Charge Lines

By
eric
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Back in the ’70s, there were gas lines – caused by gas shortages. Which were caused not by a shortage of gas but by politics. The federal government annoyed the foreign powers that controlled much of the world’s supply of oil via the cartel called OPEC – the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries – many of which were Arabic. Richard Nixon’s policies regarding them (and Israel) were met by the Arabs with embargoes, which led to the shortages – and the lines.

These often stretched around the block. People sat for hours to get some gas – sometimes running out of gas while they waited to get it.

How long will people be waiting for a charge?

It could be even longer – and in more than just the obvious sense.

That being it always – and necessarily – takes longer to charge an electric car than it does to fuel up a gas (or diesel) powered car. Even if there isn’t a line, you will get to wait. Fifteen minutes at the least – for a little charge. You might get 80 percent charge after about thirty minutes at the “fastest” chargers.

That’s a long time to have to wait, unless you’re in no hurry to get to work. Or home. Or wherever you need to be.

You’ll wait twice as long as 15-30 minutes if there’s even one car ahead of you, already using the “pump.” Fifteen minutes becomes thirty – and thirty becomes an hour. And because your electric car doesn’t go very far to begin with – the majority of them have fully charged ranges of less than 300 miles, which makes them as functionally “hoggy” of energy as a V8 powered SUV is of gas the problem is compounded by having to stop more often. Back in the ’70s, the owner of a Honda Civic CVCC might only have to wait in line for gas once a week. But the owner of the typical EV with a best-case range of 270-300 miles or so (which is most of them) will probably be waiting at least twice a week.

This latter will further compound the problem in that more EVs needing to stop more frequently for a charge will mean longer lines – and even longer waits.

The gas lines of the ’70s were only long because there were so many cars waiting for gas. Not because it took so much time to get the gas into the cars.

Think of the throughput – and pack a lunch.

Each car in line for gas needs maybe five minutes at the pump – to get a full tank. That means the car next in line can be fueling up five minutes later. The car behind that car gets filled up ten minutes later. Even if you are fourth in line, you’ll be at the pump within 15 minutes or so. Probably sooner, because there are rarely lines in the first place.

A single gas pump can fuel about five vehicles in the space of 30 minutes. This is about five times as many electric cars that can be partially charged (to 80 percent – or 20 percent “empty”) at the “fastest” chargers.

Put another way, it would take at least five times as many EV “fast” chargers to get as many EVs back on the road (less 20 percent of their fully charged range) within half an hour as it takes to get the same number of non-electric cars fully gassed up and back on the road in the same timeframe.

So, unless the number of EV “fast” chargers is increased by a factor of five relative to the number of gas pumps, the lines that will be forming are going to be a lot longer – and so will the waits. Each EV that pulls into line adds five times the wait (relative to how long it takes to fill up). If you are sixth in line for a charge, you could literally be waiting all day and possibly, until tomorrow.

Also, good luck pushing your EV to the “pump” if you run out of power before you can pull up to it. A small EV such as a Tesla 3 weighs about three times as much as a ’70s Beetle, which it was possible for one man to push to the pump if it ran out of gas while he was waiting in line to get some. It is impossible for anyone to push an electric car – and not just because it’s so heavy. Electric cars do not have neutral – because they don’t have transmissions. The drive motors connect directly to the drive wheels and even young Arnold Schwarzennegger couldn’t budge one.

The only move under power.

But the real problem is that the lines we’ll soon be waiting in aren’t artificial and so a temporary inconvenience, as they were in the ’70s.

There was (and is) plenty of gas. Back in the ’70s, it was merely a case of the abundant supply being withheld. Even if there were plenty of electricity – and there isn’t – no amount of electricity can obviate the physics of drawing it into a battery. This is something that takes time. Or rather,  a lot more time than it takes to pump gas into an empty tank. It is not something that can be done “faster” than much slower than it takes to pump gas into a tank.

Ergo, the problem – or rather, the hassle – cannot be ameliorated by an increase in the supply of electricity, even though no effort is being put toward that end, either. 

It could be free and it would still cost – in terms of the time it takes to transfer it from high-voltage DC charge apparatus to high-voltage EV battery pack. Even the every “fastest” charging prophesied will take at least twice as long (ten minutes) as it takes to fill up a non-electric car’s tank.

Now multiply that.

How many “fast” chargers will have to be built to avoid having to wait – not for your charge but for the guy ahead of you to finish getting his? Twenty minutes? Assuming it only takes 10 minutes for two of you to charge up. More like an hour – or two.

Just for the two of you.

. . .

