Posted on 12/07/2022 11:56:43 AM PST by Red Badger
142 Comments
For those who think that electric vehicles make a difference … think again.
The Department of Energy’s Argonne National Lab has just released a study showing that in 2021, US privately-owned plugin hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs) “saved about 690 million gallons of gasoline.”
But that is a huge exaggeration because fossil fuels provide 61% of the electricity in the US, and we have to include:
* the inefficiency of burning coal or natural gas to make electricity (around 45% or so)
* transmission losses (~ 5%),
* losses in the inverter to charge the battery (another ~5%).
… so less than a third of that apparent savings is a real reduction in fossil fuel use, the equivalent of maybe 230 million gallons.
The Argonne report also says that from 2010 to 2021, EVs have saved 2.5 billion gallons of gas. So let’s be generous and say that in 11 years, EVs have saved less than a third of that, the equivalent of about 750 million gallons of gas.
Now that sure sounds like a lot of gasoline, three-quarters of a billion gallons.
However, as always, a sense of perspective is required. The US uses about 370 million gallons of gas per day … so that’s only about two days’ worth of gas.
I say again. Over the last eleven years, electric vehicles in the US have saved Two. Days. Worth. Of. Gasoline.
Hmmm …
And how much has that cost?
Direct taxpayer subsidies for EVs have cost you and me $10 billion dollars to date, and we’re on the hook for more. The government just extended the EV subsidy until 2032 and removed the cap on the number of vehicles eligible for the subsidy.
It gets worse. The US government also just approved spending an additional $7.5 billion of taxpayer money on EV charging stations.
So to date, we’re spending TWENTY-THREE DOLLARS for each gallon of gasoline saved … economic suicide.
Who is benefitting from this lunatic waste of taxpayer money? The richest 20% of the US population, of course. Surely you don’t think the actions of the climate activists would benefit the poor?
According to research from the University of California at Berkeley, 90% of the tax credits accrue to America’s top income quintile. A May 2019 Congressional Research Service report found that 78% of the tax credit’s recipients had an adjusted gross income of $100,000 per year or more.
On top of that, we have to consider the fact that the $7,500 per electric vehicle subsidy is a tax credit, not a direct payment … so unless you’re paying more than $7,500 in Federal taxes, you don’t get the full credit. For lower-income people, this means they may only get a kilobuck or so. How upside-down is that? The richer you are, the larger the subsidy you get for buying a mostly fossil-powered sparky car! Say what?
It’s nothing but a money-transfer scam to benefit the wealthy. Lower and middle-class people are paying for the vanity-signaling EVs of doctors, CEOs, lawyers, and politicians.
And how well are the electric vehicles selling? Here’s how people think they are selling, compared to how they are actually selling.
Note that the electric car data in the graphic above (yellow/black line) is the same in both panels …
There’s a much larger problem with EVs, however—we’re rapidly running out of both the generation capacity and the grid capacity to recharge them. California can’t even keep the lights on, and our insane Governor’s response is to forbid selling gasoline-powered cars after 2035 …
… and meanwhile, Switzerland is already having to bite the EV bullet. If current European energy shortages continue, they plan to ban EVs from anything but “essential” journeys this winter …
Not only that, but going to a “net-zero” all-electric economy by 2050, as many people advocate, is economically, physically, and politically impossible. I discuss this in my post “Bright Green Impossibilities“.
The problem with electric vehicles is that they are a hugely expensive imaginary solution to an imaginary problem. There is no “climate crisis”, that’s just a lie to keep people scared and compliant. I go over the facts in my post “Where Is The Climate Emergency“. I’ve posted it all over the web, and no one has found a single flaw in it.
Unless we can stop the insane war on fossil fuels, it is going to bankrupt us all, driving energy costs through the roof, leaving low-income people shivering in the winter, and denying poor countries the energy they need to escape grinding poverty. For details about how this plays out down at the bottom of the economic ladder, see my post “We Have Met The 1%, And He Is Us“.
Grrrr …
w.
As Always: I ask that when you comment, you quote the exact words you’re discussing. This avoids endless misunderstandings as to what and who is being discussed.
This will get that oversized electric golf kart fanbois all lathered up to attack.
Oh, wait, he has been shiite-canned? That is a shame.
Switzerland just banned their use....for now. Not enough electricity
From cash for clunkers to electric cars to higher gas prices.
I get the idea they don’t want us leaving....................
I agree 100%. And I like both my EV car and my ICE pickup. (IMHO in a free market both have strengths and weaknesses, so why not have both if you're married and need 2 cars anyway?).
