The saying goes that size matters – but weight matters more. If you want to go far. This is why EVs don’t. Even the really little ones – like Chevy’s Bolt, which is even smaller than a subcompact car like the Hyundai Accent – only go about half as far as their size-equivalents. Viz, 259 miles for the 3,589 lb. Bolt vs. 487 (on the highway) for the 2,679 lb. Accent.
That’s because a gallon of gas weighs about six pounds, which means a full tank of gas (12 gallons) in the Accent weighs 72 pounds. A great deal of energy is stored in those 72 gallons of gasoline – or even just six pounds. One gallon will power a car like the Accent some 40 miles down the highway and part of the reason for that is that as you burn it, there is less of it – and so, less weight to keep moving. After a car like the Accent has used up half a tank – about six gallons – it is carrying around half the fuel weight it began the trip with.
It takes a great deal more weight – that is never shed – to power an EV the same distance. A small EV like the Bolt is weighed down by the gas tank equivalent of about 1,000 pounds of battery pack – and in fact, it’s not equivalent, because the Bolt would probably need another several hundred pounds of battery pack to be capable of powering its electric motor for nearly 500 highway miles.
But for the sake of this discussion, let’s assume an equivalence.
It takes 1,000 pounds of battery to propel the Bolt the same 40 miles, because whether it’s fully charged or just barely, with the electric equivalent of only 40 miles of range remaining – it is always lugging around every ounce of that 1,000 pounds. An EV battery pack does not get lighter as it is discharged even though electricity is essentially weightless. But the storage medium – the battery – is not. No matter how much electricity you burn, the weight of the battery remains the same.
And that weight is always a literal drag on how far the EV can go.
To fully appreciate just how weight-wasteful EV battery packs are, let’s consider an equivalence. How far down the road would 1,000 pounds of gasoline take a car like the Hyundai Accent? Well, 1,000 pounds of gas at about six pounds per gallon works out to about 160 gallons of gas, or about 14 full tanks.
The Accent is rated by the EPA as being able to travel about 41 highway miles on a gallon of gas. Thus, the Accent could be driven some 6,560 miles on a “tank-equivalent” of one Bolt-sized EV battery pack.
This is why the Accent only needs to carry about 72 pounds (or 12 gallons) of gas to be able to travel almost twice as far as the Bolt. Put another way, the latter must lug around the energy equivalent of about 13 times the weight to be able to go about half as far.
If this is “efficient” – which we’re told EVs are – I’d hate to think what an inefficient EV would look like.
The usual retort is that EVs use less energy – i.e., electricity – to travel a given distance but this evades the issued of the weight needed to store that energy. Not to mention the quantity – of materials that go into every EV battery – as well as into producing the power for EV batteries – a subject this column has addressed previously. But the point as regards this topic is that weight is the natural enemy of efficiency and that is why EVs aren’t efficient. It is why it will be hard for them to ever be efficient.
It is the same reason why you do not see heavyweight athletes winning marathons. The latter are sometimes capable of explosive quickness, but only briefly. Just like EVs.
Long-distance runners – whether they are bipedal or mechanical – are always light.
But the dilemma as regards EVs is that they are all very heavy. And so always inefficient. This will remain the case absent an as-yet-unknown alternative way to store enough electricity to propel an EV even half as far as any non-EV that weighs 1,000 pounds less can go.
If a way could be found to store the energy equivalent of 72 pounds of gasoline in a 100 pound battery pack, then you’d have something very different. An EV like the Bolt would then weigh the same or even less than a non-electric equivalent like the Accent. It would not need a motor as powerful – and heavy – as the one that currently propels it in order to deliver the same performance, because it would be almost 1,000 pounds lighter. And for that reason, it would be vastly more efficient. It would probably be able to travel at least as far as the Accent can and perhaps even farther on less electricity than the current Bolt burns up to travel about half as far.
But there is no indication that such a “breakthrough” is imminent. Instead, EV batteries are being made even larger – and heavier – in order to store enough power to propel electric trucks and SUVs rather than cars, because cars have only so much room for batteries and so only have so much range. You can put more battery in a big truck. But then it is a heavier truck – viz, the three-ton half-ton pick-up, Ford’s F-150 Lightning – and it doesn’t go very far, either. But it can tout quickness (briefly) and capability (also briefly) so as to distract attention – look! a squirrel! – from its built-in inefficiency.
It’s like expecting someone to win the Boston Marathon with a 100 pound plate from the gym strapped to his back.
Worse, it’s like pretending such a thing is even possible.
. . .
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External combustion engines, steam engines, were dropped 100 years ago because they aren’t energy efficient, with EV’s we are right back to external combustion, boiling water ….steam power……. EV = back to the stone age boiling water.
Switching from a 50% efficient diesel ice or 35% efficient gas ice internal combustion engine………. to a remote external combustion power source to end up with a 25% efficient EV….. is stupid….
in an ice car fuel is combusted inside the engine to create mechanical energy to push the car down the road…..this is only one step…very simple….
in an EV …fuel…coal or gas mostly…. is combusted externally to create heat to boil water, the water releases steam energy to turn a turbine, the turbine turns a generator to produce electrical energy which is transmitted over 1000’s of miles of transmission and distribution lines….then it takes hours to store this electrical energy in huge 1000 to 1800 lb batteries in the EV…. (which leaks out 24/7)….the electricity in the battery is used to power an electric motor creating mechanical energy to push the car down the road….
in an EV…….this is three steps….fuel energy combusted externally to create steam energy to create electrical energy then converted to create mechanical energy to push the car down the road…..that is crazy….
