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Can red states overcome their hatred of California and embrace electric cars?
The Los Angeles Times via MSN ^ | December 12, 2022 | by Noah Bierman

Posted on 12/12/2022 6:49:51 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer

This industrial city an hour north of Indianapolis isn't as famous as Detroit, but it has become an unlikely battleground in the war over electric cars.

Almost everyone you meet here either works in a factory, is retired from one or has a relative in a plant that makes parts for gasoline-powered cars — which have ruled Kokomo for nearly 130 years.

Yet change is coming. Bulldozers are clearing Kokomo’s cornfields to build a $2.5-billion government-subsidized electric vehicle battery factory, with the aim of retaining jobs tied to auto production at a time California is leading the nation in phasing out gas-powered engines.

Environmentalists, along with industry and government leaders, see a transformation afoot after decades of false starts. They have acknowledged, however, that they can’t complete the shift if electric cars are viewed as something only for rich liberals in California and New York. They need everyone.

The uneasy reception to EVs in Indiana — in a national climate that includes Republican lawsuits against California's new emissions rules and televised warnings that they represent an attack on freedom — suggests that the country remains divided over embracing a technology that environmentalists say is essential to combating climate change.

Indiana can feel like a tough place to own an electric car.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: belongsinchat; chat; climate; climatechange; climatechangehoax; dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; electriccars; evs; globalwarming; globalwarminghoax; hoax; laslimes; losangelesslimes; mediawingofthednc; newsforumabuse; noahbierman; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; presstitutes; propaganda; rubbish; smearmachine; thisisnotnews
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To: HamiltonJay

The lower range and long charging times are a feature, not a bug. EVs are intended to limit your mobility as your future is to be a serf to the landed gentry. It’s for the ert you see.


21 posted on 12/12/2022 7:02:38 AM PST by packagingguy
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Yeah, try being in an electric car when you’re sitting in traffic to escape the coming hurricane.

Or going to get groceries when the power’s out in your area after a hurricane.

You know what the solution to these is?? An electric generator...powered by...gasoline.


22 posted on 12/12/2022 7:03:10 AM PST by cotton1706
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To: Mogger

EV’s are a commuter/fleet vehicle niche... There are use cases they make sense, and can even be economically advantageous. However, they are not a General Case solution and are NOWHERE near being it at the moment.

Will they be someday? Maybe, but they aren’t there yet.

Even once they solve the charging time issues, you still need an infrastructure and power generation upgrades to handle huge numbers of electric vehicles... which will cost TRILLIONS in infrastructure upgrades, completely unrelated to the actual manufacture and sale of the actual electric vehicles.


23 posted on 12/12/2022 7:05:24 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: Lazamataz
BECAUSE IT IS!!!!
24 posted on 12/12/2022 7:07:00 AM PST by Roccus (First we beat the Nazis........then we defeated the Soviets....... Now, we are them.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Going by the ‘headline’ but not reading the article, the short answer is NO...from someone in a red state.


25 posted on 12/12/2022 7:07:16 AM PST by DataJunkie
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Stupid headline. In urban or even suburban settings EVs can make sense. Even up in here in our rural area I’d be ok with an EV for most or our day to day driving. As long as we had a comfortable gas powered vehicle for long distance, things would work out. Unfortunately, finances not going to allow getting a new EV.


26 posted on 12/12/2022 7:08:16 AM PST by Roadrunner383
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

So red-staters ‘hate’ california.

Isn’t california the state that has passed all kinds of travel restrictions to those red states whose policies they ‘hate?’

When you’re used to making up stories about hate by conservatives it comes pretty naturally, I suppose.


27 posted on 12/12/2022 7:09:15 AM PST by John Milner (Marching for Peace is like breathing for food.)
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To: IllumiNaughtyByNature
I for one think green energy is a desirable future. The paradigm shift in energy can unleash a rebirth of true growth and prosperity for America. That and who does not like clean air?

Yet the forced conversion policies of California and Team Biden is not the way to do it. Unless of course you are on the receiving end of redistribution of wealth like Solyndra.

28 posted on 12/12/2022 7:09:30 AM PST by buckalfa (Kilroy was there, but who was he?)
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To: Gay State Conservative

There are more than 100,000 commercial gas stations in the US, last I saw.. so the charging infrastructure needs built out, but more importantly the entire electrical grid needs to be upgraded in order to provide the power for a majorly electric vehicle base...

