Posted on 04/28/2021 7:42:21 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
The Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA) has informed a Senate Commerce subcommittee on transportation that the Biden Administration’s penchant for electric vehicles is starting to get under its skin. The union is recommending that the United States avoid setting any timeline for the proposed banning of internal combustion vehicles because it might cost a staggering number of jobs.
Ann Wilson, MEMA’s senior vice president of government affairs, said vehicle restrictions were unrealistic before 2040 and would obliterate entire segments of the auto industry without providing concrete assurances that the environment would be improved. While the latter claim can be argued endlessly, the former is pretty difficult to refute.
This is something anyone paying attention to the automotive sector could have seen coming from miles away. As manufacturers began praising EVs for their simplicity and noting how they used far fewer moving parts than their gasoline or diesel equivalents, suppliers should have been asking themselves if the fuel injectors they produce will have a place in an electrically driven society.
But the answer is obviously no. Electric cars generally require fewer components and less labor to manufacture and will undoubtedly result in major changes for the workforce. MEMA estimated losing 30 percent of the supplier industry’s traditional workforce if the United States transitioned over to EVs. That’s hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of good-paying jobs. In 2020, a study by the National Platform for the Future of Mobility (NPM) informed the German government that 410,000 jobs connected with the automotive industry could be lost by the end of this decade under the nation’s current trajectory. American losses would be substantially worse.
MEMA is recommending a mixed approach where manufacturers can continue making ICE’s more efficient while developing hybrid and battery-electric models to a point where they will naturally overtake fuel-burning automobiles as the dominant mode of transportation. It’s still targeting a zero-emissions future, just one that doesn’t require placing massive restrictions on the industry.
Automakers, who stand to benefit from having to pay fewer assembly workers and equipment manufacturers, are more willing to embrace electrification and many have already set targets for ditching products requiring fuel tanks. But it’s not clear how much of that is for show. While digitizing cars plays into the industry’s obsession with monetizing driver data, electrification doesn’t seem profitable in the short term without government help and it seems to shift an incredible amount of the auto sector’s power over to battery companies and energy concerns. We’ve been under the impression that some of the largest manufacturers put on a pro-EV face and frequently support government initiatives just to avoid ruffling feathers and getting slapped with regulations.
While completely ridiculous, appeasement is a fairly common practice with plenty of recent examples. Pipefitting unions backed Joe Biden for president, despite his vow to stop production on the Keystone XL pipeline and put members out of work. So did the United Mine Workers of America, with its leadership embracing a federal energy plan that prohibits coal mining last week. Union boss Cecil Roberts even admitted that it would probably cost the industry jobs but that it was important to be part of the “conversation” and ensure the environmental wellbeing of the planet.
Meanwhile, China is on pace to build several hundred new coalfired energy facilities over the next ten years and shares our air.
UAW leadership, which traditionally endorses Democrat candidates, also backed the Biden administration. But members have been hypercritical of the push toward electrification for years and it’s been a common talking point whenever they go on strike. We’ve only seen this swell with worker’s unions around the world gradually starting to rally around the issue — though it always seems to be the highest-ranking members that are the last to join the cause.
States have also been taking sides, with roughly a dozen governors promising to adopt the Californian proposal to end the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. However they are not just attempting to prohibit sales within their own borders, they would ideally like to see the federal laws put into place that would create national restrictions.
“The U.S. is in danger of losing our competitive edge due to a lack of clear national policies” said Wilson. “For the U.S to be a leader in automotive innovation and transportation, we must work collaboratively to develop a comprehensive national vision and strategy.”
MEMA’s testimony is available here.
But there soon will be a time when electric vehicles will be as main stream as hybrids are today. It really won’t be long before charging times are in the 5 to 10 minute range and the battery range will be at least 500 miles or more.
These laid off auto supply workers can learn how to code.
“proposed banning of internal combustion vehicles”
Production or ownership? [though one will quickly follow the other]
Maybe, just maybe the laid off auto workers will learn that blindly following the union rule and voting for Democrats just does not work.
No wonder we lost the election.
No we didn’t.
Short version:
Gas cars have about 5,000 parts and last 250,000 miles.
EVs have about 300 parts and last 1,000,000 miles.
Bonus: electricity costs ~25% per mile vs gas.
Yeah, way fewer jobs - and major new EV factories are extremely automated.
I lived through the spotted owl debacle. That same comment was made about displaced loggers and saw mill workers. Most of them ended up leaving the area or, if they did stay, were night clerks at the Holiday Inn.
With EVs you are replacing mechanical parts with thousands of wonky electronic devices
“Red Barchetta”, by Rush. Very prescient...
Electricity demand will sky rocket. Costs will soar. God help us when the blackouts come and you need a gas car to get anywhere.
But we don’t have the generation, transmission or distribution infrastructure in place to support the rapid transition to EVs the Left is pushing. And it’s a really bad idea from an energy diversity standpoint. Think about the recent Texas grid down event. How much longer would it have take to come back, how much more pain for everyone involved, if most vehicles were EVs? No thanks.
Not in our lifetimes.
Do you think they have that much copper laid up somewhere?
It all has to be mined.
In the north, cars rust out before the mechanicals go.
The Coders Union strongly supports this UAW.
“EVs last 1,000,000 miles”??? Each time the batteries have to be replaced,, $5,000, $7,000, or more? They talk about setting up ‘fast’ charging stations. What they don’t say is that fast-charging a battery diminishes the overall life of the battery. I so enjoy fast-charging my 6 cylinder, gasoline-powered Ford. I can drive 4-700 miles per tank of gas, then pour energy into it, and go another 4-700 miles. I can ALWAYS use the heater and air conditioner without worrying.
Not only copper is needed but silver. Lots of silver.
Some don’t know that not only do you have to change the battery at $5K+ but you also have to change the inverter at another $5K a pop.
Plus tires, wear and tear of suspension components etc. With an ICE if you do regularly scheduled maintenance a motor can last the life of the owner and be handed down.
And lithium.
And oil, to make the plastic bodies for the cars.
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