Right Wing Granny

News behind the news. This picture is me (white spot) standing on the bridge connecting European and North American tectonic plates. It is located in the Reykjanes area of Iceland. By-the-way, this is a color picture.

Right Wing Granny

Tag Archives: Electric vehicle

Want A Good Deal On A Used Electric Vehicle?

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On Tuesday, Autoblog reported the following:

Electric vehicles were already considered unappealing by a section of the car-buying public. Now their image could take another hit as rental giant Hertz dumps 20,000 of them, mainly Teslas, for gas-powered cars.

Hertz, the largest U.S. fleet operator of EVs, has blamed the sale on high repair costs and weak demand for the vehicles it offers on rent.

Analysts and industry experts believe the move will affect the second-hand market for EVs and dissuade buyers who are already rethinking big purchases due to higher borrowing costs.

“The larger impact of Hertz EV fire sale is the perception hit to the technology,” said Karl Brauer, analyst at used-car aggregator iSeeCars.com.

“Mainstream consumers are already hesitant to buy an EV, and this news only supports their concerns.”

The higher costs associated with repairing EVs stem from a lack of sufficient expertise in dealing with such vehicles and challenges in getting the replacement parts as they are still very new, industry experts said. 

Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr flagged elevated costs caused by damages to certain EVs, particularly Teslas, last year at a conference. In announcing the liquidation of Hertz’s EV fleet, Scherr also blamed the high repair costs on Tesla for not offering to discount bulk purchases of replacement parts the way other automakers do.

Tesla and Polestar, whose cars are popular with car rental firms, did not respond to a request for comment. Car rental firms Avis and Enterprise also did not respond to a query on their EV strategy.

I love the concept of an electric vehicle. I love the idea of being able to park my car in the garage at night and have it fully charged in the morning–never having to stop for gas. However, I worry about fire danger–I don’t want my house to burn down because I didn’t want to buy gas. I also worry about the rising cost of electricity and how economical an electric car would be in the future. I also worry about having to spend thousands of dollars to replace a battery on a used car. Until those issues are addressed fully, I will simply stand back and admire the acceleration that comes with an electric car.

The Problems With Electric Vehicles Are Becoming Obvious

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WITN posted an article on Wednesday about the impact of the current cold snap on electric cars.

The article reports:

OAK BROOK, Ill. (WLS) – Tesla drivers in the Chicago-area are complaining about charging stations not working due to the extreme cold, leaving them with dead batteries.

Many Tesla owners were stranded Monday with dead batteries from the cold and not enough working charging stations at a location in Evergreen Park, Illinois. For most of the day, the temperatures were expected to be below zero with wind chills from -25 to -35 degrees.

“Our batteries are so cold it’s taking longer to charge now. So, it should take 45 minutes, [but] it’s taking two hours for the one charger that we have,” said Tesla owner Brandon Welbourne. “I have seen at least 10 cars get towed away from here because the cars, they died, they’ve run out of battery.”

In nearby Oak Brook, some drivers who went looking for a charge waited hours.

“Right from outside the highway, there’s a whole line of cars, over 20 cars, all Tesla cars … and every single car is a Tesla in this whole parking lot,” said Tesla driver Sajid Ahmed. “We’re waiting and waiting for over an hour. It’s unfortunate that these cars are sitting dead in the spots.”

For many drivers, it was too late. Their cars died during the long wait, and they had to leave their vehicles stranded and wait for the stations to get up and running again.

We should also note that charging an electric vehicle is not the five minute process that filling up your gas tank is–in cold or hot weather. Green energy is a nice theory. However, until we perfect it, we really shouldn’t encourage drivers in parts of the country where the weather is extremely cold to invest in electric cars.

Embracing CO2

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Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D   

The environmental extremists would have us believe that CO2 is a destructive force for the earth and must be controlled if we are to survive. Recently, a group of scientists not only refuted this notion but stated that increasing levels of CO2 will actually be beneficial to mankind. How is it possible that completely opposite views can exist among climate scientists when the media is constantly telling us that manmade CO2 emissions as an existential threat is “settled science”? The actual truth of this debate would not be so critical if the Biden regime were not using it to completely transform our energy production into something that can never support our industrial society and will destroy our standard of living.   