It took a muti billion $ marketing campaign to get people even remotely interested in this farce….
If you are just boiling water just bring back steam powered cars and skip the big expensive power grid, very heavy, expensive, dangerous battery, the charger, converter, electric motor, just have a steam engine, they have the same advantage as an EV, 100% torque at one rpm.
EV is the worst choice, steam engines don’t lose 50% in efficiency in very cold weather, they don’t eat up more energy for heat for the car, they don’t need 1000 lb, very expensive, rapidly wearing out, dangerous batteries, they don’t take hours to charge, they aren’t dependent on non existing or defective chargers with huge lineups, they don’t have to be towed, just bring more fuel, they use multiple fuels, some fuels are free.
There is a new technology steam engine for your car or truck, etc., it is 30% to 60% energy efficient which is better then EV’s, gas or diesel engines. It has lower emissions then EV’s, gas or diesel engines.
If it burned hydrogen for a heat source it would be real zero emissions, not the fake remote emission EV’s.
It has full torque at one rpm so requires no transmission, it can run in reverse so no reverse gear required.
see cyclone power
https://cyclonepower.com/#
Spark-cycle gasoline-fueled engines are around 25% efficient, diesel-fueled compression engines about 30%, half from the more efficient fuel burn (compression versus spark), half from the higher fuel value of diesel versus gasoline.
Combined-cycle natural gas-fired power plants are around 60% efficient.
Transmission losses to your home average only around 7%, though that could be cut roughly in half by adopting more efficient transmission technologies like high-voltage DC which China uses but we don’t because we are willing to tolerate our 3rd world infrastructure.
numbers wrong……and missed a few things…..
Thermal efficiency of power plants using coal, petroleum, natural gas or nuclear fuel and converting it to electricity are around 33% efficiency, natural gas is around 40%. Then there is average 6% loss in transmission, then there is a 5% loss in the charger, another 5% loss in the inverter, the electric motor is 90% efficient so another 10% loss before turning the electricity into mechanical power at the wheels.
33% – 6% – 5% – 5% – 10% = 25% efficiency for EV’s. In very cold weather 12% efficient…..
powering cars with electric motors is far less efficient then using gas or diesel ice engines….
Diesel is best over 50% efficiency, gas now up to 37% or more, a Mercedes Formula 1 gas engine = 50% efficiency . A modern steam engine is 50%+ efficient.
Ev’s 25% efficiency. In very cold weather 12%
a Mercedes Formula one ice gas engine = 50% efficiency …because of the modern technology….F1 is always the leader in tech….
an EV is 25% efficient, a highly polluting, expensive, wasteful technology
they should have stuck with the ice engines….the newest ones are very efficient and have .000001% emissions now, they are very, very clean…
EV’s and ice vehicles both burn fuel….one is just remote external combustion…the EV…
Switching from a 50% efficient diesel ice or 35% efficient gas ice internal combustion engine………. to a remote external combustion power source 25% efficient EV….. is stupid….
it is even stupider considering this…..
95.1% of all electrical energy comes from so called dirty non green sources
(green source solar and wind supply 4.9%)….
The next problem is solar panels and wind turbines, the 4.9%, are not green at all, they are very damaging to the environment, they are very expensive, unreliable, dirty energy.
external combustion…coal/gas… powered cars…EV’s are a bad joke…..but…through a multi billion dollar marketing campaign stupid people have been convinced that an EV is cleaner then an ice car….lol
a modern steam engine is 50%+ efficient and will burn any type of fuel….why not bring them back….they make far more sense then stupid 1000lb lithium fire bomb powered EV’s
EV’s are an IQ test only the dim witted buy them….lol
see cyclone power
https://cyclonepower.com/#
this sounds better then gas ice or EV’s….
steam power….
If it burned hydrogen for a heat source it would be real zero emissions, not the fake remote emission EV’s……. they can use multiple fuels, some fuels are free.
It has full torque at one rpm so requires no transmission, it can run in reverse so no reverse gear required…..so you can run at 120 mph in reverse….lol
And how will you get that hydrogen? Currently the hydrogen is created using electrolysis, which is only about 60% efficient in its conversion from electricity and water to compressed liquid hydrogen. So you are right back to burning fossil fuels, to boil water, to create electricity, to make hydrogen, to burn and boil water to create steam…
Another great light weight, fully mechanical and analog driver’s car from a long time ago, before they ruined the cars with too much weight, AI and computers…..
16 cylinders and 270 mph, in 1938: The Auto Union V-16 was an audacious engineering feat
Auto Union, the new firm formed by the merging of Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer, intended to field a brilliant race car designed by Ferdinand Porsche.
Though he never completed any formal engineering training, Porsche’s résumé was already long before he set upon the task. He had built the first hybrid-electric car,in 1901 and drew the first sketch of the original VW Beetle on the back of an envelope.