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Related posts:
  1. 2019 Chevy Volt Takes “Only” 2.3 Hours To Charge up!
  2. What’s the Charge?
  3. No Charge for You!
  4. “Charge It” Takes on a Whole New Meaning
  5. You Won’t Get Much Charge Out of This . . .

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72 COMMENTS

  1. We sure live in interesting times, and I am most fascinated how this EV fad plays out. I am in the Eric Peters camp, I am a big skeptic of the whole trend. I say it could be a flash in the pan – and indeed the whole craze is based on Climate Change – which is utter bullshit. So what could go wrong? The political class gets busted for another false narrative and the EV craze implodes.

    BTW, I started blogging about Global Warming BS back in the 1990’s, back when Al Gore invented the internet. And over the past 3 decades waving my sword of truth at this awful climate narrative, the warm trend ended and now we are in a little ice age, CO2 may be still going up, but temps have stalled – and thus we are on the cusp of real climate scientists calling bullshit on the narrative.

    For another thing the EV manufacturers are now crowded – and Tesla is leading the way with multiple price drops. And the grid can not handle the increased load – especially in hot weather. Plus my point, the car industry history is a long list of fads and failures, like the DeLorean. Plus Eric keeps pointing out how inconvenient charging these damn things is.

    So why in the hell do people keeps buying EVs? It is a fad. Viture signalling. More money than sense.

    The USGov is facing a budget crisis. The debt ceiling issue is front page again. How long until the hegemon – which is rapidly losing dollar supremacy – is forced to deal with budget limitation like any other nation? Soon, I believe. Endless deficit spending IMO has now reach a terminus. And, the first thing that will be cut is EV subsidies and foreign aid.

    I have to laugh at Cathy Woods, fund manager for ARKK, who is a super Tesla bull, she is buying lots of Tesla shares predicting $2,000/share by 2027. What you don’t know about Miss Woods is that she is no genius stock picker, she is just lucky. Her fund gained notoriety during the big bull market, which has now ended (see Elliott Wave Theorist counts) and all those high flyers, leveraged with debt are being hammered out of existence. Interest rates going up are making the money bleeding startups go bankrupt. They were playing a shell game during zero rates.

    And who says interest rates are going to the moon? I do. USA = banana republic. No expects interest rates to keep going up.

    Fund managers can be spectacularly wrong, and lose billions of other people’s money. OPM, I call is OPiuM. They take risk and reward themselves with big fatty management fees. The real game is to attract public funds with outrageous antics and cash in on the bull market buy everything craze. That works good on the elevator ride up, then the cables are cut.

    • Your comment also reminded me of this thread that was posted here by someone else. The original thread was on Twitter. I cannot help but wonder after the EV fad has come and gone, like the vaxxed who are now blaming the un-jabbed for their health problems (while destroying those who remained un-jabbed for years)…if the EV crowd will do the same thing? History may not repeat but it does rhyme. BTW, I am not a Trump fan, but the comment (in general) gives one food for thought. If they(in this case, Big Pharma) can fudge the science on vaccines, I can bet they (car makers) are doing the same with EV’s, and not just with the range issues, but safety, and everything else about them, as well. And well, with friends like the ones below, who needs enemies?
      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      Hey—sorry you lost your job b/c of the vax that doesn’t work and your grandmother died alone and you couldn’t have a funeral and your brother’s business was needlessly destroyed and your kids have weird heart problems—but let’s just admit we were all wrong and call a truce, eh?

      It’s too bad we shut the entire economy down & took on tyrannical powers that have never been used before in this country—looking back, you should have been able to go to church and use public parks while we let people riot in the streets—but it was a confusing time for everyone.

      Hey I’m sorry we scared the hell out of you & lied for years & persecuted & censored anyone who disagreed but there was an election going on & we really wanted to beat Donald Trump so it was important to radically politicize the science even if it destroyed your children’s lives.
      OK, yes we said unvaccinated people should die & not get healthcare while never questioning Big Pharma once but we are compassionate people which is why even though we shut down the entire economy we also bankrupted the nation & caused inflation. You’re welcome! Let’s be friends.

    • They could alleviate a lot of the confusion by actually reporting a city and highway range like you see on an ICE vehicle.
      When an EV claims something like 300 miles of range, most people aren’t aware of the implications of that. It means, for example you can’t get on the highway and drive for 300 miles.
      It’s kind of like the MPGe crap. Just useless nonsense.

    • The Nissan Leaf is popular in my area (SW Oregon). But I see many of them (1st generation with the bug eyed headlights) parked with a for sale sign. I think I know why.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Leaf

      Scroll down right panel until you find RANGE

      MY 2011/12
      117 km (73 miles) EPA

      And that 73 miles is for a new battery. I drive about 100 miles a day, and 50-70 mile range is not much.