Recently, Patrick Moore, the chief scientist of Ecosense Environmental, stated that “There is actually no scientific evidence that CO2 is responsible for climate change”.  Just like the Left used fear to get us to use noneffective masks and shut down our economy, the socialist environmental extremists are blaming climate change and so-called disasters on burning of fossil fuels. The truth is that due to modern industrialization using fossil fuels, there have been dramatically fewer deaths from weather factors. For example, in 1925 there were 484,880 reported worldwide deaths from weather factors compared to 14,893  in 2020, in spite of a dramatic increase in the use of fossil fuels. While it is true that humans do not need CO2, the plants we rely on for food absolutely do. The plants use the CO2 for food and produce oxygen in return. Nice reciprocal arrangement, don’t you think? In fact, commercial greenhouses often pump CO2 into their atmosphere in order to dramatically increase plant growth. In past epochs, the CO2 level in the atmosphere was many times higher than today.   

While scientific debate is generally a good thing if it leads to truth, the problem is the Biden regime has decided what is true and anyone with an opposite view is called a “climate denier” and punished. Typical socialism where the government knows what is best for us and you better comply. The actions the Biden regime are taking (with the concurrence of some Republicans) will destroy our way of life and lower our standard of living. The inflation we are experiencing is a clear example. Like all socialist governments it is all about controlling the people. From eliminating gas stoves and pushing electric vehicles as well as taxpayer subsidized wind and solar energy our freedom to choose is being taken away. 

We must fight back against this attack on our freedom. How? First, we must elect candidates who recognize the hoax of manmade climate change, such as Donald Trump who pulled our country out of the damaging Paris Climate Accords. Second, we must get our elected officials to reverse green energy policies that subsidize wind and solar and electric vehicles. If you want an electric vehicle, no problem, just do not expect others to help pay for it. Third, state and federal environmental agencies must be stopped from issuing draconian regulations. Cummings Diesel company was recently required to pay a two billion dollar fine for not complying with an EPA regulation. Fourth, the NC General Assembly must repeal the mandate that requires a 70% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030. 

The ultimate issue is freedom of choice versus government control. It is up to us. 

Tell Us Something Without Actually Telling Us Something

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Recently WWAYTV3 in Wilmington, North Carolina, reported that Hertz is cutting back on its rental of electric vehicles.

The article reports:

Hertz, which has made a big push into electric vehicles in recent years, has decided it’s time to cut back. The company will sell off a third of its electric fleet, totaling roughly 20,000 vehicles, and use the money they bring to purchase more gasoline powered vehicles.

Electric vehicles have been hurting Hertz’s financials, executives have said, because, despite costing less to maintain, they have higher damage-repair costs and, also, higher depreciation.

“[C]ollision and damage repairs on an EV can often run about twice that associated with a comparable combustion engine vehicle,” Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr said in a recent analyst call.

And EV price declines in the new car market have pushed down the resale value of Hertz’s used EV rental cars.

“The MSRP declines in EVs over the course of 2023, driven primarily by Tesla, have driven the fair market value of our EVs lower as compared to last year, such that a salvage creates a larger loss and, therefore, greater burden,” Scherr said.

Simply put, people are generally willing to pay a certain amount less for a used car than for a new one. As the price of new car goes down, that also pushes down what people are willing to pay to buy a used one.

As of now, electric cars are not the answer to green energy. There are serious ethical questions about the mining of the lithium that is used to make the batteries, and there are safety issues–don’t try to evacuate from a hurricane in an electric car if the puddles you are driving through contain salt water–that can cause the car to ignite. Iceland successfully uses hydrogen as fuel for its busses. There are other options for cutting pollution than electric cars.

Some Glitches In The Technology

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On Friday, The American Thinker posted an article about a man launching his jet ski into the water at a boat ramp. That really doesn’t sound like an article for The American Thinker until you look into the details.

The article quotes a Facebook post by an organization of firefighters in Hollywood, Florida:

On Sunday Oct 1st, a Tesla Model S [sic] was attempting to back a jet ski into the water at the Polk Street boat ramp, when it lost traction and slid into the inter-coastal [sic]. The salt water reacted with the the [sic] vehicle’s electronics causing them to short, sparking a fire that burned underwater for an extended period of time.

The fire was allowed to burn underwater until it extinguished itself. And even then, it had to be loaded carefully onto a special carrier, and followed by the Fire Engine to the impound lot, where they’ll keep the vehicle isolated for a few days in the very real possibility of re-ignition. EVs have been known to reignite even after the initial fire has been extinguished.

