While test driving the new Mercedes GLE 450 (you can read about that, here) I glanced down at the instrument cluster and noticed something you might be interested in.
The Benz is not an EV but it has something every EV has – a range remaining indicator. The difference is that the range remaining – in the Benz and in every vehicle that isn’t an EV – stays the same for longer.
We have all heard the term, “gas hog” and also that, in the “hoggiest” of them, you could watch the fuel gauge needle move as you pushed down on the accelerator pedal.
This is, however, only true of EVs.
And you don’t even have to push down on the accelerator to see the “needle” – that is, the range remaining – tick down literally as you drive.
It occurred to me, while driving the Mercedes, to make a point of this by showing how little gas the GLE used while driving the roughly five mile stretch from where I began recording until I reached my house. When I began rolling tape – as they used to say – the Benz had 286 miles of range remaining. Which, I must add, is more range than almost every EV currently on the market that’s priced under $50,000 comes standard with – to begin with.
And I had been driving the Benz for several days already. It still had 286 miles of range left. For this reason, I hadn’t had to stop even once – for fuel – nor wait even one minute to get some. With 286 miles left to go, I could have driven the GLE another two or three days before having to stop – for less than five minutes – to refuel.
Because it hardly used any fuel to get me the five miles home.
It’s kind of like compound interest – in your favor.
As opposed to what you get with an EV – which is compounding problems.
Also, misrepresentations about them – in order to trick you into buying one.
The government rates these EVs as having “x” range but – as the Toothless Man in that great romance movie, Deliverance put it:
Why don’t you try it and see?
When I drive an EV the five miles from where I began rolling tape to my driveway it has always been the case that whatever the range was when I began rolling tape, by the time I arrived home, it was reduced by more than five miles. Often, by as much as 10 – over the course of five.
This is to be expected.
It takes a great deal of additional energy to move the additional weight of 1,000-plus pounds of battery pack the typical EV must lug around everywhere it goes. For the same reason it takes more energy (more gas) to pull a 1,000-plus pound trailer behind whatever you’re driving. But most of us do not pull a 1,000-plus pound trailer or carry that much extra weight in the trunk every time we go for a drive.
Neither did the Benz, which – despite being a mid-sized, three-row SUV – only weighs about 4,500 lbs., which isn’t much heavier than the typical compact-sized EV such as a Tesla Model 3. It weighs substantially less than a smaller EV SUV – such as the new Genesis GV60 (you can read my review of it here) which weighs almost 5,000 lbs. and for that reason has a range of less than 250 miles fully charged. Less range remaining than the GLE had remaining after I had been driving it for nearly a week.
But it’s actually less than that – in the EV.
Because they are are so very heavy – which they (paradoxically) have to be, in order to have any range to speak of. EVs are stuck in a negative feedback loop. In order for them to be even plausibly practical for most people, they need to be able to go at least half as far on a full charge as a typical non-EV – even a “gas hog” – can travel on a full tank of fuel. But the only way to achieve this is by installing a huge – and heavy – battery pack, to store sufficient energy to allow them to go half as far as the typical gas hog does on a full tank (viz, in that regard, the 462 mile highway range of the current Dodge Charger R/T, equipped with a 5.7 liter V8 engine).
In order for the EV to go as far – on one charge – it would take an even larger and much heavier battery pack that would (cue the feedback loop) take even more energy to get the EV moving and keep you going.
There is no fix for this, either – absent the “breakthrough”in battery technology we’ve been hearing was just around the corner for the past 30-something years. So, we have energy hog EVs in which you can actually watch the “needle” dip as you drive. And it’s much more unsettling – in the EV – because (unlike in the “gas hog”) it is no easy or speedy thing to get the “needle” back to full and get back on your way.
It is absolutely fascinating – Mr. Spock voice – that the government is spreading misinformation about EVs. The government would be having a hissy fit if Toyota, let us say, had sold people a car advertising 40 miles-per-gallon that actually delivered 10 percent less than that.
How about 20 percent less?
This is common with energy hog EVs. But it is a fact passed over by the government, because the government does not really care about “hogs” – whether of gas or of electricity.
It cares about excuses – to serve as justifications.
The sooner more understand this, the sooner everything makes sense.
. . .
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Several states, in addition to the Biden Thing, are looking to charge motorists for every mile they drive instead of by existing gas taxes, claiming that they’re losing tax revenue from gas taxes. Given the rampant authoritarianism in the Biden regime and in some states, undoubtedly they would LOVE to REQUIRE that anyone who drives an automobile (even an EV that they’re trying to shove down everyone’s throats) install a smart meter like device in their vehicle’s OBD port so the government & insurance mafia, along with the globalist technocrats, can potentially collect all sorts of data on YOU….and if you drive an older vehicle that doesn’t have a on OBD port, these authoritarians could decree that such vehicles are VERBOTTEN to drive on the roads…
https://patriotclash.com/multiple-states-propose-charging-you-for-every-mile-you-drive/
VW says EV Market has TANKED. Plus 2yr old ID3 vs Golf £££ Comparison.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqYI_vLYDk0
Eric, you think you can get your hands on one of these flying electric cars for a test? LOL
https://studyfinds.org/flying-car-approval-to-fly/
Hi Cashy,
I doubt it!
I have wanted to get a private pilot’s license for a long time, but I can’t seem to find the time to do it. Maybe in the next life…
Now New York City is targeting the way local pizzerias make pizza, because “We’ve gotta fight climate change!”….I imagine the Biden Thing will think that’s a GREAT IDEA to shove down everyone else’s throats…..after all, his Climate Czar, John Kerry, already wants to shut down American farms under guise of “Fighting climate change”…..
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/great-reset/new-yorkers-give-us-pizza-or-give-us-death/
With the way things are going, it will not be long before TPTB outlaw toilet paper because they claim it’s for climate change. It is going so far to the absurd and ridiculous, nothing would surprise me anymore.
Hi Shadow,
I don’t know if you remember this, but about 15 years ago or so, singer Sheryl Crow actually called for using ONE square of toilet paper per bathroom trip because of “Cliiiiiiiiimate change!” I imagine now she might call for using tree bark or virtual toilet paper instead.
Haha, I forgot about that! As though real people are going to listen to a singer like her advising the rest of us about real world issues. It reminds me of now-King Charles telling us little people we needed to take cold showers for the earth. If we are not careful they will take the soap away too.
Well now they’ve gotten even more brazen with what they say WE need to do to “Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaave the planet”, like WE need to give up gas vehicles and gas stoves, eat BUGS & frankenfood instead of REAL MEAT/ FOOD, live in open air prisons they call “15 minute cities”, etc.
Ugh, well now they want to add the messenger RNA to the food supply, which would target those of us who did not get the covid jab. I swear the world has lost its damned mind.
I don’t know if you already heard, but the USDA approved cultured/ lab grown meat for human consumption despite NO long term tests on whether it’s actually SAFE. Where have we seen that before?
I’ve read that such meat contains precancerous cells, so it could end up being HARMFUL to humans. And since there are currently no standards for labeling such meat, you could potentially buy such meat at your local restaurant or grocery store and not even know it.
Aaah yes Franken food. The Beyond Meat. Scientists can even add fake blood to make it look more real. Can you imagine a human body trying to digest that fake crap? It reminds me of when they thought saccharin was a great sugar substitute until years later, they realized it caused cancer. Whoops. Makes you wonder what other crap they will put in the lab grown meat?
I thought mRNA for Covid has to be stored at a very low temperature.
The vaccine may be stored in a freezer,
between -50°C and -15°C (-58°F and 5°F) until the expiration date.
Or at least put a “smart” dispenser in your toilet to meter it out for you. Too bad you ate too many stuffed jalapenos last night.
“You’d have to burn a pizza stove 849 years to equal one year of Kerry’s jet”
https://tinyurl.com/bde9rada
Everyone here may already know this, but EVs are actually worse for the environment than gas vehicles, and cause MORE road damage. Will we hear about that from corporate media or the Biden Thing? Doubtful.
http://www.technocracy.news/pot-hole-electric-vehicles-cause-double-the-road-damage/
I have a joke I tell everyone – if you are way back in the woods and hear dueling banjos, run for your life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDlZLsJJkVA
The MSM liars, are sometimes called tribe members, they are not us, they do think like us, they do not have our values, they want to enslave us by any means available – and they are right here throwing wrenches into every argument we make to keep our freedom, guns, and cars. Amerika is just about gone, that wonderful place we grew up and experienced a moment of freedom is about to be snuffed out by the self chosen lunatics.
Hi Jack,
I have a real-life (almost) Deliverance story to tell; maybe later today!
All ears, please do. Some mighty ornery folks back in them hills. Oregon and Northern California hillbillies are nearly all pot growers, who use lots of other drugs, and can be psychotic and violent. But I like peace and often leave boxes of food at the roadside springs. They go there with pickup truck loads of containers to get water their grow operations. Many look like they are starved, gaunt, like POW camp inmates.
Pelican Bay State Prison is located near Crescent City, California. Those former inmates stick around, always something more to learn.
Not the Redwoods, the Redneck Woods.
A local yokel in California discovered the Redwood forest out in the boonies, talked about it to the other yokels in the community. Nobody believed him. The story was too far fetched.
The yokel decided to falsely report that he had killed a giant grizzly, everyone was interested. The local yokel led them to the Redwoods.
The rest is history.
The drive to Alturas gives you the idea of how much of California is wide open spaces.
You’re a long ways from home up there.
“Yukon Jack June 28, 2023 At 10:53 am
The MSM liars, are sometimes called tribe members,”
Cherokee? Navajo?
I think masking was the best thing since sliced bread. Most people are ugly and it meant I didn’t have to see their faces. Many have stinky breath and nasty teeth. Oh how I miss the glorious days of masks!
Not me, Cashy!
“Masking” made pretty women ugly. It made the ugliness – inside – of people all-too-visible. I feel about “masks” the way Jewish people feel about the armband – and for the same reasons.
I bet the make-up business took a big hit.
Only thing I see good about it is it marked the wacko, cultists.
Masking also stops facial mating signals. A fit woman in her prime uses her face as the primary means of attracting a mate. The mask covers up her smile and lips. You can not mate when 6′ apart – and that happens to be the exact depth they bury you. Coincidence? I think not.
It should be clear by now they want us dead. And if not dead, they want us mortally wounded. And if not wounded, they want us to be homosexuals because they don’t breed. If pregnant they want abortion, if fertile, the want the cervical vaxx to make you infertile. The agenda is clear, they want us gone, and the Ukranium war has already killed half a million.
Without my knowledge, when the wife went grocery shopping alone in 2020, she put on a mask in the parking lot before entering the store. This was after I read five scientific mask studies in mid-2020 and found out even N95 masks could not block viral aerosols. I got the “Maybe Covid is different, and the studies are wrong” excuse. Covid scaremongering had worked on her.
I constantly complained about doctors requiring me to wear a mask in 2020 (and 2021 and 2022) when in an exam room — don’t they read mask studies?
The wife asked me to stay home when she went grocery shopping because I have a chronic disease that would make me vulnerable to Covid.