  3. How soon will electric cars be wified to the state control apparatus which will not allow you to charge the vehicle during peak demand?

    https://carbuzz.com/news/tesla-tells-texan-owners-avoid-charging-during-peak-times

    Tesla sent notifications to the infotainment screen inside the car:

    “The message stated “A heatwave is expected to impact the grid in Texas over the next few days. The grid operator recommends to avoid charging during peak hours between 3 pm and 8 pm, if possible, to help statewide efforts to manage demand.” Tesla owners can schedule charging to take place overnight or early in the morning, so avoiding peak times should be straightforward for many owners.”

    ————

    Sign me up so I can be micromanaged by corporate.

    • Yeah, you know that is coming. It is about control. Remember when all the EV’s got stranded on the side of the roads and highways in California during the fires? All thanks to the electric company shutting the grid down. In turn, shutting them down. Whoops. Guess there was no way to carry an extra can of EV charge with them. It makes me wonder if that was a test run?

      • Exactly. The electric car is not a good survival bug out vehicle. And the grid is becoming unstable – think about it – they literally want to pin us down, stop our movements – by turning off the switch.

        The idiots buying EVs are the same idiots who got vaxxed and boosted, they are the very same dumbasses who buy the climate propaganda hook, line, and sinker.

  6. ‘Even if there were plenty of electricity – and there isn’t …’ — eric

    More greenhouse gas goofiness, courtesy of the FJB jackal gov from hell:

    ‘President’ Biden’s administration is poised to announce limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants – the first time the fedgov has restricted carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants.

    ‘Almost all coal and gas-fired power plants would have to cut or capture nearly all of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2040.

    ‘Electric utilities complain that any policy that forces them to install carbon capture technology would be far too expensive, driving up energy costs for consumers.’ — NYT

    https://archive.ph/RBUWt

    “Biden’s” gratuitous attack on electric utilities is guaranteed to double US electric power tariffs in a decade, to the levels prevailing now in (for instance) Gerrrrrmany, the global poster boy of ghastly Green goofballs.

    This is the FJB regime’s shiv to the stomach for hapless simps and suckers who bought into EeeVee Fever. Now they’re gonna pay dearly after “Joe Biden’s” signature double cross, as utility bills metastasize to high three figures or even four. Gotcha!

  7. btw
    In the 1973 “gas” crisis, the scarcity was attributed to the “Oil embargo” of OPEC. But it was much more than that. As a deckhand on the Mississippi river I heard eye witness stories (did not see it myself) from other workers that at the same time the lines formed, barges that normally transported gasoline up the river, were tied off along the banks of the river in places. You can tell by how much of the side of the barge is exposed above the water whether the barge is full or empty. They were full. Probably waiting for the price to rise. The embargo was willingly enforced by the oil companies.
    The electricity embargo is coming soon, so are the Dark Ages.

    • Hi Bogati,
      If these anecdotes are true, you should not blame the oil companies. They were acting rationally in the face of stupid price controls by the government.
      If idiot politicians had not intervened, the embargo would have been little more than a quick blip on the energy radar. But they turned it into a crisis by putting a ceiling on prices. Setting an artificially low price always causes shortages. Then they tried to remedy the bad effects of their first intervention with another intervention: rationing.
      If prices had been allowed to rise when the supply was reduced, there never would have been gas lines, and there would have been a strong incentive for other producers to take up the slack in supply, thereby forcing prices back down. But politicians always have to “do something.”

      • Thank you. I assure you that my anecdote is true. The guys I worked with had not gone to college and were not sophisticated enough to lie for political purposes! And I agree with your analysis that the situation was a lot more convoluted than some tied-up barges.

    • That barge story is probably true, my Dad worked in a refinery in Wyoming at the time and has told me ever since that time that their storage tanks were all filled to overflowing for the duration of the “oil crisis”. In my world that is first hand verified knowledge.

  8. ThanKS
    DESPITE my quietly waiting for this realization to show up in ANY media, the propagandists or the wise websites, this is the FIRST such article I’ve seen. I was a physics major way back in college. The FIRST thing I did as the EV craze gathered steam was the simple calculation of human time wasted relative to EV stations and number of cars adopted. Of course the need for electric generation on a grid also can be demonstrated. I wish I could find it now. It was not hard. You can predict the problem with a spreadsheet far more accurately than the goofy climate models. Too bad the schools only teach “woke” math and science . In this case WOKE means “We Only Kan Emote”. (Kan’t spell either).

    • “the simple calculation of human time wasted relative to EV stations and number of cars adopted”

      As the calculation should have been made over the 55 mph speed limit, especially after the fuel was again available. “if we can save just one life, (the ’cause’ of the day) will be worth it.” Human hours of life were “lost” sitting behind a wheel as opposed to productive or recreational hours. But that doesn’t make bold headlines. I do recognize that driving can be both productive and recreational….. but at 55?

