Something I Hadn’t Even Considered

I am not a particularly mechanical person.  My children are impressed that I finally learned how to work the VCR.  Now I find out that VCR’s are no longer sold–you have to get DVD players.  This could be a problem.

Anyway, I never considered some of the unexpected consequences of the electric or hybrid car.  I don’t own a hybrid (Ford doesn’t seem to make the Mustang in hybrid), so I was somewhat surprised when I read the article in today’s Washington Post about the effects of cold weather on battery-operated or hybrid cars. 

The article quotes another article at the car electric:

“All batteries deliver their power via a chemical reaction inside the battery that releases electrons. When the temperature drops the chemical reactions happen more slowly and the battery cannot produce the same current that it can at room temperature. A change of ten degrees can sap 50% of a battery’s output. In some situations the chemical reactions will happen so slowly and give so little power that the battery will appear to be dead when in fact if it is warmed up it will go right back to normal output. . . . “

That doesn’t sound like something that would work extremely well in New England or northern Minnesota.  Why, then, is the government pushing hybrid or electric cars? 

The Washington Post reports in its article:

“In his address Tuesday, the president reiterated his goal of putting 1 million plug-in hybrids and all-electrics on the road by 2015 and insisted that Congress spend hundreds of millions of additional dollars to achieve it. At present, fewer than 5,000 electrics are out there, so auto companies would have to make and sell about a quarter of a million vehicles annually between now and 2015 to meet his target.”

In his pursuit of choosing winners and losers in the American economy, President Obama has chosen the manufacturers of electric cars as winners.  As usual, the free market is ignored and this will become another federal boondoggle.  Buying an electric car in the northern part of the country is not something that is without problems.  The President’s intentions may be noble, but, as usual, there are unintended consequences.