She has a big smile and used to get into conversations with total strangers in the supermarket. In 2020 she complained “No one talks to me in the store anymore”. I thought that was because of the six-foot social distancing rules, but I learned in early 2021, when I started grocery shopping with her again, and demanded that she not wear a mask when in the store with me. … The conversations with strangers and store employees started up again. She immediately realized the negative side effect of wearing a mask was no random conversations in the store. That was the last time she wore a mask in public.
Considering that the covid virus was smaller than the holes in your beloved masks, wearing them was nothing more than slave training for future pandemics Bill Gates has assured us are coming. So take your masks and shove them where the sun doesn’t shine.
I’m a huge fan of the GLE! But alas, a new one is just out of reach for me. And nobody wants to sell them with low mileage — no surprise! If they do, it’s nearly the cost of a new one. I can’t afford any GLE that I’ve seen until the mileage gets up to about 40K.
I prefer the coupe version, I think it looks a lot less clunky like so many SUVs do. And, the AMG options makes it absolutely fucken cool.
If a pile of money falls out of the sky into my lap, I’m getting a brand new GLE 63 S AMG!
The EV movement is based on one thing – that we must save the planet from increasing CO2, switch from ICE to electric vehicles, and the government should take an active role with subsidies and phasing out ICE.
But the basis of EVs is false, CO2 does not force temperature, never has and never will. Not once in earth’s 4.6 billion year history has high CO2 stopped ice ages, previous ice ages have occurred with CO2 over 5,000 ppm.
https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-1dc05bc8c35f8e55083a90518e38d872-lq
So since science does not support the CO2 warming claim, the government has engaged in a massive propaganda effort to convince the public that immediate action is needed to save the planet from runaway warming. Such efforts include recruiting flunky Al Gore, teenager Greta Thunberg, and Titanic star Leonard Dicaprio to emotionally push the agenda, also note none of that trio have any science training.
During this entire fiasco of bribery, liars, and the destruction of the classic American car industry, temperatures have not obeyed government edicts, CO2 went up, and temperatures went sideways. This non-compliance with the theory of CO2 driven heating of the atmosphere was called “the pause”. Many articles were written discussing this pause:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/?s=the+pause
What “the pause” means is the global warming theory by CO2 is bullshit. But no worries Goyim, the government fixed that problem by changing the data to make it look like warming. A good meme that illustrates this insanity:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1owcncKCHg
The government bribed scientists to prove their theory. The result is the corruption of science and the disruption of the actual temperature record, because scientists want grant money. Because temperatures were not going up, NASA actually fudged the temperature data sets to show they were going up. One brilliant and alert scientist Tony Heller, caught them in their lies:
https://realclimatescience.com/are-official-us-temperature-graphs-credible/
That NASA bust was after the IPCC bust, if you remember the leaked IPCC emails which showed they were changing the data to make it look like warming: Climate Gate:
Wiki – “The Climatic Research Unit email controversy (also known as “Climategate”)[2][3] began in November 2009 with the hacking of a server at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) by an external attacker,[4][5] copying thousands of emails and computer files (the Climatic Research Unit documents) to various internet locations several weeks before the Copenhagen Summit on climate change.
The story was first broken by climate change denialists,[6][7] who argued that the emails showed that global warming was a scientific conspiracy and that scientists manipulated climate data and attempted to suppress critics.[8][9]”
Notice how Wikipedia uses the religious meme “denialist” to describe conspiracy factualists uncovering government crimes. If global warming was factual, then none of those extraordinary efforts would be necessary to push the political agenda. AGW has always been politics, CO2 was demonized as a way to take away our independence from ICE cars. And since you emit CO2, it became the new original sin, a way to demonize the human for being born and exhaling CO2.
The bottom line is that CO2 levels do not affect temperature, and ice age progression will continue regardless of how wrong our culture gets from corrupted science and a satanically evil political class hellbent on destroying our culture. They want to reduce your carbon footprint to zero, which can only happen if you are dead.
Interglacials are short lived compared to the length of the cold period:
https://skepticalscience.com/images/Temperature_Interglacials.gif
We are at the tail end of the current interglacial, the Holocene, and temperatures are indeed decreasing just like they always do:
https://imgpile.com/images/1ICvCk.png
I am sorry that if you believe in the government lies about global warming. There is no polite way to tell you are wrong. CO2 has never warmed the atmosphere. The ice age cold period is coming regardless of what you think or were told to believe and buying a Tesla does nothing but make Elon rich.
CO2 is a powerful greenhouse gas for the first 100oom which can cause +3 degrees C. of global warming. CO2 over the current 420ppm is a weak greenhouse gas with the potential to cause another +1 degree C. of global warming, which would be harmless, and take over 100 years.
Greenhouse gas warming is mainly at night and mainly in the six coldest, driest months of the year, so it is actually beneficial if you live in Canada, Alaska or Siberia.
More CO2 in the atmosphere significantly benefits the growth of most plants, with biomass increasing 10% to 100% from CO2 enrichment to 600ppm to 800ppm.
Manmade CO2 above the current 420ppm is a weak greenhouse gas whose small warming effects can be offset by other climate change variables. And have been since 2014.
Your claims about CO2 doing nothing are science denying.
You are rejecting the work of almost every scientist living on our planet, including at least 99.9% of the “skeptic” scientists ON U OUR SIDE, who say exactly what I have just summarized.
Once again you claim to know more than scientists about CO2, and spin tall tales about manmade CO2 doing nothing.
Manmade CO2 is harmless.
We know that because the effects are easily measured in a lab with infrared spectroscopy and stored in the HITRAN and MODTRAN databases. The predictions of climate doom completely ignore those greenhouse gas databases. That is the problem. The scary climate predictions are not based on data. And there is no science without data.
The climate predictions are not wrong because CO2 does nothing, as you falsely claim. Do you really think almost every scientist in the world is wrong about the greenhouse effect, and CO2’s contribution to it, but YOU are right?
Whenever a religious zealot says you are “denying” then the argument is weak and the evidence missing.
Richard says “Your claims about CO2 doing nothing are science denying.”
Hey Richard, I also deny the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. Why? Because there is no evidence for either – and likewise I deny the CO2 warming claim – because CO2 is going up and temperatures sideways – the infamous “pause” in warming negates the theory, and I even quoted Richard Feyman – your theory is wrong because the data does not conform to your theory – which is really a religious belief – which is why is why you use “deny” and Al Gore’s 99.9% meme (which is false).
I am not denying any science, I am not sure you understand the science. I am saying current changes in CO2 are not warming the planet, let me spell it out for you, take a look at this chart showing the warming effect of CO2 in 20ppm increments:
https://holoceneclimate.com/image/heating-effect-of-co2.png
Discussed at length here:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/03/08/the-logarithmic-effect-of-carbon-dioxide/
Almost all of the warming occurs in the first 20 ppm. After that the warming effect goes down in an inverse logarithmic fashion – and thus changes in CO2 at current levels do nothing.
And don’t forget CO2 levels fluctuate from 180 in the ice age to 280ppm in the interglacial – which means at those levels, the warming effect of CO2 is nil. If CO2 was doing warming as you claim, we would not be stuck in a cyclical ice age:
https://imgpile.com/images/1IDiyi.md.jpg
http://www.euanmearns.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/vostok_T_CO2.png
(reverse time scale, temperature leads, CO2 follows)
And to prove that – I said all ice ages start at high CO2 and end with low CO2 – which I said negates the global warming claims – that observation alone makes a mockery of your high climate priest Al of the Gore, political flunky who never took a single collegiate science course. Al Gore said this year at WEF conference that CO2 was “boiling the oceans”.
Richard, why not use high school drop out Greta Thunderborg as your next witness to support your zealous climate beliefs.
Does anyone think some high school kid with zero knowledge of climate science knows a damn thing about the climate? I sure as hell don’t, and I also know Hollywood actors don’t know shit either.
Yukon jack
I want to thank you for including links to charts of CO2’s logarithmic effect measured by lab infrared spectroscopy.
They support my prior comment saying that CO2 is a weak greenhouse gas above the current 420ppm so does not have the potential for much more global warming. The link YOU provided refutes your science denying argument that CO2 does nothing.
What the CO2 chart does not include is the effect of a warmer troposphere caused by CO2. A warmer troposphere hold more water vapor, which amplifies the warming effect of CO2. That is called a water vapor positive feedback.
The best “skeptic” climate scientists, on ur side, claim CO2 INCLUDING the water vapor positive feedback has the potential for no more than _1 degree C. of global warming when the CO2 level doubles from the current 420ppm to 840ppm. Just as I said in my prior comment.
Both the infrared energy absorption effect of CO2 and water vapor are included in the HITRAN database that scientist William Happer uses, which include the effect of CO2 in the logarithmic chart you kindly provided a link to.
You can keep claiming CO2 does nothing until the cows come home, but next time please do not include a link to a CO2 chart that proves you wrong!
Local climate change — the only change that really matters — is a net result of many local, regional and global climate change variables. CO2 is one variable. Rising CO2 always causes some global warming. The effect of CO2 can be offset by opposite effect of OTHER climate change variables. This has been true since 2014 and was also true from 1040 to 1975. The lack of global warming since cO2 does NOT prove CO2 does nothing.
We are in an ice age now. The change from icehouse conditions (now) to greenhouse conditions is mainly from planetary geometry, not CO2. When less sunlight reaches the northern latitudes, temperatures drop and more water freezes into ice, starting an ice age. When more sunlight reaches the northern latitudes, temperatures rise, ice sheets melt, and the ice age ends.
At the end of an ice age, the oceans are very cold and hold a lot of CO2, just like a cold soda pop does. As the oceans warm from natural causes, they outgas about 15ppm of CO2 for each +1 degree C. of warming.
Al Gore is not my high climate priest. he is a climate buffoon who makes wrong climate predictions. Great Thunberg is now a high school graduate and another climate buffoon. John Kerry is climate buffoon number three.
They are all correct when they claim CO2 causes global warming, based on science. They are all wrong when they claim CO2 will cause dangerous global warming, which is NOT based on science.
That Earth has had climate change for 4.5 billion years, with 100% natural causes, but that fact does NOT prove manmade CO2 emissions are not a new cause of climate change. Harmless climate change from CO2, to be accurate. No climate change from CO2, to be a science denier.
The cultists simply lie to people. CO2 can only trap energy in a certain frequency ranges. Like anything else there’s diminishing returns. CO2 is not an exception.
They trot out Venus again and again, but Mars’s atmosphere has a similar CO2 proportion. Mars has a thin atmosphere so it’s cold, Venus an incredible thick one, so it’s very hot. The key is pressure.
We are well into the tapering of CO2’s ability to trap energy at 400ppm. At this point doubling won’t do much of anything. Which is why once anyone realizes this, it becomes a matter of amplifications from other things. Which refuse to happen decade after decade.
Now alarmists follow hot weather around the globe. Never mind that the weather doesn’t even repeat year after year for a decade. There’s a hot summer somewhere and next year there’s a hot summer somewhere else. Few seem to see through that con. What happened to the place that had bad weather last year at this time? It’s not in the news because it went back to normal.
The lack of global warming since 2014 is making Climate Howlers desperate.
Those nine years include the most CO2 ever emitted in a nine year period.
Whatever global warming CO2 emissions are causing is completely offset by other climate change variables. The climate computer games say that can’t happen. But it is. mention the none year “pause” to a climate alarmist and they go berserk — “nine years in not a trend — climate is 30 years or more”. So if there is no global warming for 29.5 years, they imply, that means nothing — must be at least 30 years.
