Posted on 01/10/2023 8:24:08 AM PST by SeekAndFind
I grew up in a household with parents who were of the Greatest Generation. They lived and shouldered through the Great Depression, and then their lives and families were thrown into turmoil on Dec. 7, 1941. My grandfather worked for the War Department in Washington, D.C., and during World War II, my father served in the Pacific Theater.
Both my mother and father made a solemn vow that as long as they lived, they would never buy a German or a Japanese car. No matter how well they were made. They were the enemies. They were the ones who killed nearly half a million Americans. Period.
And that value system was transported to me. In honor of my parents' values, I couldn't in good conscience buy a Japanese or German car.
I've been thinking that after all these years, I may have to change my mind. The American auto companies, which are so often bailed out by U.S. taxpayers, have made a pronouncement that they intend, in the next few years, to stop making and assembling gas-engine cars. You know, the kind of cars that Henry Ford started rolling off the assembly line 100 years ago at the Ford Motor Company in Detroit.
Henceforth, virtually all American-made cars will be electric vehicles. Perhaps the corporate brass in Michigan's auto executive offices thinks this makes them good global citizens. They are all in on the fight against global warming. They may be making a political bet that the federal government and more states are going to go the way of California and eventually mandate that every car produced must be battery-operated. But there is also a good deal of virtue-signaling going on here by the folks at Ford and General Motors.
It's a free country, and if they want to start rolling millions of EVs off the assembly lines, so be it.
But it's one thing to make cars that appeal to members of the Sierra Club and quite another to produce automobiles that the typical buyer wants. And guess what? So far, most people have turned a decisive thumbs-down on EVs. (Incidentally, I'm personally agnostic on electric vehicles. I've driven Teslas, and they are wonderful smooth-driving vehicles. But they have problems, too, such as getting stranded with no juice in the middle of nowhere.)
So far, only about 6% of new cars sold are electric vehicles. And polls show that only about half of Americans prefer an EV over a traditional car. Much larger majorities oppose the government telling us what kind of car we can buy.
Incidentally, the one state that far outpaces the rest of the country in EV sales (with about 1 in 5 new car sales being battery-operated) is California. But, hey, Detroit: Sorry, California isn't the country.
All of this is to say that there's a decent chance the American auto companies' shift to all EVs is going to fail. This could even be the most epic failure for American car companies since Ford introduced the Edsel. (For youngsters, that was the 1950s ugly car that nobody wanted to buy.)
Meanwhile, and this is the especially sad part of the story, at least one company realizes the tomfoolery of making only electric cars. And that company is the Japanese automaker Toyota. Akio Toyoda, the president and grandson of the founder of the giant Japanese car company, is going to buck the trend.
"People involved in the auto industry are largely a silent majority," Toyoda recently told news reporters. "That silent majority is wondering whether EVs are really OK to have as a single option. But they think it's the trend, so they can't speak out loudly."
Toyoda wasn't done. "I believe we need to be realistic about when society will be able to fully adopt Battery Electric Vehicles," he explained. "And frankly, BEVs are not the only way to achieve the world's carbon neutrality goals."
Toyoda is right on all counts. There's scant evidence that EVs will reduce pollution levels more than traditional cars -- in part because most of the energy for the batteries comes from burning fossil fuels. And because the batteries themselves create waste issues.
How can it be that a Japanese CEO is more plugged in to the tastes, preferences and buying habits of American car buyers than those based here at home? (Yes, I know Toyota has many plants in the United States.)
You would think that U.S. automakers would understand a basic red, white and blue reality, which is that Americans have a special and long-standing love affair with their cars. They aren't going to trade in their Mustangs, Camaros, Cadillacs and trucks for an EV. For many of us, this would be akin to taking away our firstborn.
What's sadder still is that the Japanese seem to understand American car buyers better than the execs in Detroit. Honda and Toyota were the first to recognize that people wanted more fuel-efficient cars when gas prices more than tripled in the 1970s.
All of this means that if GM, Ford and Chrysler speed forward with their commitment to convert to 100% EVs, I'm going to have to break my long-standing pledge to my parents to "buy American" and never purchase a Japanese car. The American companies will have given me no choice. Sorry, this is 2023, not 1923, when Henry Ford said you could have a Model T in any color you wanted, as long as it was black.
