The Future of Battery Electric Vehicles (and I don't like them)

I came across this article today and thought it was something worth sharing. It mentions all the realities of battery electric vehicles that the mainstream media doesn't bother to mention. Keep some of these points in mind for your next beer fueled argument with your liberal friends (if you have any).

In no way do I advocate for electric vehicles. All four of my current vehicles are SBC powered, and my wife's Honda only appreciates gasoline as well (just not in the same quantities).

EV's have big issues the media and government don't ever talk about. Yes, at the point of use they are environmentally friendly. But that certainly isn't the whole story. The power has to come from somewhere. Tear down dams, close nuclear and coal power plants, then change over to battery everything. It defies logic.

Solar panels and wind turbines can't replace the power lost and those sources have a limited life and will need recycling at some point. No one has figured out how to do that.

I just retired out of auto repair. We were starting to see older hybrids and EV's with check engine lights. One they recently gave me was a Prius with a non-functioning AC compressor. The AC was powered by a high voltage system. We didn't work on it. No one at our shop has the time or desire to learn how to fix them and there aren't any private shops working on them either. So back to the dealer.

Battery cars are a farce along with nearly all liberal ideas and policies. None of them actually work. They want to control us and the sheep voting for them will regret it.

I/we as a family maintain a larger cylinder count of actively use ICE vehicles and toys than most people, and no plans to discontinue that.
I believe alot of the points in that article are correct, or at least largely correct, but there are plenty of virtues of EVs for many different applications.
Just because the lefty fvcks want to make everyone believe that there's only 1 option, I believe both will continue to exist side by side for quite some time. Way longer than I have to worry about it, for sure. And probably longer than our kids, who just started driving, as well.
Look at it like this. It's not like phasing out VCRs or CDs. Only a certain level of obsolescence is marketable or tolerable, even.
It's like the invention of Traegers and other wood pellet grills didn't eliminate gas grills and charcoal, it's just another option.

scrap--metal said:

I came across this article today and thought it was something worth sharing. It mentions all the realities of battery electric vehicles that the mainstream media doesn't bother to mention. Keep some of these points in mind for your next beer fueled argument with your liberal friends (if you have any).

In no way do I advocate for electric vehicles. All four of my current vehicles are SBC powered, and my wife's Honda only appreciates gasoline as well (just not in the same quantities).

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My mind was reading faster than my eyes and when I saw "In no way do I advocate for" I thought it would end with "In no way do I advocate for liberal friends"

EV plane for biden yep !!
Maybe it will die like my Milwaukee drill

Washington state will require all new vehicles sold to be electric starting 2030. I will be moving well before that.

Grit dog said:

I believe both will continue to exist side by side for quite some time. Way longer than I have to worry about it, for sure. And probably longer than our kids, who just started driving, as well.

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I totally agree. I can't fathom the possibility of a complete phase out. Many of the problems mentioned in the article will come to light as the EVs are continually pushed and subsidized. I also found the closing notes on fuel cell powered vehicles to be interesting. Seems like there's more potential there, but the technology hasn't caught up yet.

Soundmound said:

Washington state will require all new vehicles sold to be electric starting 2030. I will be moving well before that.

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I hadn't heard about that, but I looked it up. Thankfully it's just a bill in Washington at this point, not law. The article I read said, "The bill says that all vehicles of the model year 2030 or later that are sold, purchased, or registered in the state must be electric."

I can't imagine that passing in it's current form since it includes vehicles "registered" in the state. No new 2030 ICE vehicles allowed to be registered even coming from out of state??? No way!

California is banning the sale of new gas lawn mowers and leaf blowers beginning in 2024. That is law, and a crazy one at that!

EVs are not working out in rural Canada very well. The cold is simply too much for their systems to be able to have any appreciable range. Everyone in the cities who have one love them - strangely, they are also the same people who advocate lockdowns, mask mandates, welfare and someone else paying for their student loan because there aren't many jobs that require a Degree in Ancient African Lesbian Poetry.
The worst part is 99% of EV owners have no clue where the electricity to charge their vehicles comes from. I could go on about how those huge wind farms employ full-time employees whose only task is to retrieve birds that were smacked dead by the turbine blades; or the documented fact that solar panels will never produce the same amount of electricity in their lifetime than what was expended to produce them (I won't even start with the pollution they cause); nor the environmental impact of damming rivers for hydroelectricity; ....... or COAL!