We are dealing with devious people who abuse science to scare people and control them.
The Global Whiners are now desperate to blame every bad weather event on climate change. And they do. They are trying to ramp up the fear by lying — typical leftism.
Leftists “climate science””
Bad weather = climate change
Good weather = just weather.
I understand exactly what you are claiming, yet I am also saying it is not possible to measure the warming from post industrial CO2 increase. The effect is so small it can’t be measured – and then we have the fact that temps are going sideways. How can that be when you say there still should be a slight warming bias?
So maybe the theory is all together bunk. Did you every consider that?
There is also another fact – direct observation that it is getting colder, like a week ago, on June 20th, I spotted fresh snow at low elevation in southern Oregon. That observation data negates even a slight warming claim. How wrong is your cult?
The Independent, 2000:
“Snow is starting to disappear from our lives. Sledges, snowmen, snowballs and the excitement of waking to find that the stuff has settled outside are all a rapidly diminishing part of Britain’s culture, as warmer winters – which scientists are attributing to global climate change – produce not only fewer white Christmases, but fewer white Januaries and Februaries … Global warming, the heating of the atmosphere by increased amounts of industrial gases, is now accepted as a reality by the international community … According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit of the University of East Anglia, within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”. “Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.”
We are actually getting close to agreeing. CO2 above the current 420ppm is such a weak greenhouse gas that the mild warming effect can be offset by the cooling effect of other climate change variables.
The measurements of CO2, water vapor and methane in a laboratory tell us what CO2 does when isolated. The exact effect in the atmosphere is obscured by the fact that there are so many climate change variables it is only possible to estimate the effect of any one of them.
There is evidence more CO2 caused some of the warming after 1975 … along with less air pollution and fewer clouds blocking sunlight. There is no evidence of more solar energy reaching the top of the atmosphere.
It’s not productive to claim CO2 does nothing, and all climate change is natural. It is accurate to say most of the warming effect of CO2 (CO2 actually impedes cooling) was in the past, so there is no threat from more CO2 in the atmosphere.
In fact, I advocate for MUCH MORE CO2 in the atmosphere (2x to 3x more) to improve plant growth.
BEV agenda is actually the private automobiles for the wealthy only agenda. It’s the car hater’s agenda. I’ve been paying attention to the bicycling/transit politics for a long time. It’s all driven by hate of the private automobile and financed by the wealthy control freak self appointed social engineer types. The excuse for BEVs is CO2, but the goal is to price us out of motoring.
Fearing that BEVs will be viable the crusade’s excuses have moved on to brake pad dust and tire dust. Yes, the wear particles from tires and brakes. Something which can never be avoided.
Off topic: Thought that occurred to me. We are putting up all these solar panels for electricity. WE already have the most efficient solar panel possible for this planet, specifically for this planet. They are called “plants” they use a substance call chlorophyll to store the solar energy in a usable form, such as petroleum, wood, or coal.
Plant based foods such as beef. (I am a closet vegan, I only eat plant based food such as beef, chicken, Salmon, I could go on but most of you get it).
If there is a number cruncher out there what is the efficiency of grass/solar panel in converting sunlight to usable energy? My bet is plants win as will we.
Comments
The efficiency is limited by a formula called the
Shockley Queisser Efficiency Limit of about 30%
The Limit only applies to the mid-day sun — 10am to 4pm with no clouds. At other times there is too little sunlight for the efficiency to matter. Especially at night when the efficiency is zero.
Photosynthesis turns water, carbon dioxide, and the energy from sunlight into plant biomass and the foods we eat. This process is very inefficient, with only about 1% of the energy found in sunlight ending up in the plant.
Sorry, the solar panels win this contest, but are a waste of money for electric grids. They produce maximum output mid-day, but maximum electricity use is during the breakfast and dinner hours with dim sunlight.
“about 1% of the energy found in sunlight ending up in the plant. Solar panels win this contest ”
Well, except for the fact that there are a whole lot more plants than solar panels. Measured in square miles instead of square feet.
Enough plants to keep eight billion people and plenty of animals alive.
Good grief. Henceforth, Richard Greene shall me known as Cliff Clavin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Clavin
When I first started blogging in 2008, on finance and economics, to supplement my ECONOMIC LOGIC newsletter, that I wrote for 43 years … I signed all articles as “The Cliff Clavin of Finance”, which I thought was funny.
Great, thanks for supporting my thought. We get lots and do nothing. The plants do it all.
Ugg. You are spot on. Beef is indirectly powered by the Sun.
If the sun went out or was blocked (like Bill Gates plans) then the earth would freeze solid in weeks. And CO2 wouldn’t stop earth from freezing.
Richard is clueless about CO2 effects – NASA put up a satellite OCO to measure CO2 effects directly, and guess what, the higher the concentration of CO2 in the upper atmosphere – the greater the cooling.
Reason? CO2 absorbs parallel photons from the sun then immediately releases them in all directions, causing a net decrease in photons reaching the earth. High CO2 in the mesosphere cools the planet – the exact opposite of global warming claims.
https://coldclimatechange.com/carbon-dioxide-is-a-cooling-gas-according-to-nasa/
“NASA says that CO2 is a coolant not a warming gas. One part of NASA is now in conflict with its climatologists after new NASA measurements prove that carbon dioxide acts as a coolant in Earth’s atmosphere. NASA’s Langley Research Center has collated data proving that “greenhouse gases” actually block up to 95 percent of harmful solar rays from reaching our planet, thus reducing the heating impact of the sun.”
Anyone who is honest and researches this topic can only scratch their head and wonder if our civilization isn’t completely insane. Has it dawned on anyone that if Bill Gates blocks sunlight then all life on earth would die?
The effects of CO2 in the stratosphere has nothing to do with the effects of CO2 in the troposphere.
At the link below is a related article by a Ph.D. climate scientist explaining why, if you have any interest in learning.
https://www.drroyspencer.com/2023/06/climate-fearmongering-reaches-stratospheric-heights/
Off Topic:
We are getting a lot of smoke from “wildfires” in Canada in Michigan. Coming across the Lakes. Anybody else getting it in their areas. This has not ever happened before in my memory, and it goes back awhile.
The explanations I have heard do not make sense. Boils down to a bunch of lighting strikes. If it happened in California, they would have arrested a bunch of folks already.
I have to fall back on the wise words of 007, Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, 3 times is enemy action.
Thoughts?
A bad temperature inversion yesterday in SE Michigan. Worst air quality since I moved here in 1977. Canadian fire smoke missed SE Michigan until yesterday.
So you agree, it’s enemy action! How surprising.
Bad air again today in the Detroit suburbs — four days in a row. My eyes get irritated outdoors. I blame this on Justin TrueDope of Cubanada. And maybe some Canadian arsonists too. The wind is predicted to shift tomorrow.
It has been very dry where I live. Several times in the past month, the weather guessers have predicted either a 90 percent or 100 percent chance of rain for the next day, and we didn’t get one drop. One of those times we had full sunshine most of the day.
So the question our side always asks is, if the experts can’t tell us what the weather is going to be tomorrow, how do they know what it will be 50 years from now? The response from smug midwits will be that we’re too stupid to know the difference between weather and climate. So, humble student of nature that I am, I looked it up. Climate is defined as “the weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period” (emphasis mine). By definition then, climate is weather, just averaged out over a longer time or a bigger area.
So how about they answer the question? Seems to me it should be much easier for an expert to predict tomorrow in my neighborhood than 2080 over the whole globe.
Where do you live?
Midwest USA.
” the weather is going to be tomorrow, how do they know what it will be 50 years from now? ”
I know
I know
The climate will get warmer,
unless it gets colder.
Roger Revelle is the original oceanographer, US Navy, that began the study of anthropogenic produced carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the oceans’ capability of absorbing the excess produced from burning hydrocarbons and coal and wood.
Roger Revelle deserves all of the credit, the idiot climate scientists are all wet, full of beans.
The Romans denuded north Africa. The leaders of Carthage obliged to lay down their arms to establish a peace. The Roman army took advantage of the foolishness.
Methane is burning in Azerbaijan right now, been going on for thousands of years, coal-seams burn from lightning strikes in Australia for over 5500 years, maybe 15000 years. Oil slicks form on ocean waters from cracks in the ocean floor.
Hydrocarbons are out of control! The WEF is on the job, man.
Trillions of tons of coal in the Doggerlands, export factory wood pellets from the Carolinas to the Drax electricity generator facility in England.
The forests of England were more of less gone, coal was the forced choice for heating.
What you gonna do? Set sail, the ocean waters are warmer, might as well sail away.
It was said that a squirrel could start in the forests at the north of England and travel to the south without ever touching the ground, a tall tale, Robin Hood stuff.
Beer time, again.
Ever been to Ireland? The Brits burned every bit of Irish timber in stoking the industrial revolution. They also murdered millions during the “potato famine”. Fortunately my ancestors were able to escape, get inducted into the Union army for the War of Northern Aggression, but managed to survive that bloodbath. I am afraid that is coming our way again.
The Roger Revelle papers in the late 1950s said manmade CO2 emissions should cause global warming in the long run. He did not know how much or whether it would be harmful, because the extra CO2 would be beneficial for plants.
The CO2 increase from 1940 until 1975) was accompanied by global cooling, so scientists were reluctant to predict global warming EXCEPT in their scientific papers.
When the global cooling reversed to global warming in 1975, scientists began scaremonger about global warming in public a few years later. The current predictions of global warming doom were in the 1979 Charney Report and remained unchanged until a few years ago. That’s when the IPCC arbitrarily increased the 1979 predicted global warming range to scare people more than before.
Just before his death in 1991, Revelle co-wrote an article with scientist Fred Singer, saying the world was rushing too fast to condemn manmade CO2 emissions, and ought to study the results for a few decades first. Horse’s ass Al Gore condemned the Revelle / Singer paper, by his former mentor Revelle, and falsely claimed the man was senile. AL Gore turned on his scientist hero in the end, like a typical smarmy politician.
While the Biden Thing is rolling full speed ahead with a delusional climate change agenda, Sweden has dropped its “Green energy” targets….
https://www.technocracy.news/sweden-dumps-climate-agenda-scraps-green-energy-targets/
Not one nation will meet their green energy targets, and all are behind their “schedule”, but at least Sweden is admitting the truth. Over seven billion people live in nations with no green energy plans — they could not care less about Nut Zero. The smart nations.
There’s a company that wants to build a nickel mine in Minnesota (under guise of making batteries for the EVs the Biden Thing wishes to shove down our throats), though there are concerns that it would have a negative impact on the environment as well as local water quality….
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/mining-nickel-electric-vehicles-water-quality/
Ford begins its EeeVee self-euthanasia:
‘Bloomberg reports that Ford plans to lay off “hundreds of salaried workers,” primarily engineers. The layoffs are to boost profits and lower operating costs as the company shifts toward EVs, the report says.
‘Engineers in EVs, traditional combustion engine models, and commercial vehicles face layoffs, Ford said. Layoffs will number in the hundreds, despite CEO Jim Farley claiming earlier this year the company would need 25% more engineers than rivals to produce its EVs.
