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.
These laid off auto supply workers can learn how to code.
Learn after learning how to code they can’t get a job because it is being given to H1B visa holders?
Some people never learn. Let them keep voting themselves out of a job.
That EV crap ain’t gonna work in the north land. It’s beyond stupid to think it would. Beyond stupid.
If you can prove to me that an EV can survive outdoors, thru a Fairbanks winter; you’ll have me convinced. Please be aware we need BIG equipment to run and keep the roads cleared for us as well. Those of course need to be EV as well, right?
I await your response.
I live there also. Meth addict was another popular second career choice.
Oh my gosh. I heard the same complaints from you when we went from horse and buggy to automobiles. Where are seniors going to get this thing called gas? What if they run out of this stuff? Better keep that horse well fed and that buggy ready because these automobiles the government is trying to force us to have won’t last a year. Dreamers. Lol.
OH bullsheit
Wow, that makes you pretty darned old if you heard such complaints at the time.
McGavin999 had some perfectly good points! Stop being an ass!
Cry me a river union dudes. You endorsed this clown.
Hurricane? Grid down? Windmill broke?
Easy-peasy! Roll your own!
Go to the nearest Big-box store and buy a generator.
When you do, remember to get a dozen or so 5 gallon containers.
You’ll need them to store the gas.
If you have natural gas, a natural gas generator would be a good way to charge your EV during a power outage. It will take 70 kWh of power to charge the long range (270 miles) Tesla Model 3 battery fully. The average household electricity consumption kWh per day is 28.9 kWh. This range is less in colder weather conditions.
Also, people are thinking about charging their EV with a solar system. how many solar cells will it take to charge up 70 kWh worth of power in a Tesla battery? Can they afford the time it takes to charge up during the day light hours—just when the transportation is needed?
Gas station pumps run on electricity. When the power goes out, gas does not get pumped.
“If you can prove to me that an EV can survive outdoors, thru a Fairbanks winter; you’ll have me convinced. Please be aware we need BIG equipment to run and keep the roads cleared for us as well. Those of course need to be EV as well, right?
I await your response.”
Telsa’s coming out with an EV semi truck.
“And while EVs are still relatively new to the state, there are some places in Alaska where EVs are not only growing in popularity but are proving to be an impressive asset. In Juneau, for example, there are almost 300 EV owners, and the borough has already placed an order to add an electric bus to its fleet. The Anchorage Public Transportation Department has spent the last several months testing a fully electric bus—the first such experiment in Alaska—and plans to expand its fleet with more electric vehicles in the future.”
https://www.akbizmag.com/industry/transportation/alaska-embraces-electric-vehicles/
Which well cost you 10s of thousands of dollars.💸
That’s what I want to know.🤔
EV are inferior to ICE vehicles for long road trips. ICE vehicles will never be replaced completely until there is break through in technology greatly reducing recharge times. Or the government forces them on us.
Unions are not the problem. Half of cars still made in the USA are built by NON UNION workers. The war on labor is over. Move on.
The anti union nuts would rather have forced EV technology and govt. subsidized EV’s because they hate the USA more than they love the USA.
Heavily subsidized EVs will kill the family road trip. They suck for everything other then warm climate city driving. They are long recharging toys.
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