Biden’s E.V. Bill Punishes the Poor

Townhall ^ | May 4, 2021 | George Landrith

[AZJeep]

A key component of the Biden plan is the push for a nationwide transition to electric vehicles, which takes up some $174 billion in subsidies from the package, but one of the largest problems with the proposal is its disregard for the negative downwind effects it would have on those at the lower rungs of the economic ladder. As of 2019, the average cost of an electric vehicle was $55,600, far greater than the cost of other vehicles more affordable for lower income families. In fact, another recent study showed that the average income of electric car owners is at least $100,000 per year, well over even the middle-income line. While the Biden plan throws truckloads of money at other angles of the electric vehicle issue, it does nothing to address the fact that lower income households simply cannot afford electric vehicles. To make matters worse, electric vehicles only account for 2 percent of vehicle sales in the U.S., even though they have been an option for vehicle purchasers for a significant period of time. The Biden plan is catering to a niche segment of an industry, in a show of political nepotism for a pet campaign promise while slapping the American worker in the face in the process.

[AZJeep]

Oh, common. Tesla would never make a penny if not for the payments from other companies to get the e-vehicle credits. There are direct governments subsidies on e-vehicles, and e-vehicles do not pay gas taxes. Even so they are very substantially more expensive than iCE.
Electricity has to come from somewhere and the modern ICE are quite as efficient as power plants. With transmision line loses, battery efficiency (just 80%) and the Electric motor still loses 10%, the system efficiency of electric vehicles is barely the same as gas vehicle.
Now if you run in cold weather, you really loose in EV as heating in Gas comes free, but EV just burns electricity.
Of course the e-people are cheating as much as they can to show their superiority.
Even the MPGe is at least double than it should be.
And the Ge could cost as much as $9 in MA. A lot more then G costs even in CA. On average Ge costs you about twice than G, so MPGe is about twice as MPG.
The calculations are quite complicated, but if you do them you will see how the e-vehicle crowd is cheating to look better.
I went to the EPA web site, they have calculator. According to their numbers (obviously skewed anyway) I would safe $200 a year driving the best EV against driving equivalent small ICE. In 10 years, $2000 savings.
I probably would break even in 50 years.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

“In 2019, Chinese chemical companies accounted for 80 percent of the world’s total output of raw materials for advanced batteries. China controls the processing of pretty much all the critical minerals–rare earth, lithium, cobalt, and graphite. Of the 136 lithium-ion battery plants in the pipeline to 2029, 101 are based in China.”

https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/renewable/china-dominates-the-global-lithium-battery-market/

There are many other sources for market share data on EV batteries.

[Renfrew]

Unfortunately I think you have been mislead by a bad source. Here is cobalt production by country:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/264928/cobalt-mine-production-by-country/

China is a tiny player.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

You’re missing my point.

While Congo and other nations are leading cobalt sources (and other EV battery compounds), China has locked up most of their output through long term repayment agreements for infrastructure projects around the world. China builds a dam or port for a cash poor, resource rich nation in exchange for future raw material exports. China has hundreds of these agreements throughout Africa and Latin America secured as sovereign debt.

China then refines, designs, and produces EV batteries - a very dirty process. Bottom line, there cannot be any growth in EVs without solving the Chinese battery sourcing problem.