Electric is not a general case solution.. . there are use cases it fits in well and is even financially beneficial, but it is not remotely a replacement for combustion driven transportation in the general case and won’t be anytime soon.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-many-gas-stations-are-in-us-how-many-will-there-be-in-10-years-2020-02-16


29 posted on 12/12/2022 7:09:41 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: buckalfa

If you need to FORCE it upon people, it’s not a better solution.


30 posted on 12/12/2022 7:10:34 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: Lazamataz

Because it is.
Similar to every chick psych major is cray cray.

Journalists want to influence you.
Cray cray wants to influence you.


31 posted on 12/12/2022 7:10:47 AM PST by EEGator
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To: All

Guys, what happened was 2 developments.

1) Neodynium magnets — that made electric motors stronger for the same amount of current.

2) Lithium batteries, that were an improvement over NiCad.

The problem is that is english, not math. The improvements were not X10. They were X3. That’s not enough to change society.

So gov’t got involved.


32 posted on 12/12/2022 7:14:00 AM PST by Owen
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To: Tell It Right

Kia is building a new plant to build evs in Georgia.


33 posted on 12/12/2022 7:14:27 AM PST by ealgeone
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

EV could be a nice fair weather second cars at best.


34 posted on 12/12/2022 7:14:45 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: buckalfa
green energy

Please define that term. Please give examples.

35 posted on 12/12/2022 7:14:54 AM PST by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: VeniVidiVici
What good is it to have a house to plug your car into if there isn’t available power to support the increased demand How many new power plants have gone up to supply those homes with power they need?

You and I are in 100% agreement. I posted on if EV's can become popular in a red state (here in Alabama they might can from a sense of "we built that"). But as far as it actually working well if it becomes popular, you're correct. The electrical infrastructure would need to improve.

In fact, we've had to shut down coal plants and we're in the middle of replacing them with natural gas plants. We're currently using natural gas plants originally meant for reserve power only in higher use to give us sustained power (to offset what coal was doing for us). So we haven't had the blackouts ... yet, but we have little in way of reserve power. And power costs are going up (by all the demolition and construction costs being passed onto consumers, and by the high cost per cubic ft of natural gas the power company pays being passed onto consumers).

Me personally. My wife and I own an EV car and an ICE pickup, do most of our driving in the EV, and have 85% of our power supplied by our home solar (basically the solar provides way more than what the EV demands, so we're pulling less from the grid than we did before). But we're weird. We're not trying to save the world from cow farts or such. We're trying to make ourselves mainly energy independent so that we avoid most of the high energy costs the Dims keep throwing onto us. Plus our driving dependencies are now diversified: if the Dims mess up power we have an ICE pickup and solar, or if the Dims mess up gasoline we have an EV to depend on.

36 posted on 12/12/2022 7:15:33 AM PST by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: skeeter

Yes. Childish self-absorption of the Left.


37 posted on 12/12/2022 7:15:43 AM PST by WKTimpco
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

The problem is the “one size fits all approach” to all of this.

The left doesn’t want to understand that not everyone lives in urban areas where car chargers are more present, people like to travel or might have very long commutes or live in an house that require a basic rewire to accommodate a 60 amp charger.

Do electric cars have their place? Sure why not? I have no problem with a new technology competing with an older technology. That is fine with me. But the left isn’t about letting the best ideas float to the top, they are about control or mandates, force people to change even if they don’t see the need or already have investments in gasoline or diesel engine technology. We are suppose to stop, scrap our current vehicles and go out and buy what the left orders us to buy or else.

That is the problem, not the electric cars.


38 posted on 12/12/2022 7:17:27 AM PST by Trump.Deplorable (Woke Fascists are a threat to our republic )
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To: ealgeone
My wife and I looked at the Kia EV6's. IMHO anyone in the market for an EV should consider them, at least from a performance/cost perspective.

But they're too short for us. We're in our 50's and tall. So if we were to drive it 20 years we'd be in our 70's trying to squat into a clown car. LOL

39 posted on 12/12/2022 7:18:03 AM PST by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Electric cars are STUPID.


40 posted on 12/12/2022 7:18:10 AM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience)
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