kWs worth. Now, I suppose my location in the Southwest is a some part of that. I’m also in an RV instead of a McMansion or some ridiculously energy-inefficient vintage house, but my RV is also shit for energy-efficiency. We are also charging my woman’s EV and using the AC. Granted, it doesn’t put a great deal of distance on the car’s range everyday, but that’s alright. Just a temporary situation until I install the $6k system that will power my garage, lab and yes, charge the EV. In America.
My house in Spain is actually more of a “Finca” on about 2.5 acres. I bought the land before the inflation hit after Spain adopted the Euro. The house is small and simple. I have a large, separate flat concrete roofed garage/workshop where I installed the current 28 panels. The electronics and batteries are installed in one of the garages.
That is a great move buying the used panels. I recently upgraded one string from 8x260w to 6x500w. I would probably sell the older panels for $100 and they still have years of service left but it is difficult to organize a sale here on the campo. This is a no brainer for someone like you in the SW US who is trying to pinch pennies.
I am a little disappointed that the Libertarian EP seems to place so little value on the autarky aspect of a stand alone system.
Doomberg claims that there are infinite resources (like oil) due to the advancement of tech. I think that the rise in energy costs are going to accelerate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Vb2V0KEFs
Hey Brosi,
I do get a continual education here at EP Autos. “Autarky” is a word that I sorely needed in my lexicon and I can’t be sure why it was not long before. So thank you! Also for “finca”…
You are correct in your disappointment that this concept is not more popular, even here. A movement toward self-sufficiency and decentralization can only make everyone (except the vampires) stronger and more liberated.
Funny, I though you were referring to “Bloomberg” by a deliberate misnomer, but it actually is “Doomberg”. I am curious and will perhaps give it a watch.
Some people think there are essentially infinite (for all intents and purposes) stores of oil in the Earth. Even if that is true, it will likely be harder and harder to reach, making for diminishing returns.
For the NSDAP, Lebensraum was equivalent to Autary.
After the Kaiser accepted Wilsons 14 points, abdicated and had Germany surrender, the US, UK and France went on to starve Germany in order force her to sign Versailles treaty. Millions of Germans starved and thousands of children ended up crippled and retarded. This was one reason why the NSDAP started the euthanasia program.
But Germany had learned the hard way about “Autarky” and the NSDAP was obsessed with food and energy security.
Meanwhile Stalin was starving ethnic Germans in Ukraine and along the Volga, and shipping them off to the gulag to work them to death.
Hey, there are plenty of lessons to be learned in history and the present. I’ve heard that Iran produces 90% of their own food. I think it’s very important to as much food and energy as possible on the individual level and then there can be trade for variety and luxury. But never cede your autonomy or self-reliance, because there is a Versailles Treaty ready for all of us, and many sign without a fight.
“Autarky” really is the opposite of the Communist tenet regarding no one owning a means of production, and that is no trivial matter.
I don’t know how this site is so consistently wrong.
Gas-engined cars made recently – since about 2010 – are also connected in that they receive over-the-air “updates”
Uhm no. You’re off by a decade.
Hi Rando,
“Connectedness” did not happen all at once – or to all makes/models at once. It happened gradually, over time. My ’02 Nissan is not “connected.” Neither is our ’05 Toyota RAV4. GM cars have had OnStar since the ’90s but that system isn’t quite the same thing as what we have now because ’90s cars were not yet software controlled to the extent that current vehicles are. Most of the ’90s cars did not yet have drive-by-wire throttle control, for instance. So it was not possible to externally speed up the engine.
I appreciate what you’re saying but the facts are that although OnStar had some limited ability to read diagnostics or to lock/unlock doors remotely they weren’t doing over the air (OTA) software updates for the whole vehicle in 2009.
Tesla was the first to implement OTA in 2012.
Most of the major OEM’s didn’t even start doing OTA software until 2020. All are still struggling to do OTA effectively due to the incredible complexity of features and the number of distributed modules even within the same model line.
In the late 90s On-Star was used to recover an Escalade that was stolen in St. Pete, FL. A woman called the cops, the cops called On-Star, they tracked the vehicle, surrounded it and On-Star shut it down.
And the Booboisie cheered.