I will sit back and quietly listen to them lecture me about evil oil and natural gas while they wear their lycra bicycle suits and drink their froo-froo latte from a plastic cup......... with the recyclable stir-stick.

scrap--metal said:

The Future of Battery-Electric Automobiles

Technology Briefing

www.circuitinsight.com

I came across this article today and thought it was something worth sharing. It mentions all the realities of battery electric vehicles that the mainstream media doesn't bother to mention. Keep some of these points in mind for your next beer fueled argument with your liberal friends (if you have any).

In no way do I advocate for electric vehicles. All four of my current vehicles are SBC powered, and my wife's Honda only appreciates gasoline as well (just not in the same quantities).

Click to expand...

Granted, I am not your typical EV owner. I did not buy it for environmental reasons. I'm so conservative I have two right legs. I do concede that many EV/hybrid owners are douchy, but that article is chocked full of fallacies. I'll address them one by one:

19. I have zero range anxiety. I've put over 25,000 miles on my car in less than one year of ownership. Never once came close to running out of juice. My commute is much longer than the average person, as I live in a rural area.

18. Charging time -- I wake up to a full charge every morning. I don't really think about the time it takes to charge. If I drive to a job that's 500 miles away I stop at about the 340 mile mark--I don't know about you, but I need to piss, eat and stretch after 4.5 to 5 hours on the road. The charging takes about 20 minutes give or take at a nice Tesla supercharger. Not to mention, I have other options for long distance travel. Not many people own one vehicle.

17. Trip planning is easy. You put in a destination and it figures out all the rest. There are superchargers everywhere.

16. False, I live in a more rural area than 98% of Americans.

15. I'll concede this one. Frankly, the environment was not a factor of my purchase.

14. My vehicle purchase was not subsidized. Expensive is relative to your income. What is expensive to someone, isn't to someone else.

13. What repair costs? My brother has had his for 100k miles. Only thing he's done is replace the tires. This is a very common story. My new Silverado on the other hand was in the shop way too often. At that point, I don't care about the cost of the repair anymore, but loss of work time.

12. Are we really talking about the weight of a vehicle on a square body site, lol!

11. I can't speak on low temperature issues. I've never driven the vehicle in temps below 10 degrees Fahrenheit. It is fine in those temps.

10. Low top speeds? Not sure this is a factor for 99% of drivers, but I think the slowest Tesla is limited to 145mph...

9. Highway range...my car gets within a few percent of its advertised range at 75mph. sometimes it gets more.

8. High energy consumption under heavy loads...doesn't this apply to any motor or engine? If I romp around in my truck, it's range is reduced by a much greater factor than doing the same in my Tesla. I accelerate quickly quite often and still hit target range.

7. Aesthetics, this is up to the person. I won't argue there are some silly looking hybrids and EVs.

6. It's a free market economy. What about the poor souls who worked in the horse and buggy industry? This is a socialist argument.

5. The big three are jumping all in on electric technology. They're chasing Tesla as it is now the most valuable car company in the world.

4. who cares, I'm not driving in the third world.

3. I am a very ordinary consumer. Driving my Tesla is easier than any other vehicle I own. Seriously, who wrote this article?

2. Again, who cares if it can be your only vehicle. I have two dodge diesels, a 1-ton square body, a 1975 F-350 supercab, a 7.3 diesel excursion, a v70xc Volvo, an AWD Honda Element, a Toyota Venza Hybrid, several motorcycles. This is America last time I checked. Own what you want. Drive it when you want.

1. This may be the largest fallacy on the list. Teslas are not hard to sell, they are hard to buy. The waiting list for a new one is so long that I could sell mine for $10-15k over what I bought it for new in less time than it took to type this response.

TL;DR this has been the easiest vehicle that I've owned to date. Zero maintenance. All I do is hop in and commute every day.

if the cost of an EV isn't an issue, and the range/charging isn't an issue because of driving habits or owning another vehicle, an EV is just fine. I don't see how an EV can replace every vehicle on the road with todays economics and technology. But they certainly have their place as a complimentary mode of transportation and could make more sense for more people as either economics or technology change.

gmbellew said:

I don't see how an EV can replace every vehicle on the road with todays economics and technology

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They can't, no matter how hard Kamala tries to have you imagine it. We are a long way from OTR guys being able to switch. The average consumer is likely priced out of the current "good" EVs. Some people just hate them and I can't understand why the vehicle itself is hated. I myself, don't like a lot of the conversation and policies surrounding them:

-I don't think much of anything should be subsidized. the charging station subsidy is DUMB! Let the free market handle that.