Ferdinand Porsche fitted superchargers to Mercedes-Benz SSK race cars he designed in the 1920s….. the Mercedes-Benz SSK was voted one of the best cars in the last 100 years…some call that car the first Porsche….Ferdinand Porsche designed it for Mercedes before he started his own company….
If the Mercedes-Benz SSK was the first Porsche….maybe the second Porsche is the The Auto Union V16
The Auto Union V16 program was a pre-World War II Grand Prix racing effort that saw two variations on the V16 program.
The jewel at the center of Porsche’s mid-engine P-Wagen was racing’s first V-16 engine.
The first three iterations, dubbed Type A, B, and C, were Roots-supercharged V16s displacing 4.4 liters, 5.0 liters, and 6.0 liters, respectively, with a shallow 45-degree bank angle. The peak performer of the group, the Type C, made 520 horsepower at 5,000 rpm, and as its undersquare design might suggest, a whopping 627 lb-ft of torque.
Unique valve train……..
Since the redline was a modest 5500 rpm, dual overhead cams were deemed unnecessary. Instead, to further save weight, a single camshaft supported by nine bearings operated all 32 valves. Finger followers nudged the intakes, while each exhaust valve was opened by a cam follower moving a horizontal pushrod in touch with an outboard rocker arm. This clever arrangement had never been used before the Auto Union V-16, nor has it been seen since.
The Auto Union V16 was a nice light weight car it weighed 1700 lb….
The Auto Union V16 recorded a top speed of 270 mph in 1938…..
1936 Auto Union Type C V16 Sound In Action at Festival of Speed 2018!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0aPekqm2Do
What bothers me about this whole thing is that these EVs are being pushed as solutions to the supposed pollution problems with IC vehicles, when they really aren’t.
If CO2 is indeed a pollutant, the only way to mitigate it is to Burn Less Fuel. We already have proven technologies like electric-dominant hybrids, clean diesel, and CNG vehicles that do just that. The Chevy Volt with its electric-dominant power train was, for example, the best of both worlds—it had electric power and gasoline power. You had the battery for short trips in town, and the gasoline engine for long trips. Depending on your driving habits, you could go months between fill-ups.
But the Chevy Volt made TOO much sense and worked TOO well. And TPTB couldn’t have that!
The same goes for VW’s cheap clean diesels and Honda’s CNG cars.
You see, the game isn’t about trying to exert control over the climate—it’s about trying to exert control over YOU.
It’s also why other technologies that would seem to make sense as far as burning less
fuel is concerned aren’t being used to the extent that they can be. Take nuclear energy—if we opened more nuclear power plants, we could cut CO2 emissions by a yooooge amount. Or telecommuting—what’s the effect of taking all those cars off the road?
So shut up and eat your bugs!
EV’s have no sound…the sound of death…dead..no life….maybe they are the devil’s cars…..
Listen to God’s Own Engine, The BRM V16, Scream Up a Hillclimb Course
If there is one thing that these old race cars make certain, it’s that motorsports has lost something special in the modern era. The engineering and speeds may be more extreme than ever, but there’s nothing in motorsports today that sounds like this thing.
Modern cars got worse…
BRM V16 Fangio’s favorite F1 car to drive V16 supercharged with 72 lb of boost and 12,000 rpm only 1.5 litres 600 hp……. 1600 lb……
Fangio later described the BRM Type 15 as “’ the best Formula One car ever made….maybe it was the best car ever made…Fangio was the GOAT driver….
In Fangio’s words: “The BRM was really difficult to get off the line because below around 7,000rpm there seemed to be no power at all, but at 7,200rpm there was so much power and torque it was unbelievable.”
https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a40668433/listen-to-gods-own-engine-the-brm-v16-scream-up-a-hillclimb-course/
You’re dead-on about auto racing losing it’s soul. NASCAR is the perfect example. Just go watch a race on you toob from the mid-50’s up to about the mid-70’s. It looks like normal people driving around normal cars at stupid, dangerous speeds. Those people were truly super humans. It makes you feel a certain way just watching. Now look at today. You got tiny little dweeby “athletes” driving around in over engineered, super safe, corporate, IMSA looking cars. It does nothing for the soul watching these people drive those race cars.
Hi Logan,
Spot on. NASCAR has become the professional wrestling of motorsports. It’s a cartoon – and might as well be staged. The cars are all fundamentally the same and about as “stock” as the Earth is flat. Corporate McMoney has ruined everything.
OT: Good news. People are waking up? Pentagram gets badly ratioed.
https://twitter.com/SecArmy/status/1634195903190908931
Even the hypercars/supercars are overweight now….
The Jimenez Novia was a tribute to the Porsche 917
it was constructed of carbon fibre, it weighed 1900 lb., it had an aircooled W16 engine Consisting of four 1.0-liter inline four-cylinder Yamaha motorcycle engines, 536 hp 10,000 rpm 80 valves, 5 valves per cylinder, it would do 236 mph…
It cost $850,000 to build…it never went into production because the government killed it…they wanted one to crash test….