‘Ford expects to lose $3 billion in 2023 on its EV business but hopes for 8% returns on battery powered models by the end of 2026. Ford plans on building 2 million EVs per year by that point.’ — ZeroHedge
How are you gonna develop them miracle batteries, when you’re shedding engineering talent?
If I were Billy Ford, I’d summon Jim Farley into my big corner office.
“Jim,” I’d begin. “You know I love you like a brother. But you just ain’t worth a shit. So I’m gonna have to fire your ass. Security will escort you out the door.
“We’re taking back your company car, so you’ll have to call an Uber … or catch a ride with a laid-off and pissed-off engineer. But I wouldn’t chance it if I were you, Jim.”
He’s the hairy-handed gent who ran amok in Kent
Lately he’s been overheard in Mayfair
You better stay away from him, he’ll rip your lungs out Jim
Huh, I’d like to meet his tailor
— Warren Zevon, Werewolves of London
Today Lordstown Motors plunged over the waterfall, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
RIDE shares closed at 2.29 today, down from a record high of around 450.00 a couple of years ago.
EeeVee boom times have come a cropper. It’s not as if folks weren’t warned. “Who’ll RIDE?” asks a sign in an illustration of the 1720 South Sea Bubble, as a fresh crop of suckers rides the new-issue merry-go-round.
https://tinyurl.com/2rec86da
Hi Jim,
Ford is laying off employees despite getting a multibillion dollar loan from the Biden Thing for its EV business. So much for Joe Biden being the “Most pro-union President ever!” It appears that if you have a union job, you effectively get $H!+ on by Joe Biden, and yet, some unions are ENDORSING his reelection bid. The comedian Jimmy Dore had a clip on that recently…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoAqNDuTvgw
Hi John,
It is tragic – this firing of people who do valuable work – for the sake of make-work EV “manufacturing.” People such as Will support this. No doubt in part because the consequences do not affect him.
As far as I know, salaried workers means non-union workers, who are typically paid hourly wages. It’s still a travesty, though, in that it almost seems like Brandon & Co. conditioned the big EV loan on F firing at least some of the people who design/engineer ICE vehicles so as to gimp that part of its operation. F seems to have bent the knee, going with the bird in hand if billions in Uncle money to fund the “transition” to EVs rather than counting on the previously stated future ICE profits. This whole thing has deepened.
FORD is abandoning engine and transmission engineering in the business plan from hell, They are also retiring some EV salaried staff because the EV sales are so bad.
The EV engineers at Ford think the only way the company can survive is buying EVs manufactured in China, with a lot of the engineering done there. That is the proposed solution for an EV that can be sold at a price most people can afford. No one can figure out how to manufacture a $35,000 EV (manufacturer’s cost) in the US.
This claim that regular vehicles should be (mostly) regulated out of existence sounds almost like what the Biden Thing wanted to do to millions of Americans who have a job but wanted NO part of being an experiment for Big Pharma. He, through OSHA, tried to institute an employer vaxx mandate under guise of “Public Health Emergency”. Had the Supreme Court not ruled against his employer vaxx mandates, MILLIONS of Americans would have effectively been regulated out of a job (i.e., FIRED from their jobs). And now, his regime wants to do something similar under guise of “Climate Emergency” by FORCING people to get an EV, and if the WEF types have their way, ownership of gas vehicles will be VERBOTEN. (Except for THEM of course).
Indeed, John –
People like Will are our mortal enemies and ought to be regarded as such. This bastard would have had people like us herded into camps and quite possibly force-vaccinated, like animals. He wants to force us to buy a $40,000-plus EV or stop driving, period. He is the archetype Leftist of the Gavin Newsome type.
Eric,
Isn’t it amazing how the same people who bleated about the evils of Big Pharma, the military-industrial complex, corporatism, etc., even 10 years ago are now their biggest cheerleaders, and the Democrat Presidential candidate who has been dropping all sorts of truth bombs regarding those and other issues is called a CONSPIRACY THEORIST, QUACK ANTI-VAXXER, a SECRET REPUBLICAN, or worse.
Hahaha.
“This is not an EV, this is a REAL vehicle!” -EP
The pickup has kept our main manuf. alive for a long time. They are arguably the best overall do-everything vehicle made in the world. Maybe the large burban types are in this category as well.
So they say “let’s make an EV pickup”. Of course they did. They wouldn’t be investing bookoo bucks in them if they didn’t know that ICE is going to be forced/regulated out of existence.
Here’s the problem as I see it, and said here many times.
The average joe that tows his boat/rv on the weekends is going to be really pissed off he/she was lied to about range. Already proven to be around 100miles +/-. Then what.
The average contractors mostly already know that loading these thing down with gear isn’t going to work, so they’re not going to buy them.
It won’t matter to the pickup driver that doesn’t use it as a truck, but they are in the minority.
Airplanes have a minimum speed and a maximum speed, and they also have a max range – if you slow the aircraft down to a velocity just above stall speed, the range is greatly extended. Max range speed is often very close to max loiter speed – the speed which you can fly and have the most minutes in the air. Pilots often memorize such speeds in case of an emergency.
The reason why range goes up when speed goes down is air drag – it takes a lot of power to push the craft through the air – and this especially true for cars.
With cars, there is also a max range speed. If you slow way the hell down from the normal insane 75 mph people drive (typically to the donut shop so they can sit on their fat ass and gulp down 32 oz lattes) down to the slowest speed in top gear, your range goes way the hell up, and so does your fuel economy in mpg.
Such data can be seen in graphical form (this chart is for a Geo Metro but all cars have similar curves – just lower)
https://metrompg.com/posts/photos/mpg-vs-speed-chart-z.gif
Note that at 35mph in 5th gear, the mighty Metro mpg goes way the hell up to 80 mpg. And all Metros every built came with a 10.6 gallon tank, thus the max range is:
80 mpg x 10.6 g = 848 miles
This has been tested by the hypermiler nerds, and one guy reports he got 750 miles from a tank of gas. I routinely get 55 mpg, so my max range would be 550+ miles – this is at normal 55 mph speeds.
Last year when I first saw the above chart online (Darin Cosgrove of Metrompg.com) I could not believe my eyes – no way Jose I said – could you squeeze out that many miles out of gallon? So I tested it myself in 3 trial runs. I drove Hwy 99 from Medford to Grants Pass and back, topping the tank before and after from the same station and same pump until not a drop more would go in and I averaged 74 mpg in my junk unmodified stock metro in the 3 trial runs. But such a doing is not practical because the I was driving to slow for traffic.
https://jalopnik.com/how-to-get-99-7-mpg-from-a-geo-metro-5558345
What Eric says about EV is accurate – they weigh way the hell to much – and the physics of pushing a 3 ton Tesla around is the wrong way to go. What you want is a light car, like 1500 lbs, not 6,000 lbs.
A Tesla weighs about the same as 3 Geo Metros. That means the tire wear and friction is much higher. What we need is lightweight cars with small motors and lots of gears. Superior fuel economy is achieved with an underpowered car.
BTW anyone with a new fangled car and instant mpg readout can make a speed vs mpg chart, just drive in top gear on a flat road with no wind and record the mpg in 10 mph increments, and if you do, post it here:
https://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/speed-vs-mpg-charts-post-em-if-you-15182.html
https://ecomodder.com/wiki/Vehicle_Coefficient_of_Drag_List
The range problem is just paranoia for 90% of drivers.
My commute is about 40 miles round trip. I charge every night, so I leave the house every morning with 250+ miles of range. I’ve never had to fast charge during a normal day.
I have been on road trips that required me stop and charge and finding a good (working, 150 KW+) fast charger can be difficult sometimes, but it adds like 20-30 minutes every 3-4 hours of driving. Cry me a river if you think that’s reason enough to stop EV adoption.
Now that most of the manufacturers are adopting Tesla’s standard, finding a fast charger is going to be a non-issue.
For the average person electric cars might actually save time versus pumping gas. I used to fill up my car about once a week, taking about 5 minutes. Under normal circumstances (i.e. not a long distance road trip) I never stop anywhere to charge up because I always leave with full range from charging overnight.
“Cry me a river if you think that’s reason enough to stop EV adoption.”
I don’t think Eric or anybody who comments negatively here on EVs believes that voluntary adoption should be stopped by force. If you like your EV, then good for you. But do you believe that ICE vehicles should be regulated out of existence or banned, effectively forcing us all to have either EVs or nothing?
I refer to Will Garland’s comment as the Bernie Sanders argument for EeeeeVeees. Bernie famously asked, why do people need to have a choice among 30 varieties of deodorant, when one will do? So, why should you be able to choose a car with the amount of range currently offered in ICE vehicles when an EV that adequately or even just barely meets your commuting needs is enough? Are you paranoid or something?
Great comparison. I don’t want to assume that Will is anti-choice, but the tone of his comment does not bode well. I await his reply.
ICE vehicles should *mostly* be regulated out of existence.
There are some scenarios where EVs just don’t work.
If you live in a remote village in Siberia where the average winter temp is around -30 F, then an EV with it’s battery that has to be heated to a certain temperature range, probably isn’t going to work very well.
EVs probably won’t work for trucking, short of some sort of magic battery being invented. The Tesla Semi loses about 20% of it’s capacity compared to a diesel truck carrying around a megawatt of batteries.
EVs won’t work for aircraft as batteries just weigh too much.
Probably want some emergency vehicles to be ICE just in case there is a disaster where power is out for multiple days.
EVs won’t work for military. Diesel is just way more energy dense and easy to transport.
EVs might work for farming depending on what specific type of equipment we’re talking about and if there is a quick way to charge, like battery swapping.
But for 99% of normal consumers that live in the suburbs or cities an EV will seamlessly replace an ICE vehicle. Tax incentives/penalties should be setup to guide consumers into EVs.
Will writes:
“ICE vehicles should *mostly* be regulated out of existence.”
You have just revealed yourself.
Regulated out of existence. By which you mean using the unelected, unaccountable power of bureaucratic organs to force people into the kind of car you (and others like you) think they ought to drive – assuming they can afford it. Otherwise, they can just walk – or live close to a city and use public (government) mass transit. Right?
And let’s address the question you beg but fail to answer: If EVs are so wonderful, why then is it necessary to “outregulate” alternatives to them? Wouldn’t most people just “adopt” them voluntarily?
Was it necessary to “outregulate” Betamax?
Aye-f*ing-men, Eric.
“Tax incentives/penalties should be setup [sic] to guide consumers into EVs.” – Will
Weasel word of the day: “guide”
As in: “The herdsman will guide the cattle into the trailer.”
And how does your “solution” work for the millions of people who live in apartments? I’m fairly certain that homeownership is not at “99%”.
That’s going to be one large extension cord from the 5th floor to the parking lot!
Battery swapping, Hee hee hee. You’re hilarious. Maybe, for your tiny backyard weedwacker or chainsaw. I’d love to see how battery swapping would work n a tractor or backhoe. Which part of the iron fist/velvet glove do you prefer? ‘Tax incentives’ or ‘penalties’ ?
Who put you in charge of what should and shouldn’t be *mostly* regulated out of existence, Mayor Bootyjizz? You sound like a low info, low quality, low hour troll. Even Richard Cranium comes across as more believable. Hard to fathom you’re a fed boi, as even they’re a bit more creative. I’d like to take a guess what regular commenter you really are, but I’d probably be wrong.