-The small engine ban in a couple years in CA is DUMB! I have electric versions of certain tools, but not to replace their gas counterparts--they are to supplement i.e. chainsaws, weed walkers, etc. We use the electric chainsaw when working our wood chipper. it's nice when you're feeding the chipper to have a capable saw that you pick up and pull a trigger in two seconds. I'm certainly not felling a larger tree with one if I can choose an 062 sitting right next to it.

-The idea that CA will only be able to sell EVs by 2035 seems crazy too. Will the tech be more widespread and accessible by then? Maybe. Why force it though? Let the market decide. I don't want my tax dollars paying for a subsidy on someones EV any more than I want them to pay for someone's liberal arts degree.

The list of crap ideas goes on and on...

The post office is replacing the current generation of Grummans with EV's which makes sense from a maintenance view point. I could even see UPS doing the same for their in town guys.

Frankenchevy said:

but that article is chocked full of fallacies

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I will agree that some of the points in the article are certainly biased, but I don't think many of them qualify as "fallacies". I will also agree that EVs have a place in modern society, but it is not the ICE replacement we're being lead to believe.

I do not own an electric vehicle, obviously, so I cannot speak to range anxiety, charging costs, expenses, or "gimmick" feelings, but I do appreciate many of the points that hit close to home. In no particular order, here are some of them.

#11 Cold temperature issues -

Grumpy said:

The cold is simply too much for their systems to be able to have any appreciable range.

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This is real. My neighbor across the street has a Tesla Model 3 and a Nissan Leaf. While he does drive the Tesla in the winter months, the Leaf is homebound for 5 to 6 months every winter. He said that it doesn't have enough range during the cold months. I don't recall the quantitative range value, but the thing doesn't leave his garage/driveway. To me, this is unacceptable from a car in Minnesota, Canada, or any northern state. It's like having a summertime hot rod, except it's not cool. Before he bought the Tesla, his Toyota Matrix would handle his winter driving needs.

#13 Repairs are difficult -

fast 99 said:

I just retired out of auto repair. We were starting to see older hybrids and EV's with check engine lights. One they recently gave me was a Prius with a non-functioning AC compressor. The AC was powered by a high voltage system. We didn't work on it. No one at our shop has the time or desire to learn how to fix them and there aren't any private shops working on them either. So back to the dealer.

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I have mechanic friends who don't mess with EVs either. I expect vehicles to last well beyond 100K miles, and eventually the EVs will need work even if it's many miles down the road. They must be repairable, even if that comes well after the 100K mile mark. Conforming vehicles to our modern throw away society is problematic for future recycling concerns.

#15 They are not all that environmentally friendly -
The ecological impact of mining the minerals necessary for lithium batteries does cause environmental harm. The Biden administration recently cancelled federal mining leases along the exterior of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in northern MN. If you ever get the chance to visit the BWCAW, I highly recommend it. The proposed mine was intended to extract copper and nickel, with some cobalt and other minerals. The argument was if the toxic tailings from the mine ever escaped from their open storage pits, they would travel downstream to the BWCAW. This is unacceptable because the BWCAW is one of relatively few places in the country where you can still safely drink the water straight from the lakes. It was a classic case of "Not in my back yard!" The greenies want their electric vehicles and charging stations, but they won't support the mines to acquire the precious minerals. Instead, poor countries in Asia and Africa can become the wastelands.

#2 For most families a battery-electric vehicle cannot be the only car in the household
This may not be a concern to you or I, or many of the other multi-square owning members here, but it is very real in our quickly urbanizing country. My brother recently bought a town house, and more recently bought a pickup (unfortunately not a square, but still a Chevy at least). He doesn't have room at his town house for more than one vehicle, so his commuter Focus was traded in on the truck. An EV would certainly not work for his needs because he does regularly have business outside of the immediate metro area.

Montana has 64 charging stations so far in a recent EV article I've read. This is a big state and it can get very cold in winter. Not practical for most people here.