Free Republic

President Biden on Wednesday will outline nearly $3 billion in investments to boost domestic battery manufacturing, which officials said will help meet the need for critical supplies as the country ramps up electric vehicle (EV) production. Biden and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm will announce the $2.8 billion worth of grants through the bipartisan infrastructure law passed last year at a White House event. The funding will be spread across 20 different companies for projects in at least 12 states. A senior administration official said the funding will lead to 8,000 new jobs, 5,000 of which are expected to be permanent.

how bad electric vehicles are for long-distance travel .. it took him 15 hellish hours to drive from Cheyenne to Casper, Wyoming. ... California told EV users not to charge their cars during its repeated summer blackouts. ... runs out of juice .. forced to pay .. a tow truck to get him to the nearest charging station. Secondly, since there are three types of charging stations all of which charge at different speeds.. sometimes he would be forced to sit overnight, only to end up with enough battery power to drive a mere 40 miles. ... Level 3 chargers,...

The historic climate legislation President Joe Biden signed in August offered a federal tax break — worth up to $7,500 — to households that buy new electric vehicles. But it may be tough for consumers to get the full value of the tax credit — at least initially. That’s largely due to the structure of the clean vehicle credit and certain requirements for consumers and car manufacturers. Those roadblocks, however, are poised to ease in the longer term, experts said.

In the wake of Hurricane Ian, Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis is expressing new concern over electric vehicles. He penned a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sounding alarms on the dangerous mix of lithium batteries and storm surge. Patronis, whose duties include state Fire Marshal, said the administration needs to assess fire risks associated with saltwater on electric vehicles. In the meantime, he said fire teams need more support to deal with an “inevitable” increase in fires associated with electric-powered automobiles. He sent a copy of the letter to Rep. Frank Pallone, Chair of the House Energy...

It must be one of the more dramatic failures of an electric vehicle chronicled thus far. And it could have ended up much worse. In a video posted on YouTube on Tuesday, Roman Mica, publisher of the website The Fast Lane Truck, recounted how his website had purchased a brand new General Motors Hummer EV. Price: $115,000. After only a few days, and with fewer than 250 miles on the vehicle, the Hummer had problems in spectacular fashion. Alone on a busy highway, Mica found himself stranded. In true journalistic fashion, he pulled out his camera and documented what had...

PLEASE BE AWARE: if partially or totally submerged in water, the lithium-ion battery pack used to power many electric devices and vehicles will suffer damage that will compromise its safety and stability. This damage can be even more severe if your battery pack was submerged in salt water. Please check your eBike as soon as possible. Unfortunately, if your eBike has been submerged in water during the storm, it’s very likely that its electrical system has been damaged and the eBike is unsafe to use. If the battery pack was partially or totally submerged, we advise that you carefully remove...

https://archive.ph/CKCAA#selection-3665.0-3665.18

Wisk Aero, a startup founded in 2019 and backed by Boeing, has debuted its sixth generation remote-piloted “air taxi,” a yellow all-electric four-seat aircraft that can fly without a human pilot. The company touts its plug-in planes as the answer to city traffic congestion. The Boeing-backed company is hoping to get approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to carry passengers as part of a commercial air taxi service, according to a report by the Verge.

A YouTuber recently demonstrated that buyers of GMC’s new electric Hummer better clear their calendars if the truck is running low on battery charge. The video he produced demonstrated that when the $80,000+ electric vehicle (EV) is plugged in to a regular house outlet, it will take over four days to fully charge. A special 240-volt charger still takes a full day to charge the vehicle. A YouTuber with an electric GMC Hummer — an EV starting at $86,645 — plugged in his EV at home and found out that it would take, at best, one day to charge —...

Congratulations. You’ve just purchased one of the most expensive high-performance electric trucks on the market. You’ve gone green and you’ve done it in style with the GMC Hummer, starting at $86,645. That’s right — the Hummer’s now a green vehicle! What was once the biggest villain in the left’s war on fossil fuels is now the poster child for responsible off-roading.... The video begins with standard 120V charging — or Level 1 charging, to use official jargon. This is the standard current your home already offers. “Right now it’s about 6 p.m. on Tuesday,” the man says. “And it says...