Hence why the ’06 Corolla, aside from the fact that it’s pristine, well-cared for, and BULLETPROOF…it’s PRIVATE. My 2020 (con)Fusion AIN’T. My guess is that, even now with it completely out of warranty, Ford still at least reads it, and, for all I know, if it gets to a certain point, can engage in (Bugs Bunny “pre-nunciation”)…”Die-Ah-Boll-Lick-Ull…Saboh-Taj-Eee!”. In case folks retort that’s just paranoia and “Kooky Konspiracy Krap”, both Apple and Samsung have already been caught doing that shit to previous lines of their phones, presumably to “encourage” you to “upgrade”, and what are most PCMs and “Body Computers” but ARM computing devices, linked via most celluar networks? Ever wonder WHY all these “data centers” springing up? Hmmmm….
You’re wrong about fuel pumps.
Most pumps are controlled through a fuel management system at the station and that station uses a cloud-based system to track inventory, manage the point-of-sale interaction. If you go inside you can use cash and the operator can manually enable the machine and it would anonymous, beyond any cameras that might be around or if the clerk puts in your license plate in the terminal.
Most people pay at the pump and the moment you do that they have individualized a gasoline purchase to which pump was used, so they know where, when, how much and what you bought. A modern connected car will enrich that data point with what vehicle got that fuel purchase. The details of this energy use is absolutely no less hive-minded than if it was an EV.
See Gasdeck, Fuel Master Pro, Gasboy, Titan Cloud, Link2Pump, Dover Fueling Solutions, Veeder-Root, EKOS software, etc.
If you happen to find a truly mechanical pump still in use it’s probably not going to be serviced by a major supplier. It’s very, very, very rare to find a non-connected fuel pump. I know of one in Denver and it sells race fuel and doesn’t have any regular pumps or a convenience store.
Most of those, if they weren’t obsoleted by anything else, got obsoleted when gas got over $2/gallon. Because that was the highest price you could set them to.
How interesting in that Musk said an “over-the-air” update could/would increase the range of EV’s so as to escape the impending hurricane. You rightly point out, Eric, that if the range can be increased, it can be decreased, as well. Which makes one wonder if the EV range is actually far, far better than what is being admitted? After all, Musk openly admits an update can increase the range. But why give EV owners the same freedom of movement (and long-distance travel) the way gasoline drivers enjoy? Also, I have to wonder, Eric: When you fill up your Trans AM, you can know the tank is full, as you have an old fashioned gasoline gage that says as much. In the Winter months, I have had times that-due to the cold-when pumping gasoline for my vehicle, that it will suddenly overflow out of the top, due to the pump handle not snapping “off” when it was supposed to. Watching & catching such, I can avoid overflowing the side of the car and ground with paid-for-gasoline I cannot use. And well (although not good), I know the gasoline tank is very, very full. For an EV, how can a driver know for sure that when they charge their EV battery, it is truly full? Or at least at the optimal 80%? How can they know for sure that the, let’s say $80 dollars of charge they paid was actually what they received?
Probably not, at least not by very much.
There is most likely a setting in the software that limits how far down you are allowed to discharge the battery. Yes the battery can be discharged lower before recharging, but doing so (repeatedly) will reduce its lifespan, so the software sets a limit accordingly. (this would very similar to the issue Apple got sued over a few years ago because as iphones got older they were also getting slower, again to save wear & tear on tge battery…). Presumably you arent evacuating from a hurricane every day so dropping the battery extra-low a time or two for that purpose it won’t have much of an effect but if you do it every single time, it absolutely will.
Probably it was legit, that one time. But, here’s the rub: Eric is correct, the software can set that limit wherever it wants, and “updates” can be broadcast whenever “they” want. Not whenever *you* (ostensibly the “owner”) want. The system depends on a dictator, and it depends on the dictator being benevolent. But you don’t carry liability for the decisions, Tesla does. But you don’t get to make those decisions. Is that what you want? It sure isn’t what I want. But that’s what we’re all going to get, if things don’t start to turn around.
You should have paid more attention in high school physics . . . Well maybe you couldn’t hack physics . . . And here we are with you not understanding battery state of charge. 🙁
Forgive me for not being an expert on physics in high school. I was too busy surviving hell that killed so many others. Call me a late bloomer in the physics learning department.
