By John McClaughry
For decades Eric Peters has been a leading analyst of the automotive industry. Last week he published a piece in the American Spectator on President Joe Biden’s ambitious electric vehicle policy.
Peters notes that Joe wants an electric vehicle EV in every garage. “It’s all part of the Green New Deal that Joe Biden endorsed on his website (but has since removed).”
He writes:
Electricity will inevitably cost more as artificially induced demand for it increases, putting a strain on the already strained existing infrastructure. More demand than is necessary, interestingly because the typical electric car touts performance, which it must because it cannot tout efficiency or economy.
Achieving lots of speed “requires enormous quantities of environmentally unpleasant things like cobalt, a key component of electric car batteries. Cobalt is uncommon — and mined (often by hand and often by the hands of children) in places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at much cost to the local environment,” Peters notes, adding:
Joe has been evasive about where the electricity needed to power the Green New Deal will be summoned from, if not from natural gas, coal, and oil–fired utility plants, which power the bulk of the country’s several major power grids.
At the moment, EVs are optional. But under the Green New Deal, that option will be made standard. Joe wants to mandate the market part by making it very hard — if not impossible — for people to buy anything else but electric cars.
He might have added that California Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared that internal combustion vehicles will be off the road by 2035.
John McClaughry is vice president of the Ethan Allen Institute. Reprinted with permission from the Ethan Allen Institute Blog.
I will consider Electric cars when
Air force One is battery operated, and
marine One Copter is battery
and all the Beast Pres. Limosines are all battery.
But where does Electricity come from anyway?
It Comes from the Pole to our Outlets – Stupid!!
Then charging your home “wall battery” all day so you could charge your car battery overnight???
Better yet – use up your car battery to run your home, then drive to work, only to discover you don’t have “juice” enough to get home.
Business tip – Time to buy a gasoline powered Tilt bed Wrecker to transport all these cars dead in the road. You can’t just get a a can of electricity when you get stuck on empty.
Comrade Doug,
I minus you 25 social credit for being non compliant wise ass!
Where will I get replacement batteries during mud season or will I have to replace the whole undercarriage assuming of course I didn’t burst into flames.
Here are some excerpts from:
POOR ECONOMICS OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES IN NEW ENGLAND
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/poor-economics-of-electric-vehicles-in-new-england
1) Energy cost of charging an EV
The cost of on-the-road charging is $21.07/190 miles = 11.1 c/mile, not member,
The cost of at-home charging is 54 kWh x $0.20/kWh/190 miles = 5.7 c/mile
The cost of 6 gallons of gasoline is 6 x $2.20/gal/190 = 6.9 c/mile
2) Amortizing Capital Cost: A 2020 Subaru Outback, with large cargo space, and standard AWD, range about 540 miles, costs about $27,000; no options, no subsidies.
A 2020 Hyundai Kona, with medium cargo space, AWD not available (unsuitable for rural New England), range about 258 miles, costs about $37,390; no options, no subsidies.
The Subaru Outback and Hyundai Kona are nowhere near equivalent.
If the spacious Subaru Outback were an EV, it would cost at least $50,000, because a much smaller Tesla Model Y, range 326 miles, costs $49,990; no options, no subsidies. See URL and table 1.
https://www.tesla.com/modely/design#payment
Amortizing the capital cost difference of 37,390, Kona – 27,000, Outback = $10,390 at 3.5% for 10 years would be $1,233/y, or 10.3 c/mile, if 12,000 mile/y
Amortizing the capital cost difference of 50,000, Outback EV – 27,000, Outback = $23,000 at 3.5% for 10 years would be $2,729/y, or 22.7 c/mile, if 12,000 miles/y
https://www.myamortizationchart.com
The per-mile cost of amortizing the capital cost difference of gasoline vehicles vs equivalent EVs should be added to the per-mile cost of operating EVs. See table 3
NOTE:
1) Subsidies do not just disappear. They would be charged to others, and/or would be added to government debts.
2) Celebrating gasoline cost savings, and ignoring amortizing costs, and having minimal CO2 reduction (see section after Example 2), is like living a fantasy.
