Free Republic

The future for electric vehicles is looking bleaker than ever.According to a Gallup poll published this week, the number of Americans who own an electric vehicle has indeed increased in the last year. However, the number of those interested in buying one is on the decline despite efforts from the federal government to transition the entire automobile market within the next decade. Seven percent of Americans, up from 4% a year ago, report that they own an electric vehicle. That increase is matched by an equal decline in the percentage saying they are seriously considering buying one, from 12% to...

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “America Reports” that people who do not want electric cars were like those who wanted “landline phones forever.” Buttigieg said, “Let’s be clear consumers have wanted and purchased more EVs every single year than the year before. Tesla is facing more competition as GM and Ford and Stellantis and other competitive players make sure they get a piece of the EV market. Let’s be clear, the automotive sector is moving toward EVs and we can’t pretend otherwise. Sometimes, when these debates happen, I feel like it’s the early 2000s...

The Biden administration’s well-funded push to build out a national network of electric vehicle (EV) chargers has so far resulted in only a handful of installations, according to The Washington Post. The bipartisan infrastructure bill of 2021 allotted $7.5 billion to subsidize thousands of EV chargers to help the administration’s goal of having EVs constitute 50% of all new cars sold in 2030, but only seven stations in total have been built in four states to date, according to the Post. The slow rollout of the EV charger funding is unfolding as the Biden administration has recently issued stringent emissions...

The Gateway Pundit reported last week that Joe Biden sued the most radical environmental rules in American history to phase out gasoline-powered vehicles and force customers to drive ineffective electric cars. Now, a new report has revealed the effort to finish off the gas-powered car is well-underway in eight states. As The Daily Mail reported Tuesday, the rules being adopted in these states specify that only zero-emission vehicles, which include electric vehicles and certain plug-in hybrids, can be sold beginning with the 2035 model year. This is known as the Advanced Clean Cars II rule. The eight states that have...

The startup electric car company Fisker said this week that it is halting the production of its vehicles to raise $150 million in emergency funds as it grapples with a cash crunch spurred by a low demand for electric vehicles. The California-based company, which says its mission is to “create the world’s most emotional and sustainable electric vehicles,” has barely produced over a thousand electric vehicles worldwide for the year. “The company has approximately 4,700 vehicles in its currently inventory, carried over from 2023 and including 2024 production,” the company said. “While it has not completed an NRV analysis for...

Satisfied with IAM systems after a six-team trial last season, the U.S. National Football League appears ready to go league-wide with biometric ID verification. The pilot came at the end of 3.5 years of digital IAM testing by the NFL. No sports leagues like to lose money when people get unpaid-for stadium access, but NFL owners are particularly upset by it compared to others. League owners are expected to set up a centralized facial recognition IAM service based on its Express Access authentication platform in the 2024 season. That would be for all 30 stadiums for the 32 teams, beginning...

Cities coast-to-coast grappling with broken-down e-buses that cannot be fixed .. Between the federal government, states and municipalities, untold billions in taxpayer dollars have been spent adding electric buses to transit fleets across the U.S. in an effort to reduce carbon emissions. However, cities from coast-to-coast are grappling with broken-down e-buses that cannot be fixed, are too expensive to fix, or they have scrapped their electric fleets altogether. Officials in Asheville, North Carolina, recently expressed frustration that three of the five e-buses the city purchased for millions in 2018 are now sitting idle due to a combination of software issues,...

It was love at first sight when Neil Semel saw the electric Mercedes EQS 450+ at a Pompano Beach dealership. The sedan was the perfect sleek black color his wife wanted, had only 2,200 miles and they both liked the idea of getting away from gasoline. “I’ve always driven combustion engines and I thought it was time to try to save the planet,” Semel said. But after less than 5,000 miles of driving around his Boca Raton neighborhood, Semel was shocked to find some essential — and very expensive — parts were already wearing out. The tires. “If somebody looked...

Several cars had to be towed from a charging line in Evergreen Park on Monday as temperatures struggled to rise above freezing. Tests found that electric vehicles lose between 20% and 30% of their range when temperatures dip below freezing... Ice causing flooding concerns The frigid temperatures in Illinois are causing flooding concerns. Chunks of ice have built up along the Kankakee River near Wilmington, causing the water to rise in some areas. A flood warning was issued for the area for the remainder of the week. Flood waters have surrounded homes as river waters continue to flow beneath the...

Actor and director Sean Penn rescued Variety’s Marc Malkin, the pre-show host of the Golden Globes, after he was left stranded with an electric car that wouldn’t charge .. Penn ran into Malkin when he was left stranded on the way to Los Angeles from the Palm Springs Film Festival... Malkin’s electric car ran out of juice and needed a recharge, so he called a tow truck to get him to a charging station in Cabazon, California... Unfortunately, he ran into even more trouble when it failed to charge properly and he was officially stranded. That’s when Penn swooped in...