I got an “A” as a HS junior in “Fee-Ziks”, but still got laid. It IS possible.
It isn’t just EVs ANY vehicle that has some form of computer control and is linked via Cellular, Spread Spectrum, or WiFi, or combination(s) thereof, can, in theory, be “controlled”. And since most vehicles when purchased new or “gently used” (or “pre-owned”) are FINANCED, obviously the finance company wants to know not only where the vehicle they have a lien on is, but also that it’s not being thrashed. Same with rentals and fleets, especially GSA vehicles.
There’s also ANOTHER reason, and we see it being implemented out here in the People’s Republic of Calipornia. Those in power always wanted to greedily continue the “Grift” off of those that produce, or at least are still in a position to spend, and generally, they get about doing either in their rides. As if the outrageous fuel taxes, which are SUPPOSED to be devoted to the highways and roads (with the highest fuel taxes in the nation, Calipornia seems to have the shittiest highways), and confiscatory registration fees aren’t enough, now the power-grabbers in Sacramento want to levy a MILEAGE tax, coupled with a “Commute” tax, i.e. make most freeways, already long PAID FOR decades ago, toll roads by default, with increased tolls when needed the most. While they pontificate about “getting people out of their cars” (funny, I don’t see THEM giving up THEIR rides), “air quality”, and other “Green” horseshit, they know that drivers will simply avoid tollways where they can. So, the mileage tax, in effect, as they know, for example, that even having the car owner send in an annual snapshot of his vehicle’s odometer, folks will get “creative” about “fudging” the figures, they’ll just track the new vehicles with the equipment they already came from the factory with. So, what of older rides like my 2006 Toyota Corolla? SImple, either it gets hit with a “non-compliant” surcharge, or I’m forced to buy and install a TRACKING DEVICE which accomplishes the same function. Creepy AF. Be assured, also, that once all the infrastructure is in place, not only to tax, but to monitor and CONTROL, the PTB WILL. Something, like, for example, a pro-2A rally, scheduled at the steps of the State Capitol, the rides of the organizers and members of, say, the California chapters of Gun Owners of America, could be temporarily “inactivated” in the interests of “Public Safety”. Don’t kid yourself that if these tyrants have the means, they’ll already the will to do it and the confidence they can get away with it!
The biggest problem isn’t the charging or other tech issues WRT EVs. It’s that GOVERNMENT is involved, in promoting them via tax breaks and subsidies, and issuing mandates to hamper and outlaw their competition.
“The biggest problem isn’t the charging or other tech issues..”
YES IT IS. IT’S A JUNK IDEA, THROWN TOGETHER IN A JUNK WAY, AND NOBODY BUT A BUNCH OF BUREAUCRATS WITH MY MONEY TO THROW AWAY THINKS ANY DIFFERENT!
Hi Texas,
Well, yeah – I agree! Just adding another nail to the coffin.
DJT has joined the conversation.
How would a person get cash
to make a gasoline purchase
without revealing his identity
to a banker or atm?
Other than printing counterfeit money
the biggest problem with ev’s
is the cost and the range
Range almost always includes 100% charge
which the manufacturer recommends you never do
No one mentions that at 0°F
the range could be cut in half
The Slate $25,000
EV truck claim:
Standard 52.7 kWh battery pack
delivering 150 miles of range
Ford’s coming $30,000
EV pickup truck claim:
51 kWh LFP battery pack
delivering 300 miles of range?
I think Ford is lying
You are dumber than a box of rocks. Some people keep cash on hand, for use whenever we need it. Not go to the ATM before every purchase.
My parents didn’t trust banks at all.. taught me to save everything in cash and valuables (Stuff the mattress) so to speak. Bank not needed for anything but petty digital crap purchases. 😉
I knew of a Boomer couple that was cleaning their Depression Era parents home after they had both died. The Boomer adult kids (for lack of a better description) found tens of thousands of dollars hiding throughout the house. After the crash of ’29 they never trusted banks again. They say you should never store anything under the mattress, or in a master bedroom. And yet even those such hiding places were still safer than the banks. Somewhere along the line, we forgot their warnings.