“But for 99% of normal consumers that live in the suburbs or cities an EV will seamlessly replace an ICE vehicle.”
So if one lives in rural areas they aren’t normal and should be ignored?
So if one of the “normal” consumers can’t afford an EV, too fucking bad?
Exactly what color is the sky in your world?
John,
I wish they would ignore those of us that live in rural areas.
Once their grocery store shelves are bare they may want to consider there is another universe outside their tiny little bubble.
They are indeed on the edge of that cliff, and blissfully unaware of it.
What do you think will get them first, John…starvation or the EMF radiation from their EVs?
Perhaps no longer being able to afford an internet connection?
“Tax incentives/penalties should be setup to guide consumers into EVs.”‘
They already are, Will. The federal government began offering them after 12/31/2009 with a max limitation of 200K vehicles per manufacturer who made electric or hybrid vehicles. They have been continuous ever since.
As of January 2023 roughly 2.5 million EVs/hybrid plug ins have been sold in the United States. Out of 279 million vehicles owned in the USSA. That is roughly .089%.
In 2022 (latest figures) 536K EVs were sold out of 14.4 million total vehicles or 3.72%. I don’t understand why the other 96.28% of us are forced into buying something we clearly do not want.
Hi RG,
Notice the bastard says “guide” when he means force. It’s always force with these bastards. I’m sorry for the profanity; it’s not my style, usually. But I’m tired – and I’m pissed.
Hi Eric,
It is obvious Will lost his way searching for the Huffington Post or Daily Kos and ended up here. Maybe he will learn something…
Eric: Your site must be getting a lot of circulation outside libertarian circles these days. I think that’s a good thing. It’s a bit exhausting, but it’s an opportunity to educate the new-comers.
Your writing and the regular commenters likely shock those that have imbibed on state propaganda for most of their lives. After a few weeks/months I think there’s a chance they’ll come around. Liberty arguments always make the most sense.
Thanks, Mister – I think so as well. It is exhausting. But necessary. And so, here I am – one cup of coffee in the tank already!
The initiation on the use of force is taught to everyone in catechism. Yahweh – the psychopathic sky god in the Old Testament is always initiating the use of force on the non-believers.
Those OT stories are the basis for the Judeo-Christian culture. Initiating the use of force is based on moral supremacy, the belief you are right and everyone else is wrong, and thus the moral crusader (save the planet from CO2 emissions) feels perfectly justified in forcing you to abandon ICE vehicles.
The climate lunacy is all based on one thing, that CO2 molecules are forcing temperature, which is demonstrably false – just look at this chart:
http://www.stallinga.org/Climate/Images/CO2CORLTdetail_col.png
Ice core data shows that CO2 always follow temperature. Thus the very basis of the anthropocentric global warming argument is false. All ice ages start with high CO2 and end with low CO2 which makes their claims ludicrous.
And who are these people who promote wrong ideas and then shove them down your throat? The followers of the Bible demon god Yahweh, tribal supremacists who have taken it upon themselves to tell us what we can do – because they claim god chose them.
That is literally what is going on. This is not a scientific debate, it is religious war against us and our freedom.
“ EVs might work for farming depending on what specific type of equipment we’re talking about and if there is a quick way to charge, like battery swapping. “
You need to take your comedy act on the road, it’s pure gold!
There is NO farm, other than a 1/2 acre hobby farm, where this even remotely makes sense. Farmers are near broke as it is, where does the $$$ come from for your fantasy?
You’ll need lotsa batteries or a long ass extension cord there Hoss. Behold wheat harvest in the Palouse (SE WA)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVqEaZHsoYI
Well said, Sparkey. That video shows real farming, the kind that feeds the world. I suspect that Will envisions guys in bib overalls putt-putt-putting around on 2-cylinder John Deere Bs.
A 620-horsepower Case IH Quadtrac 620 goes for around $616,000. If it were even possible to make it electric, I’m guessing the price tag would easily top $1 million. And you’d have to have at least three of them to replace one diesel model if you wanted to run 24/7.
Will’s qualifier “depending on what specific type of equipment we’re talking about” makes no sense. All serious farm equipment is large, and needs to be capable of running almost non-stop for long periods.
If the green lunatics start screwing with modern agriculture as they have been threatening to do, hundreds of millions will starve to death. That is not hyperbole.
In fact, they (green lunatics) view it as a win-win: cut the planetary population from 8 billion to 0.5 billion; shed 7.5 billion useless eaters as a sacrifice to Gaia.
Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, 3 times is enemy action. Will, you are either a moron or a shill, maybe an AI Bot, I am betting Bot.
Bernie is a fool that also spent his honeymoon in then Soviet Union, loved it there, and thought bread lines were a good thing. No such fool who never missed a meal in his life and doesn’t know what real work is has no business telling me what they think I am “allowed” to drive, let alone how many choices of deodorant they think I should have either.
Sorry meant to put that under another reply. Am not sure why it ended up here instead
There are a lot of choices of deodorant! What’s with that? They should just list them by price, that’s how I shop.
I live up north where we have 9 months of Winter, lots of darkness, and sub zero temperatures to go slong with it. Thank God we did not get that -80 F. spell from Siberia last year. Until there are real world studies done on EVs and extreme cold, you can shove your ICE bans and idiot beliefs that because you go nowhere in life no one else should either. This state is too big and too vast for EVs. I do not give a sh** where you live, Will, mine would eat yours for lunch in terms of size and still have room for left overs. Only the idiot Karen’s and those in north Seattle would be foolish enough to think them a reliable vehicle up here.
Ford engineers tested a variety of EVs at zero degrees in northern Minnesota in December 2022 and found range reductions of 40% to 60%, which was more than they expected. EVs sitting outdoors in such cold weather can also lose a few percent of their charge very day.
Batteries are not meant for very cold or very hot weather. They are also too expensive, weight too much and need double to triple the existing driving range. Other than that, they are okay.
How about letting customers decide where they want to spend their money?
Whatever happened to competition?
Battery swapping — they are too heavy and must be swell sealed in a strong temperature controlled case for safety. Too vulnerable to damage if handled and moved.
Will doesn’t care, Richard.
Or – rather – he only cares about what he wants. What he thinks is important. Enforced by government. Whether others like it or not.
Hi Will,
What you style “paranoia” is a fact. EV range is typically half that of a non-electric car, for openers. Then you have the fact that the EV’s actual, real-world driving range can be and often is much less than indicated. I have personally experienced this and video-recorded the instances, which you will find published here (in my reviews of EVs).
I do not dispute that for some people, the EV’s short leash may be a non issue. But the fact remains – the leash is short. Does it not strike you as weird that people are defending halving the range we have been accustomed to? And styling as “fast” having to spend at least five times as long to do what used to take just a few minutes?
Being able to drive 200-300 miles and then stop for 15-30 minutes to recharge isn’t a “short leash”.
How many people would you say drive more than 200-300 miles per day on average (excluding commercial drivers)? Less than 1% of the population?
Hi Will,
Well, it is a much shorter leash. Not arguable. A fact.
200-ish miles is about half or less the range you get from a current-year family car or crossover. And I do not understand your defense of having to wait 15-30 minutes to do what (until now) has taken less than 5. Would you accept waiting 15-30 minutes to get a drive-thru burger that previously you got in less than 5?
And for these reductions you are expected to pay more.
You ask: “How many people would you say drive more than 200-300 miles per day on average (excluding commercial drivers)? Less than 1% of the population?”
The problem is that if you don’t have time to wait overnight (or 5-11 hours) for a charge, then you will probably have to wait at a “fast” charger for 15-30 (assuming no one else is ahead of you in line; then you wait for them first). Having to think about plugging in – and worrying about range – is a pain in the ass. Having to schedule your life around it is an inconvenience. And for what? And why?
Because of grotesquely and deliberately exaggerated scare-scenarios about “climate change”?
Also, the “200-300 miles” you cite is best case; the actual range you get is hugely dependent on how (and when you drive). I know. I have personally experienced the real-world driving range of EVs in the very cold – as in winter – compounded by driving in hilly/mountainous areas (this sucks range like having a dime-sized hole in the gas tank) and at high speed.
EVs are functionally viable – if you live in a temperate, mostly flat area – and (as you day) don’t drive very far very often. In other words, they are niche vehicles. Also, for-the-affluent vehicles.
But for most people, the EV amounts to a diminishment – and they get to pay for the “privilege.”
Which I am fine with, by the way – if that’s what they want to pay for. My chief objection is this business of forcing people who want nothing to do with EVs to buy into them.
Hello Eric! As Mark Twain quoted: “Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with their experience”.
Also, he’s creating a strawman. The argument isn’t about range or convenience, it’s about choice and government force. The former which he opposes and the latter, which he supports.
Spot on, James N. This, of course, is the common thread of every single article that EP writes. Many just cannot see that though. They get caught up in the regime propaganda, the “data” or other utilitarian arguments, entirely missing the point that it’s the involuntary-ness that’s the problem.
Eric, I am driving from LA to Tucson every month. No direct flights. Over 450 miles. Even if the car is fully charged, I will get stuck in traffic leaving LA. There are construction delays for 40 min and possibly accident delays. If I am l lucky and don’t use the AC I may get to Blythe on the AZ border. Maybe there is a charger. A full charge from there will not get me to Tucson. Likely need to spend the night.
After Blythe to Tucson, it is 260 miles to Tucson with some serious elevation gain and 1 hour construction/accident delays. I want a margin of error. I do not want to be stuck in an environment at the mercy of criminals, cartels and banjo paying cretins. And I want to be able to drive around Tucson to get there. No saying “why does this (bad luck with delays) always happen to me.
There are many other things to consider. Like the EMF’s and magnetic fields from the motors
Just as someone said to me about marriage, “you better know what you are getting yourself into”, it’s the same with EV’s. How far we have fallen as enthusiasts for the 700 mi range Camry hybrid to be the apple of our eyes for the range.
And if someone asks why I need the range, I’ll brain them.
Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, 3 times is enemy action.
Well-said, Greg!
I mentioned to Will the fact that he is defending diminishment as if it were something desirable. Half the range of almost any standard car – and at least five times the wait. For a much higher buy-in price.
And the upside is?
Hi Will,
I guarantee more than 1% of drivers commute more than 230 miles a day. My husband drives from Central Virginia into Northern Virginia, DC, and MD 5x per week. There are many days I commute more than 230 miles roundtrip if I have to travel to Richmond or into Bethesda. Ask any electrician, plumber, HVAC repairman, furniture delivery worker, hardware, Instacart, or Uber/Lyft driver. Many of these men/women put more than 230 miles a day on their vehicle. Many use their own vehicles. Any individual that lives in a rural area and has to commute into a metropolitan area. An average of 35% of Palmdale, California residents commute more than two hours per day, New York City commuters (living in Jersey or Connecticut) over 26.1% average more than 120 minutes, Chicago commuters 17% commute that time or longer.
I have no problem with EVs if someone wishes to buy one. But, those of us that do not want EVs should not be forced to purchase them. It does not save the environment and is an inconvenience for many of us. Let the free market decide what people want.
“Being able to drive 200-300 miles and then stop for 15-30 minutes to recharge isn’t a “short leash”.
Yeah, compared to a horse.
The power has been out at my house for a couple of days, what was I supposed to do?
It will take many years to build charging stations to meet the needs of all the people that will be forced to use them.
