You may recall when GM promised the battery-powered iteration of its Equinox crossover would have a starting price “around $30,000” when it became available for the ’24 model year.
How’s around $50,000 grab you?
Once again, the “target” has been missed – as if Stevie Wonder were trying to hit a bullseye from 50 yards out. And the reason why is essentially the same. GM is blind to the fact that EV batteries are very expensive. So expensive, in fact, that a battery-powered version of a vehicle costs 30-plus percent more than the engine-powered version. In fact, it costs more than that – because the battery powered version is cheaper.
Except for the battery.
An Equinox with an engine also has a transmission. Both of these cost money. A battery-powered vehicle has neither and for that reason ought to be cheaper.
But it isn’t.
The current (2023) Equinox – with an engine and transmission and all the small parts and peripherals, including its fuel delivery and exhaust system – lists for $26,600 or just a little bit more than about half the price of the battery-powered device that’s coming for 2024. Put another way, one can infer that that actual cost of the battery in the device amounts to nearly as much as an Equinox with an engine and a transmission and all that comes with them.
And what do you get for paying almost twice as much?
Well, for openers, you’ll get about 1,500 additional pounds of deadweight to haul around. That’s how much more the battery-powered version of the Equinox (the E is italicized by Chevrolet) weighs than the engine-powered version, which weighs 3,274 lbs. Almost all of that weight is the weight of the battery, which is a lot of battery (and why the cost of the battery). It turns the Equinox into a device that weighs close to 5,000 lbs.
And that’s why this device can only go about 250 miles before it runs out of battery power to propel itself.
Electricity does not obviate physics.
The Equinox with an engine can go much farther (some 400 miles, in city/highway driving) in part because it is so much lighter. Physics, again. It takes less energy to get 3,274 lbs. rolling than it does to get close to 5,000 lbs. rolling. And those additional 1,500 pounds of battery can only carry the energy equivalent of about 10 gallons of gas – or about two-thirds the tank capacity of the engine’d Equinox. The latter’s tank – when full – only weighs about 100 pounds because a gallon of gas weighs only 6 pounds and the tank itself weighs almost nothing as it is just an empty container. A battery is always full – even when it is empty – so you’re always dragging around the full weight of the thing.
But wait! There’s good news!
Chevy is claiming people who buy this device will only have to wait about ten minutes to get 70 miles of range at a DC “fast” charger! Meanwhile, the Equinox that isn’t a battery-powered device can be fully refueled (400-plus miles) in half that time. Seventy miles of range is energy-equivalent to about two gallons of gas – which isn’t much. And it’s actually less – when we’re talking devices – because devices’ range varies. The dash display says you have 70 – but you probably have only 60.
If it’s very cold, a lot less than that.
And this 10 minutes business assumes you have access to a DC “fast” charger that is capable of providing the extremely high voltage needed to achieve the feat. Many commercial chargers are much less “fast” – because they lack such capability and even those that do have limited capability, if other battery-powered devices besides yours are plugged in at the same time. The more that are drawing, the less there is to draw. Ten minutes becomes 20.
Or an hour.
This is the primary hair in the battery powered soup. A device is only useful for its intended purpose if it can be powered up so it can be used. How useful would a vehicle with an engine be if it were uncertain whether you could reliably (and quickly) find gas for it? If not, it becomes a toy, of sorts. Kind of like a private airplane that has to have 100-plus octane leaded aviation gas, which is only readily available at a few places.
At least you can fill up the private airplane in a few minutes.
But it’s the price of the device that most people probably aren’t going to be willing to pay. Nearly $50,000 for a device that goes maybe 250 miles? That’s going to cost you time all the time? Plus the worrying (all the time) about time?
It’s a Hindenburg-esque scene, isn’t it?
And it would still be such even if Chevy hadn’t reneged on its promise of a $30,000 or so (to start) battery-powered device. Because such a device would still weigh an obnoxiously wasteful-of-energy 1,500 pounds more, go only about half as far and take many times longer to get going again – for many thousands more.