Modern hypercars/supercars are around 4000 lb and require at least 1000 hp to go fast, because they are overweight….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SIakh1Ud7k
I really like this Jimenez Novia…it is light ….1900 lb…about the same as a Porsche 917…it is air cooled like the 917 so has a great sound….
The reality is chemical battery cars aren’t ever going to be practical. But that doesn’t matter to the governments of the world.
They think they will change science with legislation and edicts. If that isn’t the definition of insanity, I have no idea what is. It’s batshit crazy!
Electric cars have been a novelty in the vehicle world for over a hundred years and still are. Nothing technology wise has changed about that recently. A one hundred year old electric Baker car has about the same range as a brand new Tesla.
Hi Rich,
In re: “The reality is chemical battery cars aren’t ever going to be practical. But that doesn’t matter to the governments of the world.”
I think it matters to them very much in that I am convinced this whole EV scam is fundamentally about leashing the populace – tethering them to a cord and to a centrally controlled energy system. It has nothing to do, except superficially, with “the environment.” Only fools are taken in by this.
Here is the car I drive (pic from online, color different):
http://smclassiccars.com/geo/494221-1992-geo-metro-4dr-really-nice.html
This is what it weighs: 1680 lbs
This is the fuel economy: 52 mpg
This is what it cost new: $6800
I bought it used for $500, it still gets 52 mpg average, the parts are dirt cheap, it is the easiest car to work on, the simplicity is astounding, virtually anything can be fixed on the side of the road.
The car is the laughingstock of the world, but when gas gets to $20 a gallon I will be the guy still driving while your suck ass gas guzzler will be parked.
GM built it, but unfortunately, they closed the CAMI plant because no one wants to drive a fuel sipper in Amerika. Everyone wants power, hundreds of horsepower. They want luxury. They want every gadget. ‘Murika, cause wars for oil are our way of life.
Hi Jack,
Your Geo is worth its weight – ha! – in gold, as you already know. There was also the Tracker, a fun little Jeep that likewise got very good mileage that also had off-road capability. I got t drive these when they were new – and the world was still sane.
Trackers were popular here in rural WA, road legal but small enough for heading into the hills just about anywhere.
@ Eric, I had one of those little Suzuki jeeps, it had a 1.3 liter 4 cylinder. It was very, very good in the woods on substandard logging trails. Almost never did you have to put it into 4wd, very narrow and short, and lightweight it was the perfect off road vehicle, but no cargo space. I used it a few times to get firewood, and the max load was about 1/8 of a cord. I sold it and got a 1984 Nissan 720 4wd truck which was also very good in the woods and could carry about 1/2 cord. Overall the Nissan truck was far more practical vehicle, for one thing the Nissan could be locked, and the Jeep with the soft top was impossible to secure, like if you had an expensive chainsaw or gun in the cab.
Such is the nature of rag tops. Having driven Miatas for near 20 years, I stopped locking it, and kept nothing of value in it. I’d rather a thief rummage through it than slash the top and THEN rummage through it.
I’ve gone so far as to keep 8 track players in my soft tops. NOBODY will steal the radio, or the media…
The EV’s will never be the quickest cars because of the extra 1000 to 1800 lb for the batteries, ice will always be quicker, here is a good example……
Rimac Nevera electric vs Audi RS 3 vs new Tesla Roadster comparison
Rimac Nevera
1900 hp 4 electric motors
4500 lb.
1/4 mile 8.6 seconds
0 to 60 2.08 seconds
$2.8 million
Audi RS 3
A brand name new Audi RS 3 starts off at a base price of $56,200 in the USA, MSRP.
You can buy and tune an RS 3 for less then a tesla plaid or a lot of other supercars, hypercars and it is quicker
one gas engine 1100 hp
3000 lb
this RS 3 has run an 8.17 second quarter mile.
0 to 60 1.3 seconds.
2023 Tesla Roadster
With a 0-60 mph time of 1.9 seconds,
a quarter-mile time of 8.8 seconds
$200,000
https://www.hotcars.com/worlds-fastest-audi-rs3-drag-races-ken-blocks-1400-hp-mustang-hoonicorn/
the sound of this thing is insane, listen at 2:52 in video…
Tesla’s and other EV’s were marketed as being quick….they have no other quality that makes them marketable…..they are actually slower then quick ice cars….so they marketed them as being quicker then ice cars….a huge lie….but it stuck in people’s heads, they believe it…..
Other problems performance wise with EV’s……
half way through the rev range in an EV power starts to drop…..good ice engines don’t do that…..EV’s have no top end power…..good ice engines will pull to redline….EV’s are quick 0 to 60 and good in the 1/4 mile but slow in the 1/2 mile…..good ice powered cars are very quick in the half mile…..EV’s have low top speed, because of gearing (to make them quick at low speed), only one gear (taycan has 2)….and no top end power….
The hidden reason EV’s are quick 0 to 60….a very aggressive diff….like 19:10 in a tesla….
The trick with EV’s is they are using a very aggressive diff. in them…in the old muscle cars a 4:11 diff. was an aggressive diff ratio…..in the new C8 Corvette the diff is about 5:70..a trick to make it quick……they can do that now because it has 3 overdrives, with an old 6 speed you couldn’t do that….in the plaid the diff is about 19:10 very aggressive it makes it quick….with a standard 4:11 diff it would be slow…..they can use a 19:10 diff because the electric motor winds up to 19,000 rpm…..
electric motors do have low end torque…100% at 1 rpm…steam engines do too….diesels have low end torque too…..