  9. We don’t need more chargers. The “EV for all” idea is only a way to transition you to mass transit.
    “Look into my eyes” the plan is working!

  10. I can see a lot of problems with charging lines, and not just some of the ones mentioned here. As it is now, if you are at a gas station and there are a couple of people in front of you, waiting is merely annoying. Especially if the person using the pump is farting and fiddling around….
    But, if you have someone fiddling around at a charging station where people are taking 20 minutes or more to “fill up”, I can see the possibility of just another situation that could spark “charger rage”. Especially in bad parts of town where crime is endemic…..
    Occasionally people do get assaulted and robbed at gas stations these days, but the motive there is robbery/theft. So, not only might you get robbed at a charging station (remember, you will be there much longer than you will at a gas station – the longer a duck sits, the better a target it is!) but you might get assaulted when someone gets hot under the collar because they feel they have been waiting too long.

    I can just see a future headline in a big city news paper – “Man shot to death while charging car; police suspect “charger rage”

  11. If an EV owner is staying in his local area, then they can charge at home; that means not having to visit a gas pump like ICEV owners do on a regular basis. If their workplace has EV chargers (and some do), then they can also top off there. When EV owners return home at night, they can just plug in, recharge, and they’ll be all ready to go in the morning.

    Where EV owners will run into problems is road trips out of their area, since they can’t recharge at home. The challenges are different, depending on whether the EV owner’s destination is within his vehicle’s range, vs. a destination that lies beyond his EV’s range.

    If their destination is within their vehicle’s range, then they can recharge overnight at their hotel, as more hotels feature Level 2 chargers as a perk for their visitors. Come the next morning, the EV owner is ready to do business or pleasure. Even if the EV’s battery has a low SOC (state of charge), a Level 2 charger will give it a full SOC by morning.

    However, if their ultimate destination beyond their EV’s range, then that’s where problems can occur-and not just with wait times at the chargers, either. You’d better hope that the fast charger is even WORKING! A problem non-Tesla owners often run into is that the fast charger they were hoping to use is on the fritz, so they can’t even use it.. Even if the charger is working and available, there’s the question about being able to use it at all; if you have an account with EV Go, will you be able to use an Electrify America charger if there’s no EV Go charger nearby? Will the charger “play nice” with your credit card, phone app, etc.?

    That’s where Elon Musk and Tesla have been brilliant. They’ve constructed a vast network of Superchargers that allow their owners to travel virtually anywhere. The Supercharger you plug into will always play nice with your Tesla; it always works, so the Tesla owner doesn’t have to worry about going anywhere outside his area. Furthermore, they’re always opening new charger locations. Whenever there’s a problem with wait times, they expand the number of chargers at a location.

    Elon created the Supercharger network because the need was there. No one was constructing EV chargers; no one was making plans to do so, either; hence, he built his own. He did it to alleviate and ameliorate the range anxiety Tesla owners had. He also did the Supercharger network to show that EV owners can go anywhere and not worry about it. One major perk of owning a Tesla vs. other EVs is the vast, reliable Supercharger network. Finally, the Superchargers are located at rest areas, stores, restaurants, and so on; this enables the Tesla owner to kill two birds with one stone, and conduct needed business while recharging their car. Other companies should follow Tesla’s lead here.

    But yeah, using an EV to travel outside of one’s area is where the problems are. If staying near home, the EV owner can recharge at home, and the EV will always have a high SOC. It’s when the EV owner leaves his home area where problems will arise. Perhaps that’s the real intent of the powers that (shouldn’t) be? I don’t know; I’m just spitballin’ here…

      • I am not sure I would want to risk charging an EV in a garage unless it is detached from the main house. What if the dammed thing catches fire? The last thing I want is it burning my house down, too, along with the car and garage. That is how little faith I have in EV’s (and anything connected to them).

        • Well, in the future you can ride a bike or maybe take the bus.
          They are going to make EVs happen whether it makes sense or not.

        • That concerns me too-especially since my garage is not only attached to my house; it’s INTEGRAL to it! The garage is right below the living room where I’m sitting as I write this. If anything catches fire in my garage, my house is burning up-end of story. Hence, I keep my iCEV in there. Until the battery fires are resolved, I’m not buying an EV, either.

          Now, do Li-Ion battery fires happen all the time? No. Do they happen as often as ICEV fires do? Maybe not. However, when they do catch fire, LOOK OUT; these Li-Ion fires just don’t stop! It takes forever to put ’em out, and even then, they can reflash days later. Even if there’s only a 1/1,000 chance of an EV’s battery going up, I don’t want to be that 1/1,000; the consequences are simply too catastrophic if I am.