Oh, the humanity!
. . .
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Tired of hearing all the elect car folderol coming from your buddies in Commiefornia? Get a load of this video:
https://rumble.com/v3tjp5k-check-out-the-line-of-cars-waiting-to-charge-their-evs-just-before-midnight.html
Here is where the NPC’s are heading.
Norway heavily subsidized EV’s, so they’ve got lots of EV’s. This article bemoans the fact that people have been buying EV’s instead of abandoning cars for public transit and bicycles. Oh no! People are choosing freedom of mobilty (albeit constrained by EV’s) over being homebound.
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23939076/norway-electric-vehicle-cars-evs-tesla-oslo
The author, one ‘David Zipper’ [sic] from Hahhhhvid, makes his bias clear right up front:
‘A 2020 study found that even the most optimistic forecasts for global EV adoption would not prevent a potentially catastrophic 2-degree Celsius rise in global temperatures. Reducing driving — not just gas-powered driving — is crucial.‘
Much of Zipper’s complaint — far less entertaining than Philip Roth’s riotously vulgar Portnoy’s Complaint — involves Norway’s socialist welfare-warfare state mindlessly erecting irresolvable policy conflicts:
‘EV promotions have shrunk the funding available to invest in transit improvements because Norwegian public transport budgets are partly funded through road tolls that the national government exempted EV owners from paying.’
Sad! Blindly subsidize one sector of a centrally-planned economy, and another sector takes it up the ass. Who coulda knooooowed?
‘Norway’s experience suggests that an influx of electric vehicles can hinder efforts to escape the automobile’s urban stranglehold.’ — ‘Zipper’ [sic]
‘Urban stranglehold’ — now there’s a loaded phrase. No different, really, than today’s ‘cell-phone stranglehold’ and ‘government stranglehold’ and ‘female stranglehold’ [fifty percent of the population; a hundred percent of the p*ssy]
‘Zipper’ [sic] is Exhibit A in making the case that Hahhhhhvid Kennedy School’s Taubman Center for State and Local Government patently, philistinically pollutes our culture.
He can kiss mah ass.
Hi Jim,
I am so tired of these people getting away with their assertions about “potentially catastrophic,” which they’ve been making for 50 years and which have always been wrong. Or – rather – ideological. They make assertions to further their agenda, which is based on a hatred of cars- which they hate because freedom of personal mobility is freedom. Take that away and you haven’t got much because they can control your movement. Of course it’s more than just that – but that’s a critical part of the whole. The rest includes herding people into urban areas, controlling food, controlling money (electronically).
Acid rain. The idea was that every body of water in the Northeast had the Ph of stomach acid and all the lakes would be dead in “the future.” So they implemented cap-n-trade, turning waste into a commodity, like copper. Great for the pit boys at the CBOT, great for certain Chicago politicians.
When all the manufacturing moved to China, there went the acid rain. Mission accomplished boys! And nowadays, you can even eat one fish every year out of Lake Erie… Unless you have a “comorbidity.”
Jim H: It’s high time somebody brought to light the injustice of 50% of the population controlling 100% of the pussy. Why, there ought to be a law! You know, for pussy equity and all.
Hat tip, sir. Very funny.
Like :).
Guess what is coming next: electric airplanes. Or so they say. What could possibly go wrong?
https://www.cleveland.com/news/2023/11/electric-airplanes-are-coming-and-probably-sooner-than-you-think-will-cleveland-hopkins-be-ready.html
Maybe an air-taxi to jump across very congested areas (NYC hudson river), but nothing ever more than that. Very very very very unlikely physics vs jet fuel. Likely just an IPO money grab.
Here is another outrageous bureaucratic proposal on the table. Not in the U.S., yet, but don’t underestimate our fellow Control Freaks here for one skinny minute!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8QVPZ-KGII
I would rather go back in time and have my 1970 Datsun 521 pickup back. Hey Mary take you ev and cram it up your butt.