Morning, Shadow!
I agree with the general drift of that in that I think anything you do not have under your physical control isn’t really yours because it can be taken – or disappeared – just like that. I used to get into arguments with my ex over her wanting to put money in a 401k for retirement, I told her I did not want to do this because I think there is a good chance these 401ks will be seized or rendered value-less at some point in the not-distant future.
I have not saved anything for retirement. I will be working until I die, I figure. Also, I had a friend who had diligently saved for her retirement. I think she would have been shocked that I had not done the same. Seven months after she retired, she died of “long-Covid”, and three months after taking her first booster shot. She left behind a million dollar retirement fun to her two, greedy sisters. So much for enjoying retirement and the money she had stashed away. I think that either 401K’s could ostensibly be seized to “pay down the national debt”. Or, the dollar with be so worthless that million dollars will be worth nothing.
Ditto, Shadow –
I take some consolation in that I enjoy my work. I just wish it weren’t necessary work all the time. Well, on the bright side, I have my Trans Am!
Being a “401K”, “TSP”, “403b”, etc merely refers to the taxing laws as to how the funds are treated (pre-income-tax or after it?), how the ongoing gains are treated (taxed as they go along, or not?), and if they’re taxed AGAIN once withdrawn. If the 1996 and 2000 LP candidate, the late Harry Browne, had gotten his way, eliminating the Federal Income Tax and replacing it with NOTHING, all that would be MOOT, as would a good deal of accountants and tax attorneys. Which illustrates a point…their “services” exist due to Government fiat of our personal finances, not necessarily due to them being able to sell their financial acumen.
However, ANY asset, especially what’s tantamount to a computer entry in some financial institution, can be seized by a Government that sees no need to uphold its own Rule of Law, nor to respect PRIVATE PROPERTY. A small case in point…the savings of German workers, in hope of accumulating enough to buy their own VW “Kafer”, before and during WWII, were, at war’s end in 1945, seized by the occupying USSR from a Berlin bank. Funny that those who brought the “Worker’s Paradise” even thought those funds, in a currency of what was then a defunct nation, had value, but since they went to the trouble, obviously they did.
We have less drastic, and far more incremental means of seizure going on all the time. Everyone that owns real property, in effect, pays a RANSOM to the County that “assess” it, typically between one to three percent per annum of its “assessed” value. Think you actually OWN it? Don’t pay your property taxes, and see how long you do!
In the SM Stirling novel series, “The Domination”, his hypothetical version of South Africa, decidedly “on steroids”, finances its government operations and its military by an interesting twist on “Fascism”…the Domination of the Draka has an ownership position, effectively owned via shares from the citizens themselves and also their “Combines”, which are large corporations that deal with various aspects of industry, heavy and light, distribution of foods and other goods. The Domination isn’t “governed”, per se, it’s MANAGED. The net effect, other than having its majority population being effectively slaves (of non-whites they’ve conquered, initially, but the “serf” class came to take in also whites from nations, like Russia, Turkey, and Italy, that they conquered, and especially Europe when they roll through it in their version of WWII), is that the “Citizen” class enjoys a high standard of living, with no “poor” among them. The “Trade Off”? That each “Citizen” is de facto a member of their military, with a certain period of their early adulthood, usually at least five years, but longer as military needs demand, devoted to full-time service. They are expected, by extreme social pressure, if nothing else, to maintain high standards of physical fitness and hand-to-hand combat proficiency, and a 40-something Drakan is credibly the equivalent of well-trained and equipped soldiers half of his/her age. The serfs ALSO quite readily participate, as “cannon fodder” or auxiliary troops, as their training, though brutal to the point where about two percent of them die in “Basic”, gives them high status and privileges that most senior enlisted in the militaries of “free” countries would envy. For that matter, though restricted in movement and expression, even more than the South African Apartheid that was still in effect when the first of Stirling’s Draka novels came out, the serfs also enjoy quite a level of material comfort, and, as long as they don’t make trouble, are free to practice their respective religions and “quaint” customs as they desire. Indeed, items that’d otherwise be deemed non-essential for serfs are a huge growth industry of the Domination, as its leadership considers the living standards of even its lowliest persons to be a matter of national security.
