One of the reasons why the public is beginning to become hesitant about buying into battery-powered vehicles is the disingenuous manner in which they’ve been presented to people.
There is this ludicrous business of “fast” charging, for one thing. It is no such thing. It is merely not as slow as other forms of charging, as at home (which is so slow you almost might as well walk to where you need to go in that you might just get there before the EV is ready to drive there) which is not the same thing as fast.
It takes at least 20-30 minutes to recover a partial charge at a “fast” charger. Observe that they almost never mention the italicized part. To get a full charge takes much longer.
To characterize either as “fast” when it takes less than five minutes to fully refuel a gas-powered car is etymologically malicious, because it is meant to manipulate people into using a term to describe something that is the opposite of what the term is generally understood to mean.
The same etymological maliciousness manifested during the “pandemic,” which wasn’t that, either. At least not in terms of what most people understood the term to mean (that being a mass die-off event such as the plague of the Middle Ages or even the Spanish Flu of the early 20th century).
Well, here’s another – except it’s visually malicious.
EVs have range and charge remaining indicators. The range indicators (and this is based on personal experience driving a dozen different makes/models of EVs) always indicate optimistically, to the tune of 10 percent (typically) in my experience. As a most-recent for-instance, I drove a 2024 Ford Lightning to my friend Graves’ shop and back, a round trip of 47 miles. When I left my place, the indicator indicated 167 miles of range remaining. When I got back home, it said there were 111 miles remaining – an actual loss of 56 miles of range.
Extrapolating from this, I don’t actually have 111 miles of range remaining. More like 100 – and it’s actually less than that because unlike a gas-powered car – which can be run down to almost-empty without worry, because it’s easy (and fast) to get gas – if you run out of charge it is not easy to (or fast) to get more. It is also hard – on the battery – which is the most expensive part of the EV. It is therefore advisable to take good care of it – and this entails avoiding heavily discharging or “fast” charging it.
Effectively – and paradoxically – this means if you use the EV’s maximum range (and deplete the charge) you will use up the battery faster. More accurately, you risk reducing its service life – its capacity to receive and hold a full charge.
But if you don’t make full use of the EV’s maximum range – by not depleting the available charge – the available range is significantly less than advertised. Not counting the additional 10 percent less you (typically) can’t actually go vs. how far the indicator says you can.
Of course, you could limit how far you drive – and accept having to wait all day for a (slow) charge – in order to extend the useful life of the battery. But then you have an Occasional Use Vehicle (OUV) which is perhaps a better – because more honest – acronym than EV.
There’s more, too.
The charge remaining indicator says there’s “53 percent” charge remaining – and this is technically true. But it is also arguably deceptive in that you only have – in the case of the Lightning I’m driving that I’m using to explain this business – 111 miles of indicated range remaining.
Most people are used to driving gas-powered cars and when such a person sees a display that says “53 percent” they probably associate that with a half-full tank. When you have a half-full gas tank, you don’t need to be thinking about stopping for gas anytime soon because you still have a long way to go – before you’re close to running out.
But in a gas-powered car, the low fuel light would be coming on soon because 111 miles is not far from empty. It is where you’d be if you only had about three or maybe four gallons of gas left in the tank, which isn’t much and nowhere near half a tank.
It is more like a fourth of a tank – optimistically.
And – again – it’s not even that. Because of the need to avoid discharging the entirety of the range remaining (so as to avoid over-working the battery) and because of the time it takes to get more charge vs. gas. Especially if you don’t charge “fast.”
Is it any wonder people are becoming hesitant about buying into this EV business?
The more interesting wonder is why the government is indulgent toward these misrepresentations. Does anyone think the government would indulge the manufacturer of vehicles it claimed were “clean” – i.e., completely compliant with every jot and tittle of federal regulations – when they were just slightly less so?
Ask VW about that.
How about Hyundai – which got in trouble with the government a few years ago for mildly exaggerating the distance its cars would go on a gallon of gas?
But for some reason, EVs are indulged.
They can be sold to people using deceptive advertising. For example, “MPGe” – which is used to psychologically exaggerate how far an EV can go by marketing EVs as being capable of – as an example – “90 MPGe” when the thing has a maximum range of 250 miles. People read “90 MPGe” and they think – or are encourage to think – that the EV goes three times as far as a gas car that gets only 30 MPG (no “e”).
And by getting them to use the term “fast” to describe that which is very slow.
But when they find out how far they can actually go – and that “53 percent” actually means almost-nothing-left – their hesitancy is like to increase even more.
. . .
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Enough to drive housing prices in Sparks to unaffordable ?
$97K is the price you pay to be bored to death driving this abomination. The only feature that interrupts its boring monotony is the occasional panic as to whether or not you will get where you’re going, let alone back home again. Paying top dollar for constant uncertainty is beyond me, and must take a special kind of ‘stupid’ to own, combined with the funds to do so. Like the “Tesla Truck’, this is just a toy for the virtue signalling narcissists with more money than brains.