A medium quick AWD ice car with a 19:10 diff would beat any EV 0 to 60….probably….
These EV’s just added another 1000 lb on to already overweight cars.
The quickest cars in the world usually weigh 2000 lb or less, a modern 3000 lb to 4500 lb supercar/hypercar will never be as fast, you can’t overcome that much extra weight,these batteries weigh from 1000 lb to 1800 lb.
To overcome the weight they add huge hp, this makes the car unstable so they control it with, stabilize it with AI, computers, they drive the car you don’t. These aren’t driver’s cars you are just along for the ride….
In 1961 F1 cars weighed 450 kg 990 lb,
in 2022 F1 cars weighed 700 kg. 1540 lb.
The Porsche 919 hybrid EVO 850 kg 1873 lb
The VW IDR EV race car aboiut 907 kg. 2000 lb
Porsche 917 30 845 kg 1863 lb.
Double A fuel dragster about 1400 lb.
The answer? Buy an ultralight like a Super 7, or a Super 7 clone, around 1200 lb. and totally analog no driver assists…you have to drive it, and more fun then any other car.
Over weight EV’s = no fun….
Zealotry, the notion that what you think and believe is perfectly correct, and all in disagreement are incorrect. That to maintain your zealotry incarcerating or executing your opponents is justifiable. Such is “Climate Change”. As is almost always the case with zealotry, there is no basis in fact or evidence to corroborate it. Just as when the Israelites entered Canaan and proceeded to kill everyone there who resisted, because Israel was “chosen”. So it is with the AGW crowd.
John K,
We also saw vaxx zealotry shortly after the rollout of the COVID shots. The vaxx zealots worldwide advocated severe punishment for those who refused the shots, such as internment in special COVID camps, banishment from society, or loss of job. There was even a bill in Rhode Island that would have imposed an extra tax on parents who didn’t get their children “vaccinated”, a proposal in Washington state that would have required ALL state employees to be “Up-to-date” on COVID shots, and a bill in California that (IIRC) would have required literally anybody working in the state to be vaxxed. There have also been efforts to allow children to be “vaccinated” without their parents’ knowledge or consent.
IIRC, that Rhode Island bill I mentioned would have also placed an extra tax on ALL citizens of the state who didn’t get the COVID vaxx.
Never mind that such law violated every HIPAA medical privacy law. But hey, I guess when the government craps all over the law, it is okay. If a medical worker violates the law (MD, nurse) they lose their job and their license. Never mind that it is none of the governments damned business if you are jabbed or not…..
Hi Shadow,
The Biden Thing made knowing the vaxx status of AMERICANS their defacto business after medical facilities started entering special codes on a computer for patients who were “unvaccinated” & those who WERE “vaccinated” but didn’t get the latest mice tested bivalent booster jab. I read elsewhere that the pharmaceutical industry is working on developing a vaccine for COVID AND influenza, and if they pull that off, I don’t doubt that the Biden Thing will also make it THEIR business whether people take that.
Between the “special codes” for the unvaccinated”, and the “special codes” for those (for the credit cards) for those who buy guns and ammunition, it makes you wonder why those who go along with this sh** think that they are not going to somehow escape the same fate as the rest of us (who are fighting the system) simply because they are “going along” with the system?
Shadow,
Here’s a post from Martin Armstrong last year that had more information on the Rhode Island bill I mentioned. Anyone who proposed crap like what was in that bill is a full blown authoritarian….I’m not sure if it actually passed, or if there were enough sane people in that state to push back against it and send it to the dustbin where it belongs……
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/uncategorized/rhode-island-lawmakers-propose-doubling-taxes-for-parents-of-unvaccinated-children/
Damned, that bill would make Mengele and Hitler proud. So much for “my body, my choice”. I surmise such a line only applies to women and abortions…
…and also, make one not want to live in Rhode Island, either…or any other left wing, liberal state, for that matter.
Shadow,
I live in Oregon, having been born in the state. For the most part, I live in a more sane part of the state, though the entire state has been DOMINATED by Portland for quite a while, and whatever Portland wants usually goes. However, there’s an effort underway called “Greater Idaho”, which, if that goes through,
would make parts of Oregon parts of Idaho instead. A few counties already voted in FAVOR of it, being more sane than the fringe minority that effectively rules the WHOLE state.
I did see where, was it the eastern parts of Oregon wanted to join with Idaho? And become “greater Idaho”? I think it would be a great idea! I am just surprised that the eastern part of Washington state has not done the same thing, as I have heard they are in the same boat: Getting dragged down by liberal Seattle. I have also wondered why the southern part of Virginia has not split off from the more liberal part of northern Virginia? You know those people are not going to change, so why not break off, and govern the way you want? Aka, not by thumb-sucking, communist liberals.
Shadow,
Yes, Eastern counties of Oregon voted to join “Greater Idaho”, along with some counties in Southern Oregon, as those parts of Oregon are more conservative compared to Portland, Salem, and Eugene. I read about similar efforts in other blue states such as Colorado.