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden showed up at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit to announce spending $900 million to build about 500,000 charging stations across dozens of states, CBS News reported. The first tranche of $900 million — out of $5 billion in infrastructure money over five years — will be used to build electric vehicle chargers in 35 states. The chargers will be found across 53,000 miles of highway with the goal of promoting electric vehicle use. "The great American road trip is going to be fully electrified,” Bident said to a crowd of autoworkers...

In a recent op-ed, the Washington Post outlines how Tesla’s battery issues and fires may not just be due to poor design and manufacturing but a side effect of electric vehicles relying on lithium-ion batteries. The Washington Post reports in an op-ed titled “Tesla’s Big Batteries Aren’t the Fire Problem. Lithium Is,” that Americans should be questionubg whether lithium-ion powerpacks should be used for applications such as electric vehicles. The piece argues that the science of lithium-ion batteries make them inherently dangerous.

The cost of charging an electric car using public charge points on a pay-as-you-go basis has risen by 42% in just four months, according to the RAC. The motoring group said the average price for using the chargers has increased by 18.75p per kilowatt hour (kWh) since May, reaching 63.29p per kWh. The latest figures show a driver exclusively using rapid or ultra-rapid public chargers pays around 18p per mile for electricity, compared with roughly 19p per mile for petrol and 21p per mile for diesel. The rise has been blamed on the soaring wholesale costs of gas and electricity....

Happened in Paris. Lithium batteries...when they get in the 200°F-250°F range, go into a RTE (Runaway Thermal Event). When it happens, Run Away!!. This will become more common as more lithium battery EV's are on the road.

Utilities are paying more for natural gas, which means many Colorado customers will see higher bills starting Oct. 1. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission approved fuel rate adjustments Wednesday for Xcel Energy-Colorado and Atmos Energy Corp. Regulations allow the utilities to pass through higher fuel costs to customers. Although Xcel Energy customers will see monthly increases in the single digits, they could end up paying nearly 54% more in December than they did in December 2021, according to a notice sent by the company. The PUC’s action on the companies’ fuel-cost adjustment is separate from pending decisions on proposed increases...

Check out the Huge line at this EV charging station in California… “Get an EV,” they said. “It’ll be fun,” they said. This is at an EV charging station in California. VIDEO AT LINK.........................

This video from the South China Morning Post is almost a year old, but I only now just caught up to it. It shows a row of electric buses in China combusting rather dramatically: [Youtube video] Imagine if you were a passenger on the first bus as it was going down the street, or even stopped at a pickup point, when it combusted. You likely wouldn’t make it out. The point: if not for the hysteria over climate change, and the romanticizing of electric-everything, our various transportation- and safety-czars in the government would never allow these vehicles to be brought...

Rising natural-gas prices are expected to make it more expensive to light and heat homes in the coming months ... U.S. electric bills have soared, and are likely to move higher . ... U.S. utility customers, faced with some of their largest bills in years, are set to pay even more this winter as natural-gas prices continue to climb. Natural-gas prices have more than doubled this year .. From New Hampshire to Louisiana, customers’ electricity rates are increasing. The Energy Information Administration anticipates the residential price of electricity will average 14.8 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2022, up 7.5% from 2021....

A Canadian Tesla owner claims that after the battery on his $140,000 car died, the automaker told him a replacement would cost $26,000 and locked him out of the vehicle until he pays for a new one.

Last year, Kawasaki revealed plans to electrify all of its motorcycles in developed markets by 2035, and also have at least 10 electric or hybrid models in the range by 2025. Now, late-stage prototypes for both types of powertrains have been revealed thanks to a surprise demonstration ahead of the Suzuka 8-Hour motorcycle race in Japan. Kawasaki gave no prior notice of the demonstration and made no subsequent announcement, nor did it release any images. However, thanks to friends at the Japanese motorcycle magazine Auto-By who were present at the demonstration, we’ve acquired detailed images of both prototypes. Hybrid The...