Meanwhile, try getting some work done on your gasoline vehicle. I had to get some suspension work done. The shop that diagnosed the issue can’t get the parts and recommend I take it to the dealer. OK, check the dealer’s online schduling page… 34 days out. I try calling, get sent to voicemail repeatedly. Check the other dealer, only 20 days out but again, good luck actually getting something other than what’s on the drop down menu scheduled.
So DIY? Well, no. Not without a bunch of trips to Harbor Freight to get that one specialized tool that I’ll never use again.
It’s also due for plugs and a coolant flush. Both things I’ve done before and shouldn’t be too hard. Except they pile accessories on top of the engine and you have to pull all that off before you can even see the block. And what do you do with the used coolant?
I’m not normally one to believe in conspiracies, but I have to think someone is doing this intentionally as a jobs program. Like Oreo cookies vs fruit. An Oreo is manufactured in the largest “bakery” in the world, involves hundreds of workers, massive supply chains, and a huge marketing campaign to keep you buying. In many parts of the country you can grow seasonal fruit in your backyard, and even pick it yourself at the orchard. And after a few weeks off Oreos even the sweetest tooth can be satiated by a ripe plumb, no factory necessary.
DIY repair your EV? How? What’s going to fail that won’t be catastrophic? At best it’s rip-and-replace work. At worst (Tesla), you’re tearing off panels that are glued together with industrial adhesives that you’re not going to find at the Homeless Despot. They pretty much need a “No user-serviceable parts inside” label.
Right… stopping the mobility of all slaves is the master’s job one now….the excuse is global warming…haha…
It takes a month to get an appointment to get your vehicle repaired…repairs and parts are a lot more expensive…
Lots of parts aren’t available…so you have to look for used parts…shipped in from hundreds of miles away….
I have heard of new cars sitting for months waiting for parts…
DIY repair your EV?….
on a tesla you have to dig down removing stuff to check if the coolant system is low….it has a huge, complicated battery cooling/heating system….if you do check it it voids the warranty….
EV’s have far more electrical/electronic crap….it is very hard to find/fix problems….mechanical problems are far easier to solve/repair….analog mechanical was better….
You can get new manifold gaskets cut, valves and camshafts machines, starters rebuilt.
Try getting your local machine shop to make you a high current MOSFET chip that’s no longer made or a five year old obsolete microprocessor or ASIC chip.
Eric keeps mentioning that EVs are simpler but they really are not and closer look shows they are even more labor intensive to build when all the necessary inputs are considered. They are more complex in a different way, a way that does not lend itself to easily accessible service.
Hi Alex,
Your point is well-taken. EVs have fewer parts is better than simpler.
Business’s continued expansion and reliance on computers is ruining many things.
The mega corps are desperately trying to eliminate as many real people as possible with AI/computers.
I’m in it, and it’s not working. Here’s a simple example:
Prior to around 2010-15: call John “hey John, can you ship that X to X” ‘sure thing’ OR even email a PO to John, and john gets the order out same day or next.
Now: “John will not accept phone calls or emails to order X, you must send to orders@xxxxx.” Send order to orders@xxxxxx.
So nothing happens. 3 days later “your order will ship in 3 weeks”. What!??? Finally get someone on the phone “but Mr. X, the SYSYEM does not show it in stock”
ahhh, yes it is, I can see them with my own eyes, 20 of them. Sorry sir the SYSTEM will not allow me to XXXX……………………
Stuff like this every day now. I hear the words But IT’S the SYSTEM, every day now.
F’n shitshow.
And to use your auto repair example, same thing has happened to me for the past 3 years, so instead I now just drop it off (have to have a spare vehicle though), and magically, they are not as busy or as backed up as they say or maybe the computer says?, and it gets done.
That’s something I hadn’t considered. lean warehouse managment and “upgrading” to cloud-based databases instead of old DB2 or SQL servers that had to be deveoped and maintained in-house. Now just run everything from Salesforce.com apps.