Shadow,
I know right? As if that wasn’t enough though, California now has a bill that would require school students entering 8th grade to get an HPV vaccine, and after the CDC’s recent addition of the COVID shots to the childhood and adult vaccination schedule, I’m sure there are states chomping on the bit to MANDATE those shots for children to go to public school. Washington’s Governor also had a proposal last year that would have required ALL state employees to be “up-to-date” on COVID vaccinations until public pushback resulted in that being withdrawn.
Senator (and Dr.) Richard Pann of California helped spearhead mandating vaccines for school children with no exceptions, tying doctors hands in the process. If you want to see a sad commentary, watch “Sacrificial Virgins”. It details the horrors of the HPV vaccine, which was fast-tracked in a mere, five years. Never mind that good vaccines take 10-15 years. The mostly-girls in the video suffer horribly because of the effects of the HPV vaccine. When really, teaching old fashioned abstinence is far healthier than the vaccine. It is mind-blowing to think that students today will get upwards of 79 doses of vaccines in their school years. And who-knows-how-many-more now that COVID has been added (and given immunity) to the list. As for the Washington state governors actions? No surprise there. The entire west coast is one long, California. Which is really sad, because those are beautiful states run by ugly people.
Shadow,
You may like this….it’s a short speech given by Human Rights attorney Leigh Dundas….
https://straightlinelogic.com/2023/03/11/heres-a-lady-you-dont-want-to-mess-with/
Shadow,
An Oregon State Senator even brought up the “Greater Idaho” proposal in the state Senator early this year, so the legislature, as well as the state’s new Queen, Tina Kotek, is well aware of it.
State legislature *
‘It’s not about surpassing Tesla anymore, it’s about survival/i>.’ — autoevolution article linked by Mike below
My sentiments exactly! The article discusses the mysterious inability of GM and Ford to ramp up production of Hummers, Lyriqs and F150 Lightnings. Limited battery supply is hinted as one of the causes.
Here we have the makings of a perfect storm. The 535 Congress Clowns — always the last people on the planet to get a clue about anything — enacted enormous subsidies for battery plants in their Inflation Reduction Act of August 2022. Even foreign manufacturers such as Volkswagen are piling into new US battery plants, simply to collect their share of Uncle Sam’s free money, and also to stay competitive with gov-subsidized US battery makers.
Yet we appear to have technical difficulties. Last month, battery issues stopped F-150 Lightning production. Supposedly production is to resume tomorrow. But Ford spokesperson Emma Bergg “would not elaborate what those engineering and parts updates are, nor would she detail why there was a fire, what the battery issue that led to the fire was, or what changes to the truck will be made going forward,” reports motorauthority.com.
Moreover, the government-inspired battery plant land rush predictably will lead to vast overcapacity — just as the economy is headed over the waterfall into recession. That is a deadly combination. Silicon Valley Bank’s shocking one-day slide on Thursday from investment-grade to liquidation shows how fast things can fall apart, when the floorboards are giving way.
In 2025, I predict, a book will be published about the extraordinary popular delusion of EeeVee Fever in 2022, and its subsequent catastrophic collapse in the white-knuckle recession of 2023-2024, taking numerous auto makers and suppliers down with it. I nominate our host Eric Peters as the prospective author, as he is documenting these events in real time and will be well-positioned to assemble his writings and background research into a solid book-length narrative.
Working title: Hubris and Nemesis: the Decline and Fall of EV Fever. It’s history in the making, comrades!
Doesn’t matter. Excess lifestyle has led to “extensional climate change” so it has to be brought to heel. Easy way to start is to cause artificial scarcity. Who cares if people die? There’s too many of ’em anyway.
Of course the hubris is what will be their undoing. Much like the nobility and priest class who thought their stature would spare them the plague, they’ll die just as often as everyone else. The true believers will simply accept their own distruction as nature.
Ironically, the push for heat pumps demonstrates the reason why “fossil fuels” are always going to be cheaper. Heat pumps extract heat from one side of the circuit and move it to the other. They produce no heat at all. Extracting oil and gas from the ground is just moving potential energy from one place to another. High up-front costs but once everything is in place it can be very cheap to operate because you’re just moving stuff, not producing it.
There’s going to be a big push for hydrogen because everyone knows the problems with lithium batteries. Producing hydrogen instead of extracting hydrogen-carbon molecules is costly, just like producing heat is (in theory) more expensive than extracting it. Making hydrogen at commerical scale requries very cheap electricity, something the industry has been trying to eliminate for the last 40 years. Because traders can’t trade on plenty, and excess capacity is bad for the quarterly earnings report. Better to thin out the margins and deal with the outages when they come up.
Electric vehicles in their present state are “not ready for prime time” and are being “pushed” on an unsuspecting, largely unknowledgeable, gullible public by insane government edict.
From a scientific and technical standpoint, today’s electric vehicles are “playthings for the rich”.
From a political standpoint, the elites HATE the masses as the “elites” HATE the fact that today’s ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles allow the masses (us) to go where they (we) want, when they (we) want at any time with few, if little restrictions. Unrestricted mobility for the masses is something that the elites HATE. It’s about CONTROL. It’s ALWAYS about CONTROL.