Of course, a couple of things have changed since then. If Henry Ford was having his famous conversation with Thomas Edison today about Ford deciding whether to mass produce EV's or ICE's, Edison's response might be different. Back then there were many people without electricity because power lines weren't carrying power to remote areas. Plus, batteries were a joke back then. Ford himself even tried, but failed, making an EV car because, as the story goes, his wife prodded him to make a car that a woman could drive without asking a man to crank it for her (because back then starting a car required literally cranking the motor with a lever).
Another thing that's different: the gubment didn't use taxpayer dollars to set up gas stations for the new ICE car sensation that was being mass produced. Nor did the gubment block the sale of new horses and buggies to force people to transition to cars. The free market took care of gas stations. The free market made people want to transition their transportation from horses to cars.
On the EV blogs and at charging stations (when my wife and I decide to take it on a trip instead of our ICE pickup), my fellow EV owners complain all the time about some places having only slow chargers. I tell them that's because the slow chargers are free (taxpayer funded, often locally) and there's little incentive for a business to set up fast chargers we'd pay for when a nearby somewhat slow charger is free. But if we get the gubment out of the EV market (and charging market) we'll see improvements (like when the gubment gets out of just about everything else in life.)
Electric vehicles are best suited for the golf course.
***********
And even there you still get a clunker once in while....
“Oil is scarce and tends to be controlled by our enemies.”
Thanks to the Biden Front fascist cabal now running the USA. Under Trump we had so much of the stuff we were a net exporter.
Nice try with the propaganda point, though.
Saw an older Tesla on the interstate the other day. Slowest vehicle on the road that day.
Curious - do you have a PhD in mining engineering?
This guy does:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBVmnKuBocc
He disagrees with your assessment.
What was tried 100 years ago is not really relevant, as technology in ALL areas has changed so dramatically.
Just one comparison and not meant to be overly persuasive... the Tesla semi truck uses three of the Tesla Plaid electric motors. These three Tesla plaid electric motors produce 1020 bHp, more twice the Hp over the usual diesel engine in a semi tractor. Each rotor/stator assembly produces about 340 Hp in a volume that is roughly a bit larger than the size of a basketball. And at about 110 lbs., the entire 340 Hp motor (rotor+stator, casting housing and gearbox) can be lifted by one person. BTW the redline of this motor is 23,308 RPM.
It was impossible to build a 110 pound - 340 Hp electric motor with a max RPM of 23,000+ in 1922.
BTW, the previous post does not mean that the ESG Green Governmental current war on “fossil” fuels isn’t stupid and unworkable.
Lots of folks may freeze, hungry, and in the dark in coming winters with the overall plans these nimrod’s are trying to put into place.
It is just to note that this particular “Plaid” electric motor technology is extremely excellent.
Furthermore, consider the Offenhauser engine, perhaps the greatest Internal Combustion Engine ever built?
https://www.enginelabs.com/features/offenhauser-the-greatest-racing-engine-ever-built/
1974 – DGS Offy / 1975 – Drake-Offy
Bore: 4.281” - Stroke: 2.75”
CID: 158.25 = 2.6 liter
Comp Ratio: 8:1
Weight: 370 lbs.
HP: 1000 @ 10,000 rpm
EV cars are a trend like when the Lexus came out everyone had to be somebody when people went out for dinner they would put their gold car key on the table HEY LOOK AT ME.
Bell bottom pants white belts and disco trends never end.
Wager some time in cave man days some had a ivory club.
Something missing from all of these energy statistics for the future is the government plan to kill off most of us.
WoW! The government gets more of what it subsidizes! Who knew?
<>What was tried 100 years ago is not really relevant<>
For instance, Edison’s electric autos didn’t spontaneously combust.
I don't know where your 80% number came from. It wasn't in the article you linked. It's generally believed that a full turn to electric cars and no fossil fuels for heating will more than double the need for electricity. We're not anywhere near reaching 80% of that. We're already seeing projected electricity blackouts this winter in some places.
It gets worse. The US government also just approved spending an additional $7.5 billion of taxpayer money on EV charging stations.
I keep saying they will do the ‘woke’ thing and put them in “underserved communities” even if no one local has an EV. Who in their right mind will want to lurk around deepest, darkest Newark to charge their vehicles?
Yeah, well I just read the other day that the batteries for EV semis to actually due the heavy long-haul work of present diesel fuel semis will b 11 to 12,000lbs.
Yeah, well I just read the other day that the batteries for EV semis to actually due the heavy long-haul work of present diesel fuel semis will b 11 to 12,000lbs.
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