The managers love this stuff because it includes metrics. Lots of metrics. Like how much time it takes Sue from Accounts payable to update a file, or how long Bill down in the warehouse went without moving his mouse. Not actually filling orders or sorting out the problems created by the system. No, that’s not easily made into a metric so it is discarded.
McNamara fallacy – making a decision based solely on quantitative observations (or metrics) and ignoring all others. The reason given is often that these other observations cannot be proven.
Sure, everything is going great! Just look at the numbers! Ignore the fact that it takes 3 months to do what used to take a week. That’s just because we can’t hire people for $15/hr and expect them to show up sober…
My former employer used to run the plant on 4 Unix servers with Sybase, operations used Wyse X-Terminals.
It requires one part time sysadmin whose biggest controversy was whether or not an annual maintenance reboot was necessary.
After their “upgrade” to Microsoft systems they needed 4 administration for day shift and 3 each for the off shifts.
Downtime was horrendous.
Idiot MBAs.
Musk Warns ‘No Jobs Needed’ In Future Of AI “Magic Genie”
“There will come a point where no job is needed. … the AI will be able to do everything.”
The problem with this is a larger slave cull is needed….
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/be-careful-what-you-wish-musk-warns-no-jobs-needed-future-ai-magic-genie
I do the DIY as well. Successfully changed plugs in my 05 Jeep Hemi some years back. 16 spark plugs, dire warnings about proper torque, yeppers. The ‘18 Jeep v6 due soon, oh my what a video study that one is pull this that and the other then the intake manifold finally comes apart then you can get to the plugs. No way I’m paying the labor for that one!
Try communicating with your dealer “service writer”. Three tries to convince them the ‘18 Jeep had a radiator leak “but Sparkey it passed the pressure test”. Idiots. Finally “use your nose, that hot coolant smell isn’t imaginary, now take an inspection mirror and look up inside the shroud, drivers side top corner”. “Ohhhh”. The ‘18 is supposed to have a transfer case fluid inspection, called for a price quote “$550.00 Mr. Sparkey”
Whuut? “We change all fluids front middle and rear!” The book says INSPECT the case fluid. “Nope, all three is how we do it!”. Morons don’t even follow their factory service requirements. So, I passed and let the Holy Automotive Spirit pretend to inspect it. I’ll get to it eventually.
Rise And Fall Of EV Hype In One Chart
GMC Hummer EV. Limited production and cheap interest rates pushed the price of the truck on the secondary market to as high as $275k. Those with reservations could purchase the EV for around $100,000 MSRP (and the smart ones sold on the secondary market).
Bring a Trailer auction results show a bunch of idiots paid a hefty premium for the Hummer EV, including $275k on April 1, 2022, $238k on May 23, 2022, and between Sept. 2022 and June 2023, more than a dozen sold over the $150k.
Now comes the fun part. Prices have been cratering this fall: On October 17, a Hummer EV sold for $122k…
NOTE…while several others failed to reach the reserve.
NOTE…The most recent one, on Wednesday, was unable to meet the reserve, with bidders only willing to pay up to $112k.
Own an EV?…lol…the used value just dropped…a lot….
According to Kelley Blue Book data, Tesla’s price war has pushed down new EV prices in September by more than 22% year over year, from $65,295 to $50,683. …screwing people already owning EV’s…..
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/rise-and-fall-ev-hype-one-chart
from zh comments…..
just make a truck that does have all the sensors, complex CANBUS/ECU, engine destroying mpg tech/emissions, automatic transmissions and other BS…… that was put on them so women & re-tards would drive them……… making a $20k truck $70k
EV means…. extraordinary vanity …..evaporating voltage….Exploding voltage…..
EV’s are cheaper to own?….haha…….Auto insurance has risen in the past few years but twice as much for an EV compared to ICE cars.
the government will buy up tons of EV’s and say the sector is booming! Then those paper weights will be dumped into the ocean. They’ll do anything to perpetuate their fraud of “climate change”.