Let’s look at the technical side of electric vehicles vs. ICE vehicles. Range is a large factor in the desirability of ICE vehicles vs. today’s electric vehicles. One can fuel up an ICE vehicle in approximately five minutes and be on his way.
Not so for electric vehicles. Quite often electric vehicle charging stations are few and far between, which contributes to “range anxiety”. The situation will improve as time goes on, but in today’s world, electric vehicles are impractical. For short hops and city driving, electric vehicles can be an ideal solution, but for extended “road trips” forget it.
Electric vehicle batteries lose power even when the vehicle is not in use. Add to that, cold weather and the use of accessories (air conditioning, lights, etc) will reduce range considerably. Electric vehicles may be somewhat suitable for a California climate, but will fail in sub-zero Michigan winter snow and ice.
Batteries can be charged only to 80% of full capacity as overcharging will reduce battery life considerably. “Fast charging” is also detrimental to battery life. It’s all about time and convenience vs. battery life.
Gasoline and diesel fuel has an large energy content (density) in a small package, something that, in their present stages of development, electrical vehicles cannot achieve.
Let’s make a comparison…gasoline contains approximately 33.7 kwh per gallon. A gallon of gasoline weighs approximately 6.1 lbs. The typical ICE vehicle can hold about 15 gallons of gasoline with a weight of approximately 90 lbs. total, with a total energy content of approximately 500 kwh.
Keep in mind that high-end electric vehicles have an energy capacity of approximately 120 kwh. This is equal to less than four gallons of gasoline. The typical electric vehicle has a 75 kwh battery pack, equivalent to approximately 2 ½ gallons of gasoline.
Keep in mind that the battery pack weight is well over 2000 lbs (1 ton) and still has a limited energy capacity compared to gasoline. The typical electric vehicles weighs approximately 2 ½ tons (5000 lbs.), having to haul around a heavy battery pack. This also contributes to “wear and tear” on other automotive systems such as brakes and tires. (Yes, I am aware that regenerative braking exists and is a part of electric vehicle technology).
From an environmental standpoint, lithium is nasty stuff, reacts with water violently and is much more volatile than gasoline. Electric vehicle accidents are much more hazardous than those of ICE vehicles. Water cannot be used to put out a lithium battery pack fire.
Yes, gasoline is dangerous, but we have learned to control it and live with it for over 100 years successfully.
Oil, being abiotic, and NOT a “fossil fuel” is a renewable resource, constantly being created by yet-unknown process within the earth.
There may come a time with battery technology “breakthroughs” but just not now.
Governments should never “push” unproven technologies.
Uh, isn’t a gallon about 8 pounds? Might want to check. Unless gas weighs less than water?
https://www.jdpower.com/cars/shopping-guides/how-much-does-gasoline-weigh-per-gallon
Oil floats on water, so yes, water is slightly higher density than oil.
I would not consider 25% “slightly higher” density, but that’s just me I suppose.
I think the impracticality of EV’s is starting to leak out as more people find out the hard way that the range is nowhere near as advertised in real world conditions. Recently saw a blogger who ended up having to stay overnight at a hotel even though he was only 50 miles from his house because it was cold, he only had maybe 20 miles of range left, and the only charger around was at said motel.
On a related note GM just announced a massive layoff of its middle management/white collar workforce. There goes any chance of reversing the EV insanity as I’m sure that includes all their engineering staff going out the door.
Mike in Boston,
Saw this article linked from The Liberty Daily this morning that highlights your point about the realization of how impractical EVs are.
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/after-a-botched-ev-push-general-motors-is-in-deep-trouble-211660.html
They advertise 100 mpg EV’s….haha…..
EV pushers lie 24/7 about this quoting fuel economy at the wall plug, they think electricity comes to the wall plug magically, they are insane…lol….
What test drivers are actually getting driving in the real world driving EV’s is they are getting 2.4 miles of range for every kwh
They are using 41.66 kwh to go 100 miles. (.4166 kwh per mile) = 83 mpg
ATTENTION: 83 mpg is based on electricity just coming out of a wall plug,
in reality 4.80 gallons of fuel or 43 lb of coal were burnt to generate the electricity in the power station = 20.8 mpg)….
so EV’s are getting 20.8 mpg in reality…
to go 100 miles the EV burns 43 lb of coal
to end up with 41.66 kwh of electricity which is equivalent to 1.20 gallons of gas to push the EV 100 miles down the road 4.80 gallons of fuel or 43 lb of coal were burnt to generate the electricity in the power station, remember net 25% efficiency.
100 miles using 4.80 gallons = 20.8 mpg,
the average EV is getting 20.8 mpg….the EV Hummer gets 10 mpg….
NOTE:
Thermal efficiency of power plants using coal, petroleum, natural gas or nuclear fuel and converting it to electricity are around 33% efficiency, natural gas is around 40%. Then there is average 6% loss in transmission, then there is a 5% loss in the charger, another 5% loss in the inverter, the electric motor is 90% efficient so another 10% loss before turning the electricity into mechanical power at the wheels.