          My only point was that, as long as an EV owner doesn’t travel outside their area, they’ll be fine. It’s when they leave their area (and along with that, the ability to charge at hom) where problems arise.

          • Hi Mark,

            The problem with EV battery packs – as regards fire potential – is that it does not require an ignition source. Gas does. You can spill it all over and so long as there’s no spark, there’s no fire. Gasoline is actually pretty safe. These lithium-ion battery packs, on the other hand, can (and do) catch fire “just sitting” (or charging). And there are many potential failure points – thousands of them – as all it takes is single cell to short out.

            I suspect the fire risk increases with age, as the battery pack’s structure weakens/deteriorates (inevitable) and over time as it is subjected to heat/cold, jostling, etc.

            Gas tanks rust. Maybe they leak sometimes. But you need to put a match to it to get them to catch fire.

            • As Li-Ion batteries age, dendrites form (like stalactites in a cave), eventually piercing the material separating the anode and cathode. This creates a short circuit, which creates thermal runaway, and this, in turn, ignites the liquid electrolyte. So yeah, you’re right. I mean, who can forget that viral video of the Tesla Model S parked in the garage and caught fire?

              As for rust in the gas tank, all that’ll do is clog the fuel filter, obstructing fuel flow, resulting in fuel starvation; this, in turn, prevents the engine from running. Rust in the gas tank is nothing more than a PITA until it allows fuel to leak.

              As for gasoline, yes, as long as you don’t bring it into contact with an ignition source, it won’t catch fire. HOWEVER! However, that doesn’t mean that care shouldn’t be exercised when handling the stuff. Gasoline has a flash point in the low 20s, well below freezing. That means, when it’s above 20 and gasoline contacts an ignition source, it’ll ignite.

              For safety, your kerosene type fuels (diesel, heating oil, marine diesel, kero, and jet fuel) are the best. Their flash point is around 100 degrees F; IOW, the temp has to be at or above 100 for the fuel to ignite when it is brought into contact with an ignition source. I remember during fire extinguisher training at the airport (I used to fuel airliners long ago), it was pushing 100 outside, and we could NOT get the Jet-A to light! Seriously, until it’s over 100, you can put out TORCHES in the stuff, and it won’t ignite! From a standpoint of safety, your kerosene type fuels are the best.

              Now, that’s not to say that they can’t do damage if they ignite; they most definitely can. That said, it takes a lot to ignite them, far more than it takes to ignite gasoline. However, once a kerosene type fuel ignites, you have your hands full.

    • “But yeah, using an EV to travel outside of one’s area is where the problems are”
      One’s area being within one’s 15 minute city?
      There are abundant problems with EVs, this is only one. There is no grid to accommodate them. They spontaneously combust. They last half as long as ICVs. Few can afford one. Raw materials for batteries are already being squeezed. Power is largely acquired from coal and natural gas power plants, negating any zero carbon achievement. Just a few, off the top of my head.

  12. Back during the 55 mph speed limit days, there were gas stations that were built a set distance away from major cities or interchanges, based on the idea that someone would need a rest stop and might as well top off the tank too. When speed limits were increased to 65+ many of them closed down. Stuckey’s comes to mind only because I remember stopping at them when we were kids and then seeing them close, one by one. Tesla built their supercharger network along the same idea. I imagine we’ll see massive pileups in some charging stations and a complete lack of activity at others. And because extending the right distribution lines from “the grid” to a good location will be extremely cost prohibitive (most of the Interstates are out in the sticks after all), it is highly likely that some areas will never be served with charging no matter how much of a subsidy is factored in.

    And then what happens when someone convinces the president that the way to prosperity is to slow down again? All that effort will have to be reworked to account for the new time range. A gas station’s tanks can be dug up and recycled. Utilities never tear out anything once it has been built, in fact I’m pretty sure it’s written into their regulations. All that high voltage infrastructure isn’t going to do anything but rot once it’s installed and unused.

  13. Everything is depressing, just doesn’t stop. Can’t charge your EV, your ICE vehicle is evil, you are pure evil yourself. All the reasons to be totally depressed and you know it is all your fault.

    How much tyranny is too much? Just a little bit more. That won’t be enough.

    If there is a Chicken Ranch at each charging station, it will be a motivator for a longer stay while your car charges and you have an opportunity to have some fun. Call it an electrifying experience.

    Doesn’t hurt the business, it is always there, just locate it where it has an advantage. Give the Chicken Ranch in Pahrump, Nevada some competition. They’re on facebook, just so you know.