Ford Dealer has Mach E’s stacked on top of each other because they can’t give them away. They also have Lightning F-150’s available at a discount. All those people that waited and paid $25k over have successfully lost about $50k on their Lightning pipe dream.
I like a vehicle I can park near my house without worry of it all burning down. Seems to me the gov should pay me to accept an EV on my property..
And Insurance companies are charging more too…………..for the car insurance and the homeowner insurance.
So I’m confused a bit here Did gm originally state the price (30K) for the lower trim level version (so 5 K off) or the RS trimmed version?
Your video in this article also brings up another aspect. This is going to be an incredible mugging opportunity for criminals. You are frustrated, distracted, mobility-crippled, and all of a sudden, you’re being mugged, and not just by the ‘gas’ pump. It’s one thing to be inconvenienced to the point of madness. Now you get to be unexpectedly vulnerable to predators, at the same time!
“Hey, I’ve got a great idea, let’s go jogging with a broken leg. Better yet, let’s do it downtown in the slums!” …….says no one, ever.
‘Once again, the “target” has been missed – as if Stevie Wonder were trying to hit a bullseye from 50 yards out.’ — eric
Say it ain’t so! Central planners at the Federal Reserve are engaged in the most precarious targeting exercise ever: trying to whittle inflation back down to two percent, while Clowngress runs two trillion dollar deficits. ‘Professional driver on closed course,’ Jerome Powell’s press conferences should be subtitled, as he executes verbal wheelies, spinouts and rooster tails.
Little glitches are starting to appear, though. This morning’s latest unemployment rate, 3.9%, is up half a point from its low of 3.4% in April. Historically, such half-point rises have flowered into full-fledged recessions.
Needless to say, makers of autos (the archetypal consumer discretionary product) face doom, doom, doom trying to peddle $50,000 EeeVees in a fading economy, to punters more worried about paychecks and paying the bills.
Even living in an EeeVee van down the river is a headache, when it leaks a dozen miles of range a day. And don’t even think about turning on the electric heater on a cold night. Just curl up in your tattered blankie and dream of dancing electrons, and sugar-plum fairies, and magical 900-mile range ba-a-a-a-a-a-tteries, which will arrive any day now. 🙂
A commenter on here, sorry I forget who, said it best “new products have to be 3 times better than the old one’s to make it” or something like that. Correct.
These Ev’s are 3 times worse for ‘traveling’.
‘Well, for openers, you’ll get about 1,500 additional pounds of deadweight to haul around.’ — eric
But … but … there’s so much more: ‘Standard features include a 17.7-inch color infotainment touchscreen … Google built-in technology and multiple saaaaafety features.’
https://archive.ph/SBLHW#selection-6991.94-6991.281
All anathema to me, as I ball up my fist and try to decide what to punch first.
“We think landing at $34,995 is in that ballpark there,” Chevy CMO Steve Majoros told reporters Monday. “I think that we’re pretty proud of where the price landed there.”
Majoros sounds like Barky O’Bummer posing as a normie: ‘Some folks got EeeVee’d there, yup … shit I reckon.’
‘Chevy’s first mainstream EV, the Bolt, will end production at the Orion plant at the end of this year to make way for retooling for the electric pickups.’
Frying pan to fire … Mary B, you are screwed, blued and tattooed. As I urge Congress Clowns in regard to their Ukie war, JUST STOP!
Nothing about current EVs makes sense to normal people.
I remember how ‘fun and novel’ it was to have a Pet Rock. That lasted all of one week. Of course, the modern Pet Rock, the EV, is considerably more expensive. Therefore, people have to pretend it’s such a great thing to have, at least for a length of time that justifies what they paid.
The cost of a pet rock was negligible, and you could even make your own. So it wasn’t difficult to get your money’s worth out of it, either. The EV is the total opposite case, and far more hazardous than the original Pet Rock.
Hilarious, Graves – thank you for brightening my day!
These people are deluded. Both the GM, Ford, their management and customers who buy these fad EV’s.