33% – 6% – 5% – 5% – 10% = 25% efficiency for EV’s. In very cold weather EV’s are 12% efficient
More losses…lol………An EV just sitting loses:
tesla says a daily 3%-5% stationary range consumption.” (just parked)…
if you drive 200 miles per week you have to factor this in to get your real electricity consumption per week to go 200 miles…you are getting less then 20.8 mpg…..
So Tesla says it’s normal to fully discharge itself in under 3 weeks……park at the airport for 3 weeks….come back to a dead battery….if you don’t own a house where you can plug in your EV will end up dead on the side of the road….they have to be plugged in 24/7..when not used….
Keep this in mind when parking it somewhere 90kwh @ $0.40 per kwh = another $36.00 per week loss just parked…lol
Even if a breakthrough battery tech was discovered tomorrow, it would take the usual amount of time for the manufacturers to get the new drive train into the “pipeline”, which, at this point, wll be past the 2030 date that some states have set to be “EV only” with new vehicle sales.
Putting the electrical equivalent of 70 pounds of gasoline into 100 pounds of any matter sounds like a recipe for something really ‘splodey to me. I can’t imagine that happening in 5-10 minutes or even eight hours without a lot of exotic (read expensive) cooling technology even if a battery formula could be found.
One gallon of gas equals 36kwh. A 20 gallon tank of fuel would be around 720kwh. That would be quite a battery. Most of the cars have about 100kwh battery which equates to 3 gallons of gas which weigh 18lbs.
EVs are a waste of resources. A waste of time. A waste of earned money and extremely polluting.
Numbers that can be visualized are what is needed to make the NPCs understand why EV is not a solution.
If people understood that the EV they were buying had a 5 gallon gas tank, that means something.
Electricity doesn’t weigh anything, zero. An EV should be able to travel indefinitely, just need the battery to store the electricity.
No gas to guzzle, no gears to grind, no nothing about fuels.
Just add more weightless electricity and you can go even farther.
Gas can ignite and there will be a fire, can be bad. You’re driving around in a bomb!
A full tank of gas is like having money in the bank, it lasts as long as you don’t spend any. 72 pounds of gasoline will take you places, a thousand pounds of battery will take you to the cleaners.
20,000 USD for a new battery is going to bend you severely if not break you.
That’ll be 5000 gallons of gas at four dollars per gallon.
40 times 5000 is 200000 miles of happy motoring. You are going to be able to go twice as far with a lot less headache.
Silicon Valley Bank lost some weight last week.
717 dollars per share down to 106 USD is some serious weight loss. A fall from grace, as they say.
If you search for items on the internet, go to Yandex dot com.
Google, Bing, DuckDuckgo are surveillance tools.
It kind of makes you wonder-if Tesla himself were alive today-what he could have come up with in that regards, Drumpish? That is, with regards to battery backs and EV’s, and whether he could have made something better, or something completely different and far more efficient? He always envisioned being able to “plug into” the Earth for our energy. Funny how the Feds raided all his files when he died…
Nicola Tesla’s electric car had no battery….it had an antenna….the story was he had figured out how to transmit electricity through the air…the frequency is changed so it can be transmitted like radio waves….from a transmission tower….the electricity is received by the car’s antenna….he built a huge transmission tower and was going to give everyone free electricity….when the control group figured it out they demolished the tower….now no free electricity, you have a meter in your home….
they hid his research on this….
there is tons of electricity in the biosphere…you just have to figure out how to tap into it…….if people had this they would be too independent…..
I knew the Feds hid everything Tesla ever researched. Which is why I get curious as to what Tesla could have done today, if his information was out there. I remember the transmission tower pictures from books, but could not remember what it was for. Yeah, could you imagine people being able to tap into radio waves (and use it for driving) as easily for driving as you could breathing air? If it was possible to be that easy? The oil companies would go out of business, and people could not be corralled into their 15-minute cities, such as governments are trying to do now.
“But there is no indication that such a ‘breakthrough’ is imminent.” – Eric
Which is why every politician will proclaim that “we” have to “invest” in a “Manhattan Project” or “Moonshot” to make these overweight phone-apps-on-wheels work. Or in the case of Trump, to make them fly too.
Manhattan Projects and Moonshots are all about applied knowledge, scale and solving engineering problems. Einstein, Curie, and Fermi laid the groundwork for the bomb. Goddard and Von Braun for the moon rockets. There’s no scaling up batteries, they’re already producing as much energy as possible, save some incremental increases due to better production. Lithium is the most reactive metal, there aren’t any that can do better. The electrolytes are all close to their maximum capacity too. Any alternative elements are going to have more mass/watt, not less.
The only thing that works regarding EVs is the propaganda and virtue signaling. The rest is all illusion, delusion, and outright lies. The key to conserving energy is efficiency, and there’s not a thing about EVs that is efficient. Hence given the fact that the increased generation and grid capacity they require will have to be created with coal and natural gas, EVs will burn MORE. Thus creating more of the formerly harmless, but now “deadly” CO2, now called simply Carbon, because “Carbon” causes visions of a nasty hard to get rid of black dirty and ugly substance. Which is why as soon as an EV is the only car you are allowed to drive it will then not be allowed either.