    Bring a chicken for some vittles for the residents.

  14. Want to be depressed?. . .read on.
    Apologies to Eric for the lengthy post.

    So who or what shares the most responsibility for an out of control govt gone wild, which has become completely dishonest & corrupt and is probably the biggest cause of suicides in the country? That’s easy, a degenerate citizenry.

    The moral fabric of society has practically vanished into thin air. This has been aided & sped up by the influence of so many public institutions that it’s hard to keep track of them. It’s been lost for decades and won’t make a comeback unless some great & powerful event rejuvenates it. Unfortunately history has shown these events rarely occur and instead life just grinds on and continues to stagnate, trapped in a never ending hellish existence. I’m taking bets that we’ll never get back to the moral standards of even 20 years ago – which certainly was nothing to write home about – let alone back to the ethics of those good ol’ days in the 50’s where the country was still worth fighting for. Ethics, morality, honesty, common sense, principles, integrity & virtue no longer carry any weight in modern day amerika.

    So how do we go about trying to change course in a country of 330MM people? Fuhgeddaboudit. We are long past the point of no return to effect political change using the ballot box — once our only hope for political salvation. Besides, even now our elections are totally rigged and resemble that of a 3rd world banana republic and can only get worse. Hoping that voting might slow down the damage even a tad is wishful thinking and maybe even delusional.

    One thing that stands out & is such a disappointment is that so few of the remaining honest folks on our side fail to recognize the root of our problems (moral degeneracy). They really need to listen to their guts which are trying to tell them the real reason for our downfall and yet they continue to beat the drum of human ignorance & stupidity being the main culprit. You could certainly argue that case 50 or 60 years ago and you’d probably be right, but not in this modern upside down world. If you were to take a poll of intellectually honest & straight thinking people I’d wager that 90+% would argue vehemently that our problems are mainly due to stupid people. This school of thought is redundant, outdated, & distracting. What drives humanoids in today’s warped culture is simply greedy self-interest, envy & avarice, and a something-for-nothing mentality. And when you combine that aspect of human nature with a lack of morals & ethics it compounds our problems by a bunch.

    So, from here on in you can count on your standard of living to keep falling even further than it has over the past several decades. The only exception will be if you happen to be a member in good standing within the privileged political class. Since this reality will soon be common knowledge – even to those “geniuses” in commiefornia — the way to get ahead and flourish will only come from having a govt job or the right govt connections. You might want to start learning about the value of brown-nosing & butt kissing. Forget about any of the old workplace virtues like hard work & being a productive, reliable & dedicated employee. You’re only kidding yourself if you think those traits will impress your boss as those things have no value in a govt workplace, or even in the private sector now for that matter. And if any youngster should happen to ask you for some career advice tell them to apply to the sammy corp. Any other career choice with few exceptions will leave you with 2nd class citizen status, a dead-end job, and a meager & woeful standard of living.

    So, if you’re not completely depressed by now, I’m sorry. I gave it my best shot.

    • Hi Dave,

      You’re right, of course. Moral people self-restrain. They do not steal because it’s illegal. They do not steal because they regard it as wrong. And a person who will not steal will not abide any form of it. Once however the moral restraint has been removed, then why not take as much as you can get away with?

      And here we are.

      • “Moral people self-restrain”
        Which is why we can generally live in anarchy. There is no cop at the turn off to your cull de sac to keep people from driving 90 MPH down it. There is no cop at every stop sign to make sure you stop and look. There are actually damn few cops, and yet we seem to get along fine without them. Unless in one of the shitholes created by the Democrats.

    • SWISS AND ILLUMINATI SYMBOLISM BACK TO THE PHAROAHS BY DR. SEAN HROSS PHD.

      see video #47

      @ 55:23 in video the french king pushed back against the templars….the dutch king and the windsors collaborated with the templars…the templars were satanists…

      @ 1:47:00 the jews are not the control group on top…they were slaves of the pharoahs for 430 years….

      @ 1:53:05 the control group is going to kill everybody…the georgia guide stones…reduce the population down to 500 million….we are a farmed race they want to cull the herd…..

      https://archive.org/details/hope-music-in-slave-empire-video-dailymotion-vdownloader/SWISS+AND+ILLUMINATI+SYMBOLISM+BACK+TO+THE+PHARAOS+BY+SEAN+HROSS+REUPLOAD.mp4

  17. Slightly OT but relevant – anyone notice how when Eloon’s SpaceX rocket blew up the other day he called it a “success”? Sure hate to see what a failure looks like, but it will be a success for our overlords when our personal mobility is limited by their evil schemes.