In the construction industry we’ve been polluted with the same green delusions for years with even more committed deluded Marxist architects at the helm. Developers were always thought of as some sort of land pirates, going green gave them political cover. They even gave it a name: LEED (leadership in Energy Environment Design). This was pushed by an NGO called the Green Building Council to create a rating system for green buildings. This was and still is in many jurisdictions required to engage to perform public work and forced thru permitting on some private work. Like all their Marxists dreams, it has had unintended consequences. First, it is like volunteering for an IRS audit with tons of old growth paperwork to be collected and filled out. These buildings are not necessarily more efficient than any other building, and you get very little credit for slaying the energy hog.
These buildings actually perform worse in comfort compared to a normal building. Only a Saint or fool architect would do all the LEED paperwork and design effort for less than $150K, and it can take months to years post construction to get your certification. The plaque needs to come with screws so that when the fanciful energy fads they install don’t pan out at the meter, the plaque can be removed.
Ford dealer insiders buy Mavericks and resell them to customers who can’t afford the EVs or the IC F150.
Try to find an F150 on a dealer lot for less than $60k. Maybe you will luck out in the fleet section of the lot, but the price will still be pushing $50k for a white, nearly-base trim.
LEED buildings have the added burden of being all electric buildings. Everyone touts the fact that a heat pump is (theoretically) greater than 100% efficient because it is just tranfering heat, not creating it. true enough. And in an apples-to-apples comparison to resistive baseboard it will save some money and possibly very quickly. But, like the EV’s MPE rating, they don’t account for the power station that burned gas in a turbine, nor delivery loss. My natural gas boiler/baseboard hot water system is about 97% efficient and will modulate itself depending on outside temperature, which makes it a little more efficient than the nameplate says. And despite a 25% rate O’Biden economic increase, is still far cheaper to operate than an electric heater, no matter how it works.
…….. LEED (leadership in Energy Environment Design). This was pushed by an NGO called the Green Building Council to create a rating system for green buildings. This was and still is in many jurisdictions required to engage to perform public work and forced thru permitting on some private work……
soon the slaves will be forced to upgrade their house to new green, net zero standards….$100,000’s later….. and all the appliances in it too….lol….
on top of rising property taxes and dropping property values due to QT and rising interest rates….
the stick to get them into 15 min city/prison camps…
the rural slaves will be forced out because the rural areas will be rewilded…..only the elite masters allowed in there….
A $30,000 EV wasn’t going to happen any more than a $40,000 half ton EV truck. The manufacturers knew this even before the pandemic created the “supply chain” issues.
I have wonder if Elon is going to blow up another massive rocket and do more damage to the South Texas coastal ecosystem at the end of the month to provide a distraction from the debacle that will be the Cybertruck launch.
Of course, the Feds will have to approve another explosion -er- flight.
The GM CEO who prostituted herself to government is in a big mess and I do not have any sympathy for her. That pie in the sky scheme has smashed in her face. I used to be a diehard GM supporter when they actually still made Oldsmobiles. I suspect bankruptcy will happen sooner rather than later. I guess those UAW employees will be soon kissing their jobs goodbye after the next bailout and the company reorganizes in China.
Seems to be a recurring thing. Somehow EVs magically become more “valuable” as time passes, even if they haven’t been made or sold yet. This whole EV charade is nothing more than a huge pile of equine excrement pie in the sky. Who buys EVs? Suckers who believe the mountain of lies they are told about them. They cost more, produce less, and don’t last as long. Simple economics.
You’re darn right. The contrast to so great in the case of the Equinox that you have to wonder about the psychological health of GM executives.
I feel guilty stealing post-it notepads from work, but these upper-management types are grifters on an entirely different level.
You have to wonder about their psychological health for even venturing into the EV market. Tesla owns it, what little there is of it.
What do they care? Their golden parachutes will be fine. The taxpayers will, again, make up for losses for self-inflicted wounds and government fiat alike.