The grid is already overloaded from current electrical usage how will it ever handle 100x the load?
Why do you hate the environment? Cars emit nothing but CO2, but electricity plants often run on coal and gas. You can’t power a country right know with wind and solar, how will you power 100x the country?
Amen, Cashy –
This Will Garland person doesn’t care. He doesn’t mind that others suffer. He wants them to suffer. Is it even slightly surprising that this vehement EV defender is also a “mask” (and obedience) defender as well?
“Masks” and EVs go together like lace stockings and Dr. Frank N. Furter. Except the good doctor was just a freak and meant no harm.
You guys are just not considering some of the advantages of EV’s.
15-30 min charge time my ass, more like 2-3 hours, “hey boss sorry I’m going to be a little late today, got to charge the ol’ Titzla.
You know how bad some ladies are with electronics, “Hey honey! Need a ride. (wink, wink).
New market for those 50,000 rechargeable AAA batteries I have laying around.
Can you say Charging Station/Topless Bar!
Uber Lyft sorry out of business!
Monster thigh muscles from pushing that 5000 lb. dead weight off the road every time it suddenly drops to zero.
>Can you say Charging Station/Topless Bar!
Hey!
San Jose Fire Department will be right there. 🙂
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-jose-fire-strip-club-video/3185440/
Bring on the “all electric” fire trucks. 🙂
Just doin’ what they were trained to do, Adi. When the heroes see something hot, they put ‘er out!
Ah, another day, another medal for bravery.
Women? They are for sure cute, but they’re just too dangerous. 🙂 Better to leave the “hot stuff” to the professionals.
Cue Donna Summer…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhcaPNuaJNU
Thanks, Adi haven’t listened to that in ages. Definitely hot.
LMAO, oh Lord you would never make it even half way to Anchorage you damned fool. There is nothing for hundreds of miles and no charging stations. And no fool in his right mind is going to buy your worthless EV when Arctic Man comes along for much the same reason. So you just keep your EVs down there and how about we keep our gas guzzlers up here. Thus is a beautiful state but as we would say, “there is no such thing as a shot trip” , and your beloved EVs are not suited to our way of life up here.
I see we have another one of the Cashy/Richard variety. Except even worse.
Sorry Cashy and Richard, that was a low blow. Will makes you guys look like anarcho-capitalists.
Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, 3 times is enemy action.
Dont worry JK, I wear a helmet when reading these comments.
Congratulations that you live next to everything, but you speak for no one but yourself. Maybe you are a hermit that lives close to everything. But to chastise others for their “range anxiety” just makes you sound like an immature and uneducated leftistist. You can keep you EV and I will keep my gas guzzler.
“Range Anxiety”? That sounds like a pejorative used against those who have legitimate concerns about EVs. There was even a term used for people who had concerns about the COVID jabs………that term was “Vaccine Hesitancy”.
These are good points. I’ve never understood why EVs are championed as being so efficient as compared to ICE cars. If the argument is an electric motor vs a gas motor then yes, electric motors turn most all of the electricity fed into them into motion, whereas gas motors do not. But the problem is what is fueling those motors. A few gallons of liquid fuel vs a half ton battery? Not even close. That’s about one of the least efficient set-ups going.
EV fans also champion the acceleration speed those vehicles are capable of. But that would be like taking a heavy backpack and putting it on an Olympic sprinter, like Usain Bolt. Yes, he can still run very fast, but that weight will still slow him down and impact his performance in the long run. His running shoes will wear out quicker, and his joints will suffer more wear and tear from the extra weight. But for a human sprinter, the extra weight (even if we assume the sprinter is carrying food and water in his pack) isn’t needed and only slows him down.
Even the human body is far more efficient than an EV….all the runner needs is a good breakfast and some water (which adds very little to his overall weight) to do the race.
I can’t even think of any example in nature that is like the EV – maybe a hibernating bear, packing on the fat in the fall. Except the fattened bear doesn’t go anywhere or do anything – it just sleeps! And when the bear wakes up in spring, it’s lean and ready to forage far and wide for food.
Until the electricity source for those electric motors can take up a whole lot less weight and space in a vehicle, EVs will continue to be less efficient than ICE vehicles.
Electric Truck Maker Files for Bankruptcy
https://archive.fo/Y0ORH
Maybe they should have given Hunter some crack money, surely the “Big Guy” could have found a few billion like he did for Ford…
Of those 31 RIDE truck manufactured, six have been delivered to customers, fifteen will be used for sales, demonstration drives, marketing, and service training before being sold, the company stated in a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
They sold three trucks in 4Q 2022.
I’ve never seen one. Few people have.
Next up Tesla, GM, Ford, Stellantis. We are in for a ride. Especially us Lakers.
Dunno, Eric, I have range remaining on my ICE cars too, and they rarely track mile-for-mile. (Well, my 2020 F150 does a pretty good job at it.) My 14 VW is the “worst”: When the gas light comes on, it typically says 40 miles left. It ticks down in 5 mile increments. However, I get a 5 mile tick-down for every 2 miles travelled! So, it reports more range left when there is more gas in the tank. In my VW, when it says zero left, there really is maybe one or two miles left, b/c if I fill it to the tippy-top when it says zero, it takes the maximum capacity of the gas tank. (as measured by three or four auto-cut-offs of the pump.) Over time, I’ve learned on my VW that there is no-foolin’ 25 miles of range left after the light comes on.
At any rate for me, the range left after the gas light comes on is most important. And I would guess they all work differently. YMMV, of course.
Hi MDP,
With respect, I do know. I have been test driving new cars for 30 years. One (sometimes two) each week. I have test driven thousands of cars – and more than a dozen EVs, over the past two years alone. I therefore speak from extensive experience and submit authoritatively, in a way very few others can.
Yes, of course, mileage varies from advertised with non-electric cars. But not by 20 percent (sometimes more) as with EVs. I personally experienced the latter last winter with three different EVs, each from a different manufacturer – so I’m not just talkin’ out mah ass.
LMAO, my Aussie friend always pronounces it arse…..LOL
>on my VW that there is no-foolin’ 25 miles of range left after the light comes on
On my old VW, there was no-foolin’ two gallons of fuel available when the tank reserve valve was opened. There was no fuel gauge.
Why the push for Electric this and that. Ever see a poor representative? They may go in poor but they come out very wealthy. The longer they stay the more wealthy they are. They exempt themselves from insider trading laws. They forgot about you a long time ago. You are simply the mule they strip mine. Ever notice their not called ‘representatives’ but rather ‘law makers’.
They print the money,,, they distribute the money,,, they control any audits. They set the tax rates,,, fees and fines! What a con!! They are the premier thieves and crooks and it doesn’t matter who is sent to clowngress.
Bauble head Americans seem oblivious to any of this but hey,,, government has the F15s and the army according to head pedo in charge. Paid for by the mules of course. The Medical Branch of Government has been involved with the murder of millions, soon to be billions. Heads bauble. Government is now leading the Tranny pedophile homesexual charge. Heads bauble. Government is now paying for Gender ‘reassignment’ surgery of children 6 years and up(paid for by the mules)… Heads bauble. Government is flaunting its approval and assistance to Nazis. Heads bauble. Government is massively inflating printing trillions of dollars and to hell with our kids futures so long as we ‘get something’. Heads bauble. 15 minute cities,,, vaxxen passports,,, shutting down of airports,,, closing off rural areas. Heads bauble.
I can guarantee that thieves like Gates, Schwab, Biden, Pelosi et al are making a fortune off this EV con. Government has sold America out to various social clubs like the WEF and Davos. Heads bauble.
Check out the 2022 WEF list Global Young Leaders that ‘graduated’ and they do this every year since the early 1990s
https://www.weforum.org/press/2022/04/from-entrepreneurs-to-scientists-meet-the-2022-class-of-young-global-leaders
These are sellouts to their country and fellow humans,,, a sample.
John R. Tyson, Executive Vice-President; Strategy and Chief Sustainability Officer, Tyson Foods Inc., United States of America
Jessica Beckerman, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer, Muso, United States of America
Colin Allred, Member of Congress, U.S. House of Representatives, United States of America
more:
. Dan Crenshaw, Gavin Newsom, Adam Kinzinger, Pete Buttigieg, Nikki Haley, Tulsi Gabbard, and Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego. Heads bauble
Someone with musical talent update the song “We didn’t start the fire”. There’s plenty to update.
Not to give the psychos in charge any ideas, but I’m surprised they haven’t decided to Harrison Bergeron IC vehicles by “mandating” they carry a trunkful of dead weight to be “fair” to EVs. Could do it on a sliding scale – the better mileage your IC car got, the more weight you’d have to carry – until every vehicle was equally rated.
Hi Mike,
Yup! And: The hilarious/pathetic fact is that even if I were to put 1,000 pounds of deadweight in my Trans-Am, it would still go farther than most EVs – because it can carry more energy. And it would still only take a few minutes to refuel, too!
They already have done that and Eric has told the world about it in his articles about government mandated saaaafety gear and government mandated emissions reduction gear that increases weight and prices, while decreasing fuel economy.
These mandates have not improved the vehicle emissions in any rational way in the past 20+ years either. So we are using more fuel and spending more for vehicles because they contain gear that no rational person wants, nor would voluntarily pay for.
As usual, government’s mandates are a failure unless the agenda is a hidden goal to reduce our freedom.
>Could do it on a sliding scale
Or even a sliding weight. like a tractor pull. meaning the faster you go, the harder it gets to go faster*. These days, it could all be done electronically, I expect.
“Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, just to stay in one place.”
— Lewis Carroll
—————-
*Those with even a nodding acquaintance with the Special Theory of Relativity may recognize this concept. It is never possible to accelerate a mass to the speed of light, the so-called “Speed Limit of the Universe,” only to approach that speed, because the faster you go, the more energy it requires to go faster.
Now apply that concept to a “Special Provision for Automobiles, where electronic speed controls “for safety,” would require progressively more energy to increase vehicle speed. The closer one gets to the “posted speed limit,” (which it is never possible to attain, only approach asymptotically) the more energy it will cost you, and all done “automatically,” without a herd of AGWs using radar speed guns.
Jeez, I think I should get an (Ig)Nobel prize for this….:(
“…absent the “breakthrough”in battery technology we’ve been hearing was just around the corner for the past 30-something years.”
Kinda like fusion in a jar or airships. They’re always 30 years and a $1B+ from being the “gamechanger” (I hate that word, btw).
@Eric – I’m driving through George West, Texas again this weekend. Want a few pics of “The Future” covering the lines at the strategically-located Love’s EV charging stations on Saturday afternoon of a holiday weekend?
Yes, Roscoe – please!
If you can, take some video… I may be able to use that as well!
Just like the Biden Thing tried to FORCE people to take an experimental mRNA jab that is NOT “Safe and Effective!”, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Biden Thing also tries to FORCE people (under MORE LIES) to give up any gas vehicles they have and get an EV despite EVs being unaffordable for most people, because John Kerry or Klaus Schwab decrees it. Not only do we have psychopaths in charge, we also have criminals in various governments and bureaucracies.
My wife’s 2016 Explorer has a “sweet spot” for MPG roughly in the same speed range as you were driving the Mercedes. I think it is related to the EPA’s revised testing which has included 65 MPH in the last few decades, which dramatically improved highway estimates over the old days, when the speed was capped at 55 MPH and a politically-driven fudge factor produced the numbers which went on the window sticker.