    • Hi Mike,

      Hmmmmmmm. Sounds a little like when the government called the COVID jabs “Safe and Effective!”, or those who keep saying the Biden Economic policies are working, the Biden Thing’s Homeland Security Secretary insisting ad nauseum that the Southern border is “Secure”, or even when the Biden Thing called the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 a “success”, or even the narratives “Most secure election ever!”/ “Most popular President ever!” I’m sure there are others.

    • I’m gonna go engineer/space/nerd here:

      It was an engineering / integration test. Elon Musk isn’t afraid to fail, iterate, and fly. It’s the exact opposite of old space. The fact that it cleared the tower and went through Max Q (twice) is very much a success. In context, the first F-14 crashed on its maiden flight but we all remember Tom Cruise in Top Gun flying it in the glorious 80s.

      Musk famously said “Failure is an option here. If things are not failing you are not innovating.”

  18. Does anybody know why almost all charging stations require either backing in, or pulling in and then backing out? Will they ever be arranged in a sensible pull-through configuration, as gas pumps are? Sure, a lot of charging connectors are on the front or rear of the car, but even when gas fillers were under the rear license plate, you were not expected to back up to the pump.
    Imagine the fender-benders and fights when everybody has been waiting for hours and the next one in line hasn’t left enough space for the previous sucker to back out.

    • Less copper required to install side by side stations instead of end to end. The DC charging stations have a large rectifier bank near the charging pylon. In DC systems the power drops quickly with distance, so very large gauge conductors are required for any distance. Typically for short <100 ft 400 W runs (100A -48VDC) we'd use at least 4/0 and often double up to maintain voltage, and use 1/0 for longer or inter-distribution bays. If you design for pull-in-pull-out configuration you need to factor in lots of cable. One option might be to bury the rectifier bank below the pylons, but that makes it harder to service, requires confined space training for techs and a whole lot more trenching/digging. That's a non-starter in the world of venture capital funding these startups who are being pressured to "move fast and break things" and scramble to get market share instead of building a viable business.

      • That makes sense, RK. Thank you. If I’m still alive in 2030 I might head to the nearest chargers with a picnic lunch to watch the mayhem.

  19. Don’t blame the Ay-rabs entirely.
    “Price controls turned a minor adjustment into a major shortage,” explained Thomas Sowell.
    Then the geniuses tried rationing, which made it worse still.
    As with covid and CO2, the wise course would have been for the government to do nothing.

  20. I saw the future last month at a Love’s on the most direct route between San Antonio (~70 miles away) and McAllen, Texas (140 miles due south), outside the town of George West.

    Apparently, it was the only location on the route for anyone suffering range anxiety since the EVs were stacked 2-3 deep at each plug, and everyone there seemed to be resigned to waiting for a while. The store was packed like I’d never seen one crowded before.

    9 PM at night. Anyone third in line wasn’t getting out before midnight.

    Ironically, driving back through later that weekend, I noted that the Pilot around the corner didn’t have any EV charging capability … yet.

    • In his book BAD: Or, the Dumbing of America, the late Paul Fussell observed Americans’ relentless tendency toward ‘prole drift.’

      Fussell found it sad and telling that Americans will pay a triple-digit entry fee to Disney parks, only to stand in line for rides, just as they do in real life. (Or, pay even more for a VIP pass to cut the line, as if they were a Congress Clown or something.)

      EeeVee chargers will make waiting in line a national pastime. Every day will become like going to the airport, or visiting the DMV.

      And they ask me why I lick psychedelic toads, between bouts of glue sniffing …

      • Stand in line at a Disney park? That’s so 20th century.

        We were in Orlando for a medical conference two weeks ago, and while waiting for my wife in the lobby of the Disney hotel, I overheard another conference attendee spouse talking about paying $200 each for “Lightning Lane” passes for rides for himself and his kids — this is in addition to ticket prices.

        I wonder how long it will be before charging stations have “Lightning Lanes”. I don’t doubt The Gecko has it as part of his plans for Pilot/Flying-J.

      • Las Vegas is like this too. Wait to get checked in, wait for a table for dinner, wait in line at the buffet, wait in line for a soda at the Walgreens, and even wait in line to gamble on their crooked table games!

        No wonder they all smoke pot now. It really passes the time.

  21. The only reason for the long gas lines in the 70s was the government “mandates” on the amount of fuel you could purchase. In my area there was a 5 gallon limit. You had to stop at 3 or 4 stations to get filled-up.

    • Hi LGG,

      Interestingly, the EV thing amounts to the same in that a typical EV battery pack can only hold the electrical-energy equivalent of about 6-7 gallons of gas. In effect, you’re driving a vehicle that’s always half-full (if that).