Hi Norman,
He also seems to be one of those guys who likes to passively aggressively try to get under people’s skin. Maybe he doesn’t realize this. I don’t know.
PS: Thanks for the mail!
i’m interested in articles that tell the truth
and when i fact check those articles
of course it gets under the skin of the writers
who think they are perfect
where did cash originally come from?
a bank or an ATM?
It had to come from somewhere
You cannot withdraw cash from a bank completely anonymously, as modern banks are bound by strict Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations. To access funds from a bank account, you must verify your identity using a debit card, PIN, or government-issued ID
The idea is to make it hard to trace. Withdraw or cash some of your paycheck each week and over time you will accumulate a healthy amount of so when a need arises you don’t have to compete with everyone else and the cash you have is already anonymized by virtue of being quasi-laundered over time. They may know you regularly use cash but they can’t tell with any detail when you use that which you saved years earlier. There’s the $10,000 one time limit, which in quiet times is easy to explain that you’re buying a new utility trailer or used camper from Facebook.
In the not-too-distant future, you will have to explain to your vehicle where you are going and why. *Trip denied, not necessary to the planet.*
IOW Elon Musk is an evil agent of the Matrix, building a prison of our bodies with his cars devices.
Ffs. Lol.
The funny thing is that the Chinese do make cheap non connected EVs but we aren’t allowed to buy them here, they of course are the low speed models under $5K with lead acid batteries but depending on where you live might work well for you.
I guess GovCo wants me to be free by only owning a connected vehicle…
Landru,
Even communist China is not immune to market realities:
“For years, the Chinese auto industry has employed a hostile price war to kneecap global competitors. Armed with massive state subsidies, cheap raw materials, and an aggressive “scale-first” business model, Chinese automakers flooded the market with electric vehicles priced so low that legacy manufacturers stood no chance to compete. How did they do it? Simple, they couldn’t. They did it anyway. Reports from CarNewsChina show that Chinese automakers have been selling vehicles at a loss until a recent law passed by the Chinese government banned below-cost sales of new vehicles.”
In the ancient days of wireline phones and windowless telephone company buildings in every town filled with racks of relays, tapping someone’s phone required a physical connection — like, with alligator clips. The target often noticed odd clicks and buzzes that gave away the game.
Currently, in a kind of Mercury retrograde for the NSA spooks, Section 702 FISA authority has expired. They told us the sky would fall if this awful thing were allowed to happen. But so far, it hasn’t.
Given the manifest lawlessness of the Trump regime, we must ask whether the spooks even complied with their loss of legal authority for warrantless surveillance. Did they simply turn the job over to the other Five Eyes countries, or to little Shitrahell, giving themselves plausible deniability?
Or did they, like orthodox Jews setting the oven and elevator on automatic operation for Shabbat, simply leave their Big Data Hoover running and leave the building, giving them plausible deniability: we dindu nuffins?
An old hand lobbyist who was my mentor in the imperial capital told me that trust is a precious commodity in DC — once you lose it, you almost never get it back. Now that the rogue DC regime is murdering people in the eastern Pacific based on profiling, I figure it’s only a matter of time before they turn their guns and rockets on the sorry likes of us.
‘Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any Fedgov becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish the sucker.’ — Thomas ‘TJ’ Jefferson
Hi Jim,
Looking back at the history of JFK and some new revelations I doubt that any of the Fedgov three letter agencies ever followed “the law” as regards their actions. I recall the CIA was discovered to be spying on the members of the Church Committee that was looking into illegal CIA activities. It never change until we burn this government to the ground.
It WILL never change, need to proofread better
Whenever the totalitarian capabilities of any given activity are pointed out the response by those pushing such things is “what, you don’t trust us?”.
No.
As you point out as to Tesla’s extending range over-the-air, we’re depending on these fascist* overlord’s benevolence. I ain’t buyin’ it. Self-preservation is one thing ALL entities strive for. Those put in positions of power are no different. They will lay waste to anyone or anything that threatens their position.
Bet on it.
*Fascism as the merger of corporation & state. Not the “you hate Jews” misinterpretation of the concept.