I beleve that killing the advantage of the overdrive transmissions in the testing is the real point of Mayor Pete’s intention to return the national speed limit to 55 MPH even if the states don’t go along.
I still believe the overdrive transmissions are valuable even if the long term durability is still a question mark and the behavior is sometimes squirrely. Driving to Downtown Dallas a few weeks ago from ~ Temple, TX, I managed to get 47 MPG out of my 2.5 L Camry running ethanol-free unleaded.
Who needs a Prius?
Hi Roscoe,
Amen on the overdrives. They have been – that awful word – a gamechanger. To get a sense of just how much, I submit for consideration my 1976 Pontiac Trans-Am. This almost 50-year-old muscle car with a monstrously huge (7.5 liter) V8 fed by a carburetor, with 3.90 gears in the back, was transformed by replacing the factory non-overdrive transmission with an overdrive transmission (2004R). This transmission has a .67 overdrive (fourth) that cuts RPM at 65-70 to a fast idle, around 2,000 RPM. Previously, the 455 would have been turning more than 3,000 RPM at the same road speed.
On the highway, it drives like a new car, almost. The “almost” being it’s more fun!
A college classmate, long ago, had a Firebird 400 which he had set up with a numerically low rear axle to maximize top speed. He told tales of running Corvettes “neck and neck” on the highway at ~120 MPH, and then…downshifting! before waving bye bye to the ‘vette. I believe Al also had a brake light kill switch. 🙂
‘It is absolutely fascinating – Mr. Spock voice – that the government is spreading misinformation about EVs.’ — eric
And it started a long damned time ago:
‘In March 2007, Tesla reported the Roadster’s efficiency on the EPA highway cycle as “135 mpg equivalent, per the conversion rate used by the EPA.”‘
Knowing nothing about how to equate a battery to a gas tank, one might think a “135 mpg” vehicle would drive thousands of miles without a recharge. Sorry, no.
The EPA’s ‘ludicrous mileage’ figures for EeeVees totally ignore thermal power plant efficiency, which knocks down such ratings by about two thirds. EeeVees don’t actually save any energy, except using fake statistics.
Meanwhile, credulous Congress Clowns who swallowed the EPA’s poisoned bait are pumping hundreds of billions into white elephant b-a-a-a-a-a-a-ttery plants. This is how formerly rich countries turn themselves into failed empires whose trash-strewn, potholed streets are lined with homeless camp Bidenvilles and slumped forms overdosing on the sidewalk.
All that money being handed out for charger stations, moon-shot battery tech projects, tax breaks for consumers, and only minor improvements over the last 10 years.
Government wants this tech, but they’re not willing to put up with what’s possible today. Uncle wants the iPhone, not the 80286 and a Motorola bag phone. Yet that’s really about where EVs are now. Maybe they’re advanced to the Pentium II and Nokia 6100 of the 1990s, but for sure not an iPhone 14. One of the things that everyone remembers about those old phones was the days-long battery life. That’s because it wasn’t trying to do everything. It made calls, sent/received very expensive SMS texts, kept contacts and played Snake. Of course that was back in the per-minute call billing, so people kept their conversations short too. The phone spent most of its time in standby mode.
And you only used the cell phone when you were away from a (at the time far superior) land line. Most people had several phone numbers, home, work and cellular, because that worked best. Once wireless got good enough and flat rate pricing was rolled out by AT&T people started dropping phone numbers from their business cards. These days old fashioned copper POTS lines are nearly extinct -that old beast phone on your desk is converted to Internet based VoIP before the sound gets out of the house, just like your iPhone, but it took decades to get VoIP reliable enough for every call.
I really think there’s a use case for EVs, but it’s not as simple as swapping out the gas engine for an electric motor. And it pretty much is required that it will be a second vehicle for a decade or more. Presenting them as a replacement for your ICE vehicle is a massive mistake and will continue to cause criticism and pushback by the general population. And instead of incentivizing the things with cash rebates, if governments were serious they’d make it easier to own one by dropping the requirements for highway safety (these things would be great city cars), scale back insurance to something suitable for town driving, and lower annual registration costs for EVs. They are second vehicles for all but a few and need to be treated as such. Maybe in 20 years things will be different.
‘Presenting them as a replacement for your ICE vehicle is a massive mistake.’ — ReadyKilowatt
You got that right
Said you got that right
Sure got that right
— Lynyrd Skynyrd, You Got That Right
>Most people had several phone numbers
And, in fact, one of those numbers was likely to be a pager. That, of course, was in the era (circa 1989) when cell phones were called “car phones.” The (likely Motorola) transceiver, the size of a hard back book (you can look up the term “book,” kids) was screwed to a bulkhead, with a coax cable running through the headliner, leading to a glass mount antenna.
Cell phone time being expensive, few people gave out their cell numbers, and there was no caller iD, IIRC, so the number could be kept confidential. If you wanted to contact someone who was “in the field,” the usual drill was to call their pager number, which would reveal your number to them, and they could return the call using their (confidential) cell phone.
BTDT. Still have the Motorola transceiver bolted to the bulkhead behind the driver’s seat of my ’89 F150, though, of course, the phone has not been operational for at least two decades. Ol’ Blue (Shadow Blue metallic) still hums right along, though.
Great article Eric
Yes – today’s EV batteries have poor specific energy compared to gasoline – even taking the inefficiency of the internal combustion engine and powertrain into consideration.
Every EV fanboi (and fangurl) keeps saying: “…but but but tomorrow’s batteries will be much better and cheaper.”
That’s like saying: “Space exploration will be cost efficient once light speed propulsion systems become available and cost efficient, so let’s dump all development resources into space exploration right now.”
I must harp on a point I already made on a previous article.
The F150 is the best selling vehicle in America.
The F150 lightning EV’s battery weighs more than an entire compact car from 1985:
https://www.thedrive.com/tech/40676/electric-ford-f-150-lightnings-battery-weighs-over-1800-pounds-by-itself
https://www.automobile-catalog.com/make/honda_usa/crx_1gen_usa/crx_1gen_usa/1985.html#gsc.tab=0
Calling any contraption whose battery weighs weight more than a complete automobile from 38 years ago “sustainable” is beyond absurd – even by political standards.
Also – this added weight is going to result in more wear and tear on tires. Where is the concern about all the extra rubber “emissions?”
Again – I ask as if anybody in the “all BEVs by 2035” cult understands basic physics and economics.
‘The F150 is the best selling vehicle in America.’ — Blake Allington
Yes. And the ICE version is the hard-working Clydesdale which pulls those stellar sales figures.
Meanwhile, in the first quarter of 2023, Ford sold 3,600 F150 Lightnings, along with 4,409 Mustang Mach-Es and 761 E-Transit vans.’
C’mon, Jim Farley: that’s chiiiiiiiiickenshit.
Double those figures in 2Q 2023 (to be reported about a month from now), and it’s STILL chickenshit.
I will heckle and throw peanut shells from the bleachers until the EeeVee shitshow smacks the wall and burns like a Ukie tank hit by a Russian Kornet missile. Ship of fools …
That’s why Ford engineers are worried about the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Ford EVs. The product planners thought the Mustang and F150 would be the best vehicles to introduce as EVs, based on market testing. Customers did not agree at all.
Thanks, Blake!
I expect Richard will find a way to mewl about the goodness of EVs – and tell us that a “breakthrough” is imminent.
Can I write my own commets, please?
I have never said anything good about EVs, except about their fast acceleration, that few people would ever use. I’m hoping my ICE 2016 Toyota Camry lasts forever, because I don’t n’t want an EV and could not afford one for $50,000.
My father, a retired electrician, talked about EVs from the 1970s until 2013 when he died. I disagreed for all 40 years. At least he admitted the batteries were no good. But he had the usual “better batteries are coming in 10 years” mantra — I heard that line from the 1970s until 2013.
Dad did buy an electric bike for about $1,000 when he was too old to drive. It lasted one year, and then stopped working. I visited the Michigan company that made the e-bike and they were out of the e-bike business, leaving behind insufficient spare parts.
Richard makes a valid point, Eric. He is not a supporter of EVs as referenced on his previous posts. Based on the comments above it looks like you may have a new guy to “educate”. 🙂
If there ever was a nonviable mass that needed aborting, it’s EVs. The one and only purpose they serve at all, most being inefficiently powered by a coal or natural gas fired power plant, is to get us all on foot, bicycle, or the usually shoddy public transport. Because so few of us can afford one. Neither our wellbeing nor the climate’s wellbeing are even part of the picture. Of course that’s also the case for nearly everything the Psychopaths In Charge do. It’s all simply them satisfying their psychosis.
As one of those women who hates to let their gas tank fall below half full, i predict there will be a lot more anxious drivers out there when there are nothing but evs and broken down old ice cars. These greenies need to wake up. The reality will not be them speeding off at every stoplight looking cool in their Teslas. When evs are all you can buy and there are not enough charging stations moms with a car full of kiddos running low on power are going to get tense.
Except most of those moms with cars full of kids won’t be in a car at all. Because damn few moms can afford an EV. They’ll be walking, unless all their kids can competently ride a bicycle.
Anxious EV engineers.
Ford development engineers are finally taking long drives with prototype EVs. Unlike previous short drives, they now have to stop for fast charges before coming back to Dearborn. The percentage charge — driving range — gauge is completely unpredictable.
They start looking for a fast charge location at a 20% charge. When they get to one, there is nothing to do there for up to 30 minutes, with no snacks and no bathrooms, like at a regular gas station. That’s probably why EV owners don’t take long trips … more than once.
The greenies are reducing electric grid reliability with weather dependent, intermittent solar and wind power, while forcing more electricity use with EVs, electric furnaces and electric appliances. This can not end well AND I DON’T THINK THEY CARE.
Quite the contrary, it’s their intent.
Agree. Along with “artificial” intelligence, we will have “artificial impoverishment.”
Side note:
It strikes me that “artificial intelligence” is a ridiculous expression. If software is, in fact, intelligent, then such intelligence is, or would be, very real. Nothing “artificial” about it. “Non-human” intelligence would be more accurate, IMHO. But, “non-human intelligence” sounds scary, like “the rise of the machines,” whereas “artificial intelligence” leaves the impression it is somehow “fake,” unreal, or inferior to “real,” i.e. human, “intelligence,” and therefore harmless, something like the “automata” in an elaborate cuckoo clock.
The question of what constitutes “intelligent” behavior is, of course, an ongoing philosophical discussion. But “”artificial impoverishment” will be unmistakable, very real, and very ugly.
“Artificial impoverishment.” Great description. So unnecessary, and so unnatural.
Richard,
Get ready… for once, I agree with everything you have written. Because it is true and so inarguable.
Where did I go wrong?
ha ha
I don’t want EVs, airbags, pretend vaccines and masks forced on me. Let the people decide for themselves what they want.
I still don’t think masks were such a big tragedy, as you do. But the pretend vaccines were a disaster. All cause mortality has never returned to normal in highly vaxxed nations such as the UK and US.
https://www.hartgroup.org/make-worse/
Richard,
There are all sorts of stories out there about how prolonged wearing of face masks caused numerous health problems for adults and children, and even caused people to be MORE likely to get sick with the dreaded ‘Rona. Not only that, LOTS of disposable face masks ended up as plastic waste in oceans just in 2020, but people who claim to be “environmentalists” didn’t say squat about it.