Addition to above comment.
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/poor-economics-of-electric-vehicles-in-new-england
The table show the total cost of owning and operating three vehicles.
The Kona is not nearly as versatile as the Subaru and the Tesla for New England conditions, especially in rural areas.
The difference in vehicle purchase cost was amortized at 3.5% for 10 years. Subsidies were omitted.
Table 5/EV cost/mile—————Electricity cost—-Amortize cost difference—-Total cost
Kona, no AWD—————————c/mile——————-c/mile——————-c/mile
Cost, on-the-road charging————-8.39———————10.3———————18.69
Cost, at-home charging—————–5.98———————10.3———————16.28
Model Y, AWD
Cost, on-the-road charging————-9.37———————21.7———————31.07
Cost, at-home charging—————–7.04———————21.7———————28.74
Subaru Outback, AWD
Gasoline vehicle————————-7.33————————0———————–7.33
“Joe has been evasive about where the electricity needed to power the Green New Deal will be summoned from, if not from natural gas, coal, and oil–fired utility plants, which power the bulk of the country’s several major power grids.”
Give-me-break Joe has been evasive about a lot of things, such as tax;king to the press. for one.
WHERE WOULD THAT ELECTRICITY COME FROM?
Here are some answers.
Excerpt from:
POOR ECONOMICS OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES IN NEW ENGLAND
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/poor-economics-of-electric-vehicles-in-new-england
Grid Upgrades, Peak-Smoothing, Load-Shifting, Storage
Vermont’s maximum grid load is about 1100 MW, and peak demand of users is about 900 MW, without significant quantities of heat pumps and EVs.
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/reality-check-regarding-utility-scale-battery-systems-during-a
Major distribution and high-voltage grid upgrades, peak-smoothing and load-shifting and electricity storage systems (battery, etc.) would be required, if, in the future:
– Vermont’s 200,000-plus EVs would plug in, demanding 200,000 x 9 kW; see table 2 = 1,800 MW, most of them recharging for 2 – 4 hours, some of them up to 10 hours, for next day driving.
NOTE: Vermont total registered gas/diesel vehicles was 547,000 in 2019
https://vtrans.vermont.gov/sites/aot/files/planning/documents/planning/The%20Vermont%20Transportation%20Energy%20Profile_2019_Final.pdf
– Vermont’s 200,000-plus heat pumps would be operating, demanding 200,000 x 2.8 kW = 560 MW, for many hours on cold days, to heat buildings. Each free-standing, 2000 sq ft, well-sealed/well-insulated house, would require 2 such heat pumps. See URL
https://www.thermospace.com/ductless_split/ymgi/inverter-16-seer-2-ton-mini-split.php
NOTE: My annual electricity consumption increased about 50%, after I installed three 24,000 Btu/h heat pumps for heating and cooling my, well-sealed/well-insulated, New England house. They displaced a fraction of my legacy propane consumption.
The legacy propane system, 95%-efficient in condensing mode, is used on cold days, say 10 F or less, because heat pumps would have low Btu/kWh, i.e., be very inefficient.
There were no energy cost savings, because of high household electric rates, augmented with taxes, fees and surcharges.
Amortizing the $24,000 capital cost at 3.5%/y for 15 years would be $2,059/y, plus annual service calls and parts.
Whereas, I received a 10% subsidy, that cost is merely shifted to other people, per Economics 101, or added to government debt.
Governments mandating hundreds of $billions be spent on such poor investments, as part of climate-change fighting, would impoverish the US people, and make the US less competitive on world markets. See URL
https://www.myamortizationchart.com
I’ll post my trivial down here William below your excellent research..
Joke xiden the first fraud resident was also all in on the bullet
trains for Komifornia when he was veep… how’d that work out?
and for Newsome who hates on the real autos it looks like he will be run out before fuel fired autos. (if they get this recall right)
As usual he’s on the wrong side of this as he has been for all
his 47 years in the swamp… It’s the only thing he’s consistently
good at,, being WRONG…