The article also quotes Autoblog:

The wife backs the trailer and jet ski into the water, the husband gets the jet ski into the water. While the husband is on the water on the jet ski, the Tesla begins flashing a warning to the wife to get out of the Model X. The car’s electronically powered doors are closed, and whatever malfunction is occurring won’t permit the doors to open. Apparently, the wife didn’t know about the manual release for the doors, so the husband rocks up and gets her out before the Model X ends up submerged.

The article concludes:

As the firefighters’ Facebook post also noted, the uniqueness of EV fires is creating a “whole new level of hazard” to fire prevention and fire service apparatuses:

This is an issue with all Electric Vehicles, not just Tesla. And their prevalence is adding a whole new level of hazard to the Fire Service, causing Fire Departments worldwide to rethink how they mitigate electric vehicle emergencies.

If this occurrence isn’t just another datum point in the obvious trend proving that avoiding battery-powered cars is the way to go (for the sake of humanity and the environment), and shoring up the reality that the left always has the stupidest ideas, then I don’t know what is.

This story could have had a very different ending. Thank God that the husband was quick to unlock the door.

 

 

The Sad Story Behind Electric Cars

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As the production of electric cars increases, the demand for cobalt for those cars increases. On Monday, Bloomberg News posted an article on some of the mines that supply that cobalt.

The article reports:

The appetite for electric cars is driving a boom in small-scale cobalt production in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where some mines have been found to be dangerous and employ child labor.

 Production from so-called artisanal mines probably rose by at least half last year, according to the estimates of officials at three of the biggest international suppliers of the metal, who asked not to be named because they’re not authorized to speak on the matter. State-owned miner Gecamines estimates artisanal output accounted for as much as a quarter of the country’s total production in 2017.

That’s a concern for carmakers from Volkswagen AG to Tesla Inc., who are seeking to secure long-term supplies of the battery ingredient but don’t want to be enmeshed in a scandal about unethical mining practices. Tech giants including Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. endured bad publicity after a 2016 Amnesty International report said children were being sent down some Congolese mines to dig for cobalt destined for their gadgets. Pit and tunnel collapses killed dozens of workers in 2015, the advocacy group said.

The article also notes that as much as $2.5 billion of cobalt a year is being smuggled across the border into Zambia.

I am sure there are safer ways to mine cobalt. The fact that children are being used in these mines in this dangerous work is horrendous. I realize that the culture of the countries involved may allow for children to do this work, but this is one situation where the United Nations might be useful. There are organizations within the United Nations that are supposed to protect children–they need to at least make a statement on the use of children to mine cobalt.

The idea of electric cars is intriguing; however, we need to look at the cost of creating this technology.

Have They Really Thought This Through ?

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The Obama Administration is using taxpayer money to subsidize electric cars. John Hinderaker at Power Line posted an article yesterday that pointed out that only 29 percent of Americans support those subsidies. Please follow the link to see a wonderful cartoon that explains exactly how electric cars work! The article at Power Line reminds us where the electricity for electric cars comes from–coal-fired power plants.

The article points out:

Note, too, that as the Obama administration feverishly tries to put power plants out of business with onerous new regulations, the effect will be to force the cost of driving electric vehicles higher and higher.

Man has been looking for the perpetual motion machine for centuries. We haven’t found it yet. Meanwhile, the Obama Administration is attempting to subsidize it!

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Another One Bites The Dust

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A website called GlobalWarming.org reported on Friday that the Las Vegas Sun reports that Amonix, Inc., a manufacturer of solar panels that received $5.9 million from the Porkulus, will cut two-thirds of its workforce, about 200 employees, only seven months after opening a factory in Nevada. Earlier last week, Ener1, a manufacturer of batteries for electric vehicles and recipient of Stimulus largesse, filed for bankruptcy.  Evergreen Energy , also a recipient of stimulus money, has also declared bankruptcy. These companies are not even viable when the government is writing them enormous checks! When you consider the amount of stimulus money spent on pet projects of President Obama, it is scary. He could have simply given each taxpayer $100,000. I suspect that would have truly stimulated the economy!

The interesting part of the article linked above is the comments. There are definitely some people out there who are paying attention and who are angry that taxpayer money is being spent in this way.

 

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