Toyota can certainly make electric powered vehicles. It introduced the hybrid Prius, after all, and has a strong position in that market. Toyota’s mastery of the discipline of mass production of vehicles is such that it could do well no matter what power source is used. But the costs of complete conversion to electricity-powered vehicles are mind boggling.
Where will all, the electricity needed to power to entire fleet of cars in the US (or Japan) come from? Despite the fantasies of greenies, it won’t be from windmills or solar farms. They are too unreliable, take up too much land, and cost too much. Right now, it is coal and natural gas that produce the most electricity at the most reasonable cost. And they emit CO2. Plus, there is considerable loss of power due to resistance in the transmission lines, requiring an even greater amount of gross power before the net power reaches the battery in the vehicle, charging at the user’s home ort some other location. Nuclear power does offer some potential, but how many people want to live near the hundreds and hundreds of nuclear power plants that would be required to fuel the nation’s vehicles?
WHO WILL TELL THE GREENS THERE IS NO BATTERY FAIRY?
For the longest while I have been asking, “Where do environmentalists and Democrats think all these batteries for our oil-free transportation fleet are going to come from?” It seems they think there is a Battery Fairy out there somewhere who will magically supply the ginormous battery capacity, and additional supply of electricity to charge them, in order to deliver us to our blessed fossil-fuel-free future.
He cites an article in Wired, The Spiraling Environmental Cost of our Lithium Battery Addiction:
But there’s a problem. As the world scrambles to replace fossil fuels with clean energy, the environmental impact of finding all the lithium required to enable that transformation could become a serious issue in its own right. “One of the biggest environmental problems caused by our endless hunger for the latest and smartest devices is a growing mineral crisis, particularly those needed to make our batteries,” says Christina Valimaki an analyst at Elsevier. . .
It’s a relatively cheap and effective process, but it uses a lot of water – approximately 500,000 gallons per tonne of lithium. In Chile’s Salar de Atacama, mining activities consumed 65 per cent of the region’s water. That is having a big impact on local farmers – who grow quinoa and herd llamas – in an area where some communities already have to get water driven in from elsewhere. . .
Two other key ingredients, cobalt and nickel, are more in danger of creating a bottleneck in the move towards electric vehicles, and at a potentially huge environmental cost. Cobalt is found in huge quantities right across the Democratic Republic of Congo and central Africa, and hardly anywhere else. The price has quadrupled in the last two years.
I am glad that some grownups are pointing out that the electric vehicle conversion emperor has no clothes on. But that hasn’t stopped governments, manufacturers, and investors from pretending that electric vehicles are our only future.
And of course, in the name of saving the planet, Joe Biden just killed 11,000 jobs by stopping the Keystone XL Pipeline from being built.
Ping.
“on a net basis, there are more emissions for vehicle bought and used for its expected lifetime, than would be generated by buying and using a conventional gasoline-powered vehicle.”
All things considered a Humvee is greener than an electric vehicle.
Battery replacement cost if you can find the batteries or you’ll have to buy a new car ,LOL
I wonder how much NudeScum is getting in kickbacks and bribes.
The article asks the question “how many people want to live near the hundreds and hundreds of nuclear power plants that would be required to fuel the nation's vehicles?” The answer may lie in liquid-salt reactors fueled with other power metals, as well as waste from existing fission reactors. The concept is that the reactors can be built in factories and trucked to neighborhood sites, so the cost would be nominal (and MUCH cheaper than traditional fission reactors). Also, no need for huge plots of land near rivers and such.
I believe the article's author may be a bit shortsighted about the energy storage part. I remember when NiCad battery packs were the only rechargables. To think that lithium packs are the ultimate ignores the number of graduate students looking at other chemistries. Also, supercapacitors anyone?
There may be a shortage of child slaves in Central Africa to dig out the cadmium...
Later.
I’m on my second leased cadillac, a CT6, which we love. The CT6 has been discontinued and cadillac is proposing a Tesla look alike. I’ve received numerous surveys from Cadillac asking for my opinion on a variety of features. The lates wanted my opinion on electric vehicles. The first question asked, on a scale of 1-10, my interest in an electric vehicle. I answered ‘1’ and the survey immediately concluded at that point. No more questions.
The automotive industry sees big government subsidies and big penalties for gasoline using vehicles (MPG). Plus EV are much cheaper to manufacture with fewer moving parts. No wonder they’re pushing EV.
BTW, I’ve told my local dealership that this cadillac will be my last. I have no interest in an EV.
I have read that there is technology that exists which can enzymatically recombine C02 and water to form long chain hydrocarbons very similar to gasoline. Almost zero other stuff like sulfur...etc...Clears the atmosphere of excess c02(how did they determine what that is?)...and less impetus for oil drilling..we use oil for many other things beside gadoline....a win for everybody. Dems won’t buy it as it destroys their insider stock trading.
Electric Cars = COAL burners.
Good job idiot leftists.