Incidentally, as this "woke" green energy fad fades into the sunset, as it almost assuredly will, and the American auto companies see their sales crash, they'd better not come begging for yet another taxpayer bailout.
“This forced EV adoption is not going to end well.”
I’ve seen enough recently to know that will not stop them. Heck, it’s not even going to slow them down. Sadly, the public has been so well indoctrinated that the mess will be accepted as the price of “progress”.
Guess where they're made ...
The guy that wrote this article obviously doesn't work on his own vehicles.
I have no use for Eloi like that.
Our best hope is to elect a Republican President that has business experience and savvy, Maybe this trend can be ‘stopped’ or delayed until something better developed like ‘hydrogen’ power cars. This dictorial, globalist Presdient is a disaster.
Those Volkswagon bugs and vans were known for their excellent water pumps.
RE: The next and perhaps final vehicles will most likely be Toyota products
Many Toyota’s are MADE IN AMERICA.
Toyota Vehicles Made in the USA
Toyota Sienna (Princeton, Indiana)
Toyota Sequoia (Princeton, Indiana)
Toyota Highlander (Princeton, Indiana)
Toyota RAV4 Hybrid (Georgetown, Kentucky)
Toyota Camry (Georgetown, Kentucky)
Toyota Avalon (Georgetown, Kentucky)
Toyota Tacoma (San Antonio, Texas)
Toyota Tundra (San Antonio, Texas)
Toyota Corolla (Blue Springs, Mississippi)
Toyota also has plants located in Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee, and Virginia. In 2018, the automaker built nearly 2 million vehicles at its North American vehicle assembly plants alone.
In fact, I’ve never known of one failing. Not one.
Most people who purchase new cars do not work on their own vehicles, especially the ones with 100,000 mile warranties.
RE: Toyota is still working on new technology. I hope the ICE never goes away. But maybe hydrogen powered vehicles will have a place, and not as an inefficient money pit like EV’s.
Honestly, I don’t care what technology they’re made of.
I just want cars that I buy to be reliable, safe and sturdy.
Let the market ( that is, we the people collectively ) be the judge of that, not bureaucrats sitting on their desks.
I will not either. Been boycotting their stuff for years because to buy UAW is to send money to the DNC.
Toyota has a motor/transmission factory in West Virginia and a battery factory in North Carolina.
Ford isn’t as risk if Deep State keeps shoveling taxpayer money at it.
Anyone know if Ford has gotten any government fleet sales contracts lately...?
Any insanely generous regulatory and/or tax relief..?
Betcha.
what is a toyoda?
Both Ford and GM are in deep financial trouble and continue to lose market share. Neither can produce EV’s that are competitive
The author made one glaring error. Tesla is an American car company and is the world leader in electric vehicle car sales.
The author again misses the point. An electric vehicle can’t be stranded in in the middle of no where if it doesn’t go there.
series? toyoda works for toyota? this is hugh.
the transition to all EV will take longer than to realize the folly of it and used gas guzzlers will be available all throughout the fluster cluck that is coming.
Ford will go along at first, then see the folly quicker as their f150 line of EVs will fail quicker.
I will own only Chevrolet or GM short box pick up trucks with 4.8 liter engines 1999 to 2005.
Shortly after that they stopped making real trucks.
But I have owned one of these for the past 21 years , know how to fix them, and there are plenty out there to buy in good shape.
I remember the research that went into flywheel storage. There was a bus system that used flywheels to "charge up" at night, and run all day on city streets. Regenerative braking was used to extend the range. And if, for some reason, the flywheel lost all power, they had trucks that could go out and crank them up some more.
Research into hydrogen-based fuel systems, especially systems that don't require carbon, are just now getting out of the research lab and into "gas stations". For me, the exciting part was when fuel generators can use humidity in the air to extract the fuel, eliminating the need to truck fuel to the stations.
Can micro-SMRs replace a diesel generator for locomotives? The Navy has shown that reactors can work in mobile environments, as well as NASA's use of reactors on spacecraft.
Anyone still remember those articles that suggested that automobiles can be used on roads AND on rails? Once you do that, you can look to use power in the rails.
We need many solutions, not a "one thing fits all" idea.
I don’t know one person who owns an EV or wants one. Ford has lost their mind and I predict they will be bankrupt in 18-24 mos.
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