New polyester masks do send polyester micro fibers into the lunf gs. Te health effect is still unknown. I washed and dried my fifty cent masks before using them for doctor office visits once a month from late 2020 to early 2023. They refused to treat me for a chronic disease unless I pulled up my mask. You could keep the mask under your chin in the waiting room. Finally, on Monday, my third of three doctors stopped wearing a mask. I found out he had a “weak” mustache — he looked better with the mask on
Few people in Michigan wore masks outdoors. When I saw some masked young people jogging in Birmingham, Michigan in 2020, it was a rare exception. I could not believe it.
Here in Michigan our friends who took mRNA shots did NOT stop wearing masks byt they did stio social distancing, which actually works. They started flying out of town again. Almost all of them caught Omicron in late 2021 or in 2022. A few vaxxed friends caught Covid in 2022. Fortunately Omicron is just a common cold, bot a deadly virus.
From what we know now, the word “vaccine” was propaganda. The official term of “leaky vaccine” is ridiculous.
I know that vaxxed people were older than unvaxxed, and the vaxxed people I know stopped social distancing. But those two factors can’t come close to explaining why deaths after a positive Covid PCR test went UP in 2021 versus 2020. And all-cause mortality never had the big declines predicted in 2021 and 2022, not even in 2023.
The mRNA shots were a medical disaster. I have recommended anti-shot articles almost every day since early 2021 on my blog.
I’m thankful no friends or relatives had side effects worse than missing work for three days after a shot. But they keep getting infected with Omicron, and sometimes SARS2, starting just a few months after their shots. That could not happen with a real vaccine.
I don’t see many masks on the ground in Michigan since 2020, when they were everywhere. But I do know plastic waste in oceans has been greatly exaggerated. The sun breaks down ocean plastics and they end up as plastic microparticles in the ocean fish that people eat. No one knows the health effect of plastic microparticles in fish we eat. but it can not be good.
Richard,
You write: “You could keep the mask under your chin in the waiting room.”
These quacks are despicable – as well as cowardly. They made you play Kabuki – because they had been told to do so by the hospital apparat. What else are they told to do? Why would you trust such compromised tools for medical care? Why would you degrade yourself by playing this evil game?
I did not disgrace myself, oh healthy one.
I have a chronic medical condition that requires monthly medical care and several prescriptions
Wearing a mask for 15 minutes inside a medical office each month was a small price to pay for the benefits I received.
I went without a doctor and prescriptions for the first three months of Covid in 2020, at the frightened wife’s request — I would have been very vulnerable to catching Covid in an office. The health effects of doing that were very serious. At least the three months without prescriptions “experiment” caused me to find out that I need several prescriptions and doctors to stay alive … and give you a hard time.
It was not until Monday of this week that the third of my three doctors stopped wearing a mask.
As stupid as masks were, much worse is that doctors did nothing to help keep Covid patients out of hospitals. They rejected ivermectin, that did a good job.
And at the hospitals. they used ventilators that were killing machines.
Our friend, a retired emergency room doctor, caught a very bad case of Covid in early 2020. She wanted to go to her former hospital. Her son, a doctor at that hospital, said no — stay at home — they’re putting the very sick people like you on ventilators and most of them are dying. It’s not working!
She stayed at home, very sick for three weeks, and finally recovered. Her son caught Covid from her but it was like a common cold for him, being younger.
We learned a lot about Covid, and doctors, in 2020 from those two doctors. The medical profession always had some quacks, but their response to Covid was horrible. Wearing masks added stupid to “horrible”.
Hi Richard,
The point I am trying to make is that these hospital/HMO employees – what most doctors are now – are compromised and so cannot be trusted. They do as they are told – and if that conflicts with sound medicine, it does not matter. Following orders takes precedence. I would never entrust my health to such a one.
Eric, it is unreasonable to scold someone for doing what he had to do to get needed medical care. As another astute commenter has written elsewhere on your site, just because doctors don’t know anything about masks doesn’t mean they don’t know anything about anything.
One repulsive trait that conservative warmongers have is the absolute inability to put themselves in someone else’s shoes. How would we like it if a foreign government drone-bombed wedding parties in Cleveland? They won’t even entertain the thought. Too busy grunting USA! USA!
Likewise, it’s easy to say that we all should have held fast to our anti-mask convictions. You didn’t have serious medical problems during peak covid lunacy. Good for you. But Richard and others did. Another frequent commenter here had to choose between sucking it up and putting on a mask for a few minutes or losing his eyesight.
It is beyond insensitive to lecture people who did what they deemed best for their own well-being when the covid nuts had them over a barrel. You seem to think you get extra points for having a perfect record on masking. You don’t.
I hear you, Roland –
I’m militant about “masks” because I understand what they mean. What they were intended to do – and succeeded in doing.
The one good thing they did do was show us – literally – how compromised medicine has become. It is not merely that most doctors went along with something embarrassingly stupid they knew had little, if any medical value that also had sinister aspects. They were also among the most militant of its defenders; many still insist on “masks.” They were also pushers of drugs the effects and dangers of which they could not know – utterly at odds with the oath they took (that my father and grandfather took) to first do no harm. At the same time, many of them refused or counseled against actually safe (or at least, not harmful) alternative treatments. The medical system is as corrupt as the FBI – and as compromised as the FDA.
I understand needing treatment for something serious. But I would be seriously suspicious of any doctor who pushed “masks” – let alone those drugs.
Hi Roland
I understand where you are coming from and you make a valid point.
We can still be disobedient and stretch the rules though. I had to have a mammogram and one or two other doctor appointments during COVID. I refused to wear a surgical mask. I donned an entire Halloween costume. Were my doctors amused? No. But disobeying is the only thing that will bring about change. Sucking it up and playing along only shows we will bend the knee.
“Another frequent commenter here had to choose between sucking it up and putting on a mask for a few minutes or losing his eyesight.”
That would be me. And I did suck it up. Mainly because I did not want to burden my family with taking care of a blind old man.
I agree to a certain point that Eric sometimes carries that flag a bit too high, since he did not experience any such dilemma during the Covid ordeal. Or if he did, he didn’t tell us about it.
But he is dead on that medical treatment in the US has become a risky endeavor. Not only the Covid vaccines, but ALL the vaccines are suspect. The CDC and FDA and the AMA have been lying to us about them for decades. I do not trust the Medical Industrial Complex with my “health care”. If I have serious trauma, I will go the the ER. If I have a serious infection that I can’ treat myself, likewise. It may end up shortening my life, or lengthening it. It’s a toss up. After all, what kills more people than illegal drug abuse and gun crime combined? Doctors. About 250k per year in the USA by medical error.
I agree with Eric that one should have avoided masking if possible. It not always was, if one wanted to live, or minimize the burden on others.
The reason I had to wear a mask to get my eyes fixed? Medicare STILL requires it in any facility that treats Medicare patients. At least it did two months ago.
Or was it three? I’m old. I forget.
Replying to myself so the comment won’t get too skinny.
I hope you know that I agree with all of your replies. But it is wrong to berate someone as a cowardly fear enabler for wearing a mask when the alternative for him was misery, blindness, or even death. Put yourself in their shoes is all I’m saying. Plus, you don’t get a place in heaven just for a spotless mask record. Perfection is nice, but in the end it doesn’t mean squat if your single-minded pursuit of it caused other serious problems.
I agree, Roland –
I’m hard on Richard, specifically, because of his serial defense of “masking.” His assertions that “masking” mandates weren’t vicious and of-a-piece, in terms of intent, with the Yellow Star’ing of Jewish people in National Socialist Germany.
Roland, you deserve to get what you put up with. When you put up with masks you deserve to have to wear them. I can tell you I never wore a mask once and visited a doctor and flew across the US. I simply said no every single time. They all folded. Just say no. It’s incredibly effective.
You said no when they told you to go through security at the airport? You said no when they told you to take off your shoes? They all folded and told you to walk right onto the plane? Or did you fly private?
“Mister Liberty June 28, 2023 At 1:35 pm
I can tell you I never wore a mask once and visited a doctor and flew across the US. I simply said no every single time. They all folded. Just say no. It’s incredibly effective.”
You lead a rich fantasy life.
Hi Cashy,
I got excommunicated from the little coffee shop I used to regularly frequent for refusing to “mask.” In a way, they did me a favor as it saved me a lot of money. I now drink coffee at home and it costs me a lot less. I also learned who my friends are – and aren’t.
And that’s priceless.
Roland and Cashy:
Yup, the shoes came off as I flew on a commercial airline and the TSA wouldn’t otherwise allow me past the security. I never wore a mask though. Never.
Not possible, not during the covid panic. They would not let anyone in an airport, let alone on a plane without a mask. There were no exceptions.
Okay ML, I think you know where I’m going with this. You folded. You deserve to get what you put up with.
The possibility of going blind or having to live in misery because of a treatable medical condition seem to me far more serious consequences than the inconvenience of having to cancel a trip or drive instead of flying.
Again, I would recommend putting yourself in the other person’s shoes (if the TSA lets you) before criticizing.
Roland and Cashy:
I don’t mean this as a personal insult, but you are both coming up with justifications to submit to the mask even though you supposedly opposed wearing them. This is the kind of stuff that cowards do to avoid confrontation with bullies. I’m saying you should have stuck to your guns and said no or found an alternative. Cashy, you can try to make yourself feel better by convincing yourself that I’m lying, but you’d be wrong. You’ve probably never even attempted to say no under duress, have you? Did you submit to the jab?
I’m not crazy about removing my shoes when entering an airport for sure, but that’s not being muzzled with a mask. Removing one’s shoes is also not a form of compelled speech like a mask, which would have displayed to the world that I was scared of a complete BS “pandemic.” Those who masked were actively participating in the propaganda whether they liked it or not. It was an outward display that they were part of the cult, which gave the false impression to the other heard members of universal consensus. I think you would agree, if you fly a “pride” flag, you’re necessarily promoting the movement.
I can assure you, the occasional times that I do fly I let the TSA know that my participation is under duress and their actions are unconstitutional. The other members of the heard are reminded by my protest that the TSA shit is wrong.
Indeed Roland. I have NOT flown since the very institution of the TSA gate. Including to my father in law’s funeral. A likely factor in losing my wife. Which in hind sight was a good thing. But I did put on a mask to keep from going EFFING BLIND!
Sorry, Mr. L, you are not convincing me. In principle they are exactly the same thing: submitting to humiliation to get something that you want. If wearing a mask equals compelled speech and participation in propaganda (“I’m afraid of the virus”), then taking off your shoes is too (I’m afraid of the terrists”). I’m sure Richard and John also objected, so you don’t get extra points there. Your protest must not have been too vociferous or you would have ended up in jail instead of on the plane. I’m sure the TSA goons shake in their jackboots every time you mention the Constitution. The pride flag comparison makes no sense because nobody is requiring that people fly pride flags to get medical treatment or board an airplane. The fact is that Richard and John folded because they believed it was the only way they could get needed medical care. You folded because it was the only way you could enjoy the convenience of flying. Same thing, except I suspect your reasons were not as important to your well-being as theirs. My hypocrisy detector is pegged.