Free Republic

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,...

A number of electric car manufacturers in Vietnam plan to launch mini models, with the world increasingly interested in and strongly committed to reducing emissions. After signing a strategic cooperation agreement with the joint venture of General Motors and SAIC-Wuling on the manufacturing, assembling, and exclusive distribution of electric vehicles (EVs) in Vietnam, Hoang Minh Dong, director of TMT Motor, said the company would officially launch two versions of the Wuling HongGuang Mini EV and announce its sales policy on June 29-30 in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The Wuling HongGuang Mini EV includes a standard and fully enhanced...

Geoff has an apology.

Claims that electric vehicles don't have enough demand may be overblown. A new study from GBK Collective, published Thursday, found that half of the more than 2,000 US car consumers they interviewed were considering either an electric or a hybrid car for their next vehicle purchase. This far outweighs the current ownership trends found in the study. Only 14% of those surveyed already own a plug-in or hybrid vehicle of some kind. It's another piece of evidence of a huge opportunity for EV manufacturers to home in on the needs of these green car-curious consumers. "These are not the same...

A video posted by the FDNY shockingly reveals how a charging lithium-ion battery sparked a raging fire in a Queens e-bike shop this month. The video, from King Electronic Hub in Richmond Hill, shows a charging lithium-ion battery surrounded by scooters and boxes shooting up a thick cloud of gray smoke, followed by sparks ... “It only took two and a half minutes for this exploding lithium-ion battery to fully engulf this e-bike shop in fire,” the text accompanying the video warns. “When we tell you illegal lithium-ion batteries can be dangerous, WE MEAN IT,” .. The two-alarm fire on...

Is the Obama, I mean Biden, Administration playing Electric Boogaloo? Or is it Electric Boondoggle? The average price of a used Tesla has declined 18 months in a row, moving from a record high of $67,900 in July 2022 to a record low of $35,844 today (-47%). On January 11, I noted Hertz Is Selling 20,000 EVs Due to Lack of Customer Demand Hertz is selling a third of its EVs globally, with 20,000 in the US and will use some of the money to buy more Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) gasoline-powered cars. On January 18, I commented $2 Billion...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The city of Asheville's purchase of five electric buses in 2018 has turned into a multi-million-dollar loss. The buses have been broken or unable to run because of software and/or mechanical issues, making them an expensive and disappointing purchase, according to city maintenance and transportation staff. ... Currently, three of the five buses are idled, with one that has had a broken double door since July. “We haven’t been able to get new doors,” Asheville's interim transportation director Jessica Morriss said. “There's no third party that makes a door. We'd have to get custom-made doors.” Each of...

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...

As an electrical engineer, the most glaring problem with EVs is that we simply do not have the grid capacity to power a national EV fleet. A few months ago some colleagues and I did the analysis for California – Australia is similar. In order to create the same “power to wheels” as currently provided by gasoline and diesel, California would need to double its generation capacity.

A surge of stranded electric vehicles, predominantly Tesla cars, has overtaken the Oak Brook Supercharger station in Chicago, as a severe cold snap renders many EVs powerless and immobile. Fox 32 reports that the recent wave of freezing temperatures in Chicago has taken a significant toll on EVs, causing an unusual scene at the Oak Brook Tesla Supercharging station. This station, along with many others around the Chicago area, has been crowded with dead Teslas, as owners face difficulties in charging their vehicles​​.

The 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV is an early step in General Motors' promise of an electric vehicle future. "Our early experience in a Chevy Blazer EV has been anything but positive, sadly," said Alistair Weaver, editor-in-chief of Edmunds.com. *snip* "We took it into a Chevy dealer, asked them to have a look at it, and they came back with nothing short of 23 different error codes, which frankly is almost unheard of," said Weaver.

The global climate is always changing, but contrary to the popular narrative, the science on the exact causes is far from settled. Alarmists claim that humans burning fossil fuels for energy will catastrophically ruin the climate, and they demand a “net-zero” future to save the world. What would happen if the climate alarmists actually succeeded in the United States? Although it is impossible to predict the future, early warning signs from President Joe Biden’s policies don’t paint a pretty picture. Decreased Individual Mobility First, if the federal government bans gas-powered cars, individual transportation would get less reliable and more expensive....

Hertz Global Holdings announced Thursday that it plans to trim its electric vehicle fleet, citing high repair costs, and reinvest in gas-powered vehicles. In Hertz’s regulatory filing on Thursday, the company stated that it will sell 20,000 EVs. The announcement comes after the car rental firm committed to making 25% of its fleet electric by the end of 2024. The company has since pulled back on that goal. It also previously agreed to purchase 100,000 Teslas by the end of 2022 and 65,000 Polestar vehicles over the next five years. Approximately 80% of the car rental firm’s EV fleet are...

Officials today launched an investigation after one of Sadiq Khan's electric buses exploded during today's rush hour. Terrified residents in Wimbledon described a massive 'bang' after a double decker burst into flames during this morning's commute, sparking chaos on the roads as black smoke filled the streets. Astonishing video obtained by MailOnline shows the dramatic moment firefighters battled to put out the inferno. Transport for London (TfL) today launched an investigation after the blaze destroyed the rear and blew out the back windows ... 'It took a long time for them to get it under control with flames flying out...

Demand for electric vehicles is booming, or at least that’s what the International Energy Agency says. Globally, the IEA reports, EVs accounted for 14% of new vehicle sales in 2022 (compared to 9% in 2021). In the U.S. — the third-largest EV market after China and Europe — they made up 11% of new vehicle sales in September 2023 and, in the same month, passed the 1 million mark for EVs sold in 2023. And then compared that with Tesla, which ranks 14th on the list. Although a number of the brands higher on the list include hybrid cars, Tesla,...

Honda is launching a new series of EVs called the "0 Series" with two concepts: a van-like vehicle called the Space-Hub and a sleeker but still funky family car called the Saloon. "Saloon" may be European for sedan but instead of a traditional three-box car, Honda's Saloon is a big, wedge-shaped thing. Debuting at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show, don't think it's just another one of those concepts that'll never see a real street because Honda has confirmed that the Saloon will become a production model in North America in 2026. Intended as the flagship of the 0 Series, 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...

everal cities in Minnesota, including Duluth and the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, are facing challenges in transitioning their public transit systems to zero-emission electric buses due to operational difficulties in subzero temperatures, which significantly reduce the buses’ range. The efficiency of lithium-ion batteries decreases in cold weather, impacting the buses’ ability to hold a charge and provide adequate warmth for passengers during winter. Other factors such as increased rolling resistance and less effective regenerative braking system in cold temperatures also affect the buses’ performance. Metro Transit spokesperson, Drew Kerr, said, “Using garage chargers alone, electric buses can...

There are a lot of reasons to buy an electric car, but there are also many reasons not to. Today I'm going to explain why it's not quite the time to buy an electric car. When you compare electric vs petrol or ICE cars (internal combustion engine) then you might think you're getting a big improvement when you go electric, but you might just regret buying that car.

One key to making EV adoption to work is fast charging. People that are used to filling up their gas tanks in mere minutes won’t be so easily swayed by the idea of having to sit at a charging station for nearly an hour. In charging testing done by Edmunds, they found the fastest and slowest charging EVs on the market. While Edmunds used metrics like miles per charging hour to mainly measure the speed, it can come off a bit confusing. So we’ll stick with their basic metric here: the time it took to get to 100 miles of...