  22. The gas stations and pumps of the ‘past’ were installed by the oil companies wanting to make money the old fashioned way. Marketing. Good for the economy.
    The new ‘pumps’ will be installed by mafia.gov contractors and funded by sheeple taxes and a keyboard with a stuck zero key. An economy killer.

    Remember, our masters say we will own nothing and be happy!

    If you think really, really, really hard about it,,, we’re already there and pretend it ain’t so.

    • ‘a keyboard with a stuck zero key. An economy killer.’ — ken

      On Thursday, the Conference Board announced that its leading economic indicator (LEI) is now falling at a -8.1% rate, compared to 12 months ago. Never has the LEI sunk at this rate without the US economy being already in recession. See chart in this article:

      https://epbresearch.com/the-worst-is-yet-to-come/

      What will the desperate “Biden” jackal gov do, when the bottom drops out?

      Why, apply the same old snake oil remedy: slash interest rates to zero, so savers earn nothing. Then ‘printer go brrrr’ under QE5, probably hiking fedgov debt to $40 trillion by the time “Biden” slouches off the stage, guided by ‘Doctor Jill’ as he shakes hands with invisible friends.

      Though prices may sink briefly as recession bites, our long-term future features an inflationary supernova, as Big Gov chooses the ‘soft default’ option of runaway inflation to pare down the real value of its crushing debt.

      ‘We owe it to ourselves,’ croaks ol’ Frank Roosevelt, as Richard Nixon gives him another basting over the Hell fires and dutifully turns his spit.

    • Ken,

      These new electric “pumps” that the Biden Thing wants to install will probably have a digital ID scanner to determine if someone got the latest mRNA jab, has “Too much carbon footprints”, or said something critical of the Biden Thing & the WEF psychopaths bent on destroying the world for their “Build Back Better”, which they now openly call the NEW WORLD ORDER instead. And with this push for CBDCs, it’s also possible that if one gets to an electric “pump” after waiting on someone else for who knows how long, the “pump” will say something like “No electricity for you, your digital money has been turned off because of ________”.

        • Craig,

          These psychopaths sure want to poison us, whether it’s by putting mRNA into REAL food or forcing us to eat bugs and/ or lab grown meat. If that doesn’t work, they try to STARVE us by SHUTTING down traditional farms under guise of “Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaving the planet”.

    • We’ve been there since 1913 when the income tax was created. The implication of any tax is that they can take it all. The only thing holding back a 100% income tax is gravity and friction.

  23. ‘Think of the throughput – and pack a lunch.’ — eric

    Queueing theory provides a whole host of equations, studded with the Greek letters lambda, mu, pi and sigma, to estimate of how many charging stations are needed, given the assumptions.

    But Eric, deftly applying his working man’s PhD, is surely in the ball park with his ‘five times as many’ estimate — each of which requires copper cables, controls and transformer capacity.

    Only a witless, drooling Congress Clown would be unable to work out that paving the nation with charging stations amounts to a massive malinvestment, not unlike Commiefornia’s high speed train to nowhere, which will never connect San Francisco to LA.

    Back in the dark days of eastern European socialism, Americans had the luxury of mocking vast vanity projects such as Nikolae Ceausescu’s Palace of Parliament in Bucharest. It was a grand backdrop for the nomenklatura, while the people toiled in abject poverty.

    No longer, comrades: now America builds immense vanity projects of useless infrastructure, when it’s not blowing up ammo and infrastructure overseas. Pretty soon, we’ll all be stinkin’ poor like the Romanians were under Ceausescu.

    • ” Only a witless, drooling Congress Clown would be unable to work out that paving the nation with charging stations amounts to a massive malinvestment, not unlike Commiefornia’s high speed train to nowhere, which will never connect San Francisco to LA.” – Jim (my emphasis)

      Correcto mundo. But what does that say about the ‘voter’?

      • “But what does that say about the ‘voter’?” — ken

        Thanks to Bill Clinton’s signature on the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, they are now known as ‘motor voters,’ thank you very much.

        No motor, no vote? It’s worth a try …

  24. The reason there is no effort to increase grid capacity is they don’t want you driving, so such increase is unnecessary. The more of a pain in the butt for you, the better they like it. Goes along with how EVs will “increase” their market share, by decreasing the market, without increasing sales.

    • People will buy EVs and charge from home. This means they won’t be traveling far.
      If you’re rich, this is fine. You can continue to fly everywhere.

      • Hi Nate,

        Certainly. But even then – and here I speak from personal experience, having test driven many new EVs – you effectively need two of them for the same reason power cordless tools come with two battery packs. One charges while you use the other.

        • That makes sense. But you’re still not going to want to travel out of state for example.
          It’s just going to suck to drive EVs anywhere that isn’t local commuting.

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