Christmas road trips this weekend might be challenging for those who are driving an electric vehicle (EV) an extended distance for the first time. While EVs are popular with certain groups even as they’ve been largely panned by the general population, inexperienced EV drivers could face some unwanted travel surprises this holiday season if they hit the road unprepared, Axios notes in a recent report. Nearly 104 million people are expected to drive at least 50 miles from their homes between December 23 and January 1, which is a little more than last year’s holiday season, according to the American...

Hertz is slowing down plans to include more electric cars in its fleet. The firm said EVs have higher repair costs and have depreciated significantly. Hertz said it would buy 100,000 Teslas in 2021. Embracing electric cars is proving much more complicated than Hertz anticipated. The car-rental giant is hitting the brakes on a wide-ranging plan to integrate more electric vehicles into its fleet as it runs into challenges, such as high repair costs and depreciation. Hertz isn't giving up on EVs entirely, but it's starting to take a more measured approach. "Our in-fleeting of EVs will be slower than...

Nearly 4,000 car dealerships are begging Joe Biden to pull back on the “unrealistic” EV mandates. The EVs are piling up on lots and carmakers are losing billions of dollars. A group of 3,882 dealers sent President Biden a letter begging him to lighten future EV sales requirements. EVs are not ready for the average buyer and may not be for some time. It’s amazing that Biden’s advisors didn’t see that before demanding the regulations. In the letter dated November 28th, 2023, dealers say that while BEVs are ideal for many people, “demand today is not keeping up with the...

he veteran mechanic Scotty Kilmer has warned motorists thinking of buying an electric car to be careful not to damage the battery or face expensive repair bills. The popular YouTuber has worked on cars for over 55 years, and regularly posts videos helping viewers buy the right car for them and avoid issues. In one of his latest videos, Scotty warns that a lot of car insurance companies are scrapping electric vehicles with damaged batteries. He advised: "Here's yet another reason not to buy an electric car, because many insurance companies are now totalling electric cars with even minor damage...

The state Environmental Improvement Board split 3-2 and the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board voted unanimously Thursday night to adopt the rule. Dubbed the Advanced Clean Cars and Trucks rule, it aligns with California's standards and is part of the larger effort to cut planet-warming greenhouse gases as well as ground-level ozone and particulates that can cause respiratory problems. The rule calls for 43% of new cars and light-duty trucks delivered to New Mexico to be electric models by 2026 and 82% by 2032. At the same time, 15% to 20% of new, heavier-duty commercial trucks delivered to...

Are EV's a scam?! Ford CEO just abandoned electric cars, leaving the entire auto industry SHOCKED and CONFUSED! Ford is losing nearly 36,000 dollars on each EV they built, and could now close their doors forever! Why? Because customers are REJECTING Ford’s EVs! With nearly 92,000 EVs sitting unsold on dealer lots, scammy dealer markups to fool the middle class, and 35,000 vehicle recalls just a couple of weeks ago, Ford is in a huge crisis!

lectric cars risk becoming effectively uninsurable as analysts struggle to put a price on battery repairs, the researcher for the car insurance industry has said. Jonathan Hewett, chief executive of Thatcham Research, the motor insurers’ automotive research centre, said a lack of “insight and understanding” about the cost of repairing damaged electric car batteries was pushing up premiums and resulting in some providers declining to provide cover altogether.

Norway is an EV leader thanks to a generous pot of tax incentives. Today, battery-electric cars make up more than half of all new car sales in Norway. Schalk Cloete takes a detailed look at what those incentives cost, and how many tonnes of CO2 they avoid. Norway – a major oil and gas exporter – needs to sell over 100 barrels of oil (which emits 40 tonnes of CO2) to pay for the tax breaks it gives EVs to avoid one tonne of CO2. And Norway’s electricity is almost completely clean thanks to hydro power, so the CO2 avoidance...

A BOY of 15 has been killed in a giant explosion feared to have been triggered by detonating electric car batteries. At least 163 were also injured following the huge blast in a customs warehouse near Tashkent Airport in Uzbekistan in the early hours, which was felt up to 20 miles away. Shocking footage shows the explosion at 2.43am local time, which caused damage to hundreds of houses and other buildings over a vast area. Batteries for electric cars exploded at the airport warehouse, it is understood. Dozens of ambulances ferried the wounded to hospitals and at least five children...

The average cost of second hand electric cars is plummeting by a “phenomenal amount” as they sit for “months on end” without any buyers. Research by online motor marketplace, AutoTrader, revealed the average price for a used EV has dropped by 21.4 per cent this month, compared to a year ago. Marc Palmer, the head of strategy and insights at AutoTrader, told MailOnline: “The used market will now be slower to mature. There will be fewer new EVs registered and fewer used cars coming to market. “There will be sections of the public, especially those who are sceptical, who will...