The entire EV hoax is being driven by fake existential threat, that a small increase in a TRACE gas with cause the world to boil. It ain’t true, and here is a chart that has been scrubbed from the web, Goolag Ziopredators don’t want you to see this chart:
https://principia-scientific.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Greenhouse-gases-compared-to-whole-atmosphere-1.jpg
I used to use it on a regular basis in my global warming hoax blog, that was taken down by Goolag Blogger, because it is a devastating graphical representation of what they are trying to get you to fear – fear the trace gas carbon dioxide – which is currently near the lowest concentration in earth’s 4.6 billion year history. Plants evolved in much higher CO2 levels, which is why higher CO2 levels cause plants to grow twice as fast.
Here is an essay I wrote 10 years ago, and nothing has changed, CO2 is still a trace gas, and it still isn’t causing runaway warming, and it can not, not now, not in the future, and never in the past. Earth has had ice age epochs with CO2 over 7,000 ppm, 10x higher than today, and CO2 did not stop ice age progression nor did it end it. CO2 and temp have never been correlated.
https://www.veteranstodayarchives.com/2013/11/06/global-warming-cargo-cult/
“Monster Trucks
Yeah … Global Warming is real. Sure it is. That’s why the average American glutton drives a 6,000 lb vehicle. If any of this BS was real and we were all going to die from catastrophic runaway warming from CO2 emissions then why does everyone drive a carbon spewing monster SUV?
Ford is now selling F-850 pickup trucks, jokingly referred to on the internet as the Ford Apocalypse. I’m not sure that is big enough or macho enough for my tastes. I think they need to upgrade the assembly line from 4×4’s to 6×6’s, when 8,000 pounds won’t cut the demand then you need to upgrade to another axle. You never know when you might need the extra traction, their are terrerists out there, and maybe some day you’ll need to run over a mob of zombies.
What every Congressman needs, an F-650 XUV protection from the plebs. Notice the extra large bumpers that can be used for bumper stickers like “I Love AIPAC” and to run over angry constituents.
What every Congressman needs, an F-650 XUV protection from the plebs. Notice the extra large bumpers that can be used for bumper stickers like “I Love AIPAC” and to run over angry constituents.
I can remember when a Nissan was a Datsun and small. Not anymore, who wants a wimpy rice burner when you can have a behemoth SUV 4WD that intimidates your neighbors as you rev 5.8 liters of carbon blowing V-8 power. If any of this CO2 baloney was real we wouldn’t be allowed to buy anything like what you see on the road today. And that Nissan, what’s it called? Armada. They named a bloated yuppie wagon after a naval battle group.
I have some euphemisms for new cars. The Chevy C4 Catastrophe. The Dodge D9 Destroyer. The Toyota T1 Terminator. The Mercedes MI6 Mobster. The Volvo V2 Vendetta. I’m sure any of those names will be appealing regardless of how it looks. Just make sure its big, ugly, badass, and doesn’t get more than 1.8 mpg and I’m sure it will sell.
My favorite is the Ford Armageddon Zombie Smasher, Special Annihilator Edition 6×6. In case you are losing traction and slipping on slimy road kill zombie guts you can engage the extra axle with special anti-slip zombie traction feature. With the optional V-12 diesel you’ll be sure to have enough power if 20 or more are hangin’ on as you speed away. Just imagine crammin’ your foot on the accelerator and the twin turbos kicking in and the twin stacks blowin’ out a huge black cloud of carbon soot that blinds the zombies to your escape route.
There’s all kinds of featured upgrades we need for the times. Make sure the tailpipe aims at the sucker behind you, that is tempting feature consumers want. Route the tailpipe up high and aim it back at driver height, maybe put a set of cross hairs in the pipe. Sends that special message to the one behind you honking when you’re stuck in traffic.
I’m surprised the car manufactures haven’t caught on to the trend in AR15’s that come with accessory rails. I think every SUV ought to have missile rails built in like the roof rack. Even if you can’t afford a surface to air rocket it would be cool to have the rail on the roof. More macho than that Thule Bike rack. Like who bikes anyways, who wants to peddle when gas is only $4.50 a gallon? So get rid of that old school yuppie bike rack and mount on some F-15 Sidewinder missile rails. Now that is cool and would match the end times decor of the F-650 Zombie Obliteration Mobile (that’s ZOM for short).
We need to stimulate the economy with increased missile sales, Raytheon should start producing consumer models and sell them at Walmart. The consumer loves to fantasize about launching missiles at that RV’s hogging two lanes. “Get out my damn way, or I’m goin’ to be late to the Al Gore’s Global Warming Convention”. It’s real cool when you launch one, a big white plume exhaust trail that blinds both lanes of traffic causing a 50 car pile up and makes everyone gag. Think of the economic stimulus.
Cognitive Dissonance of the American Culture
In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the discomfort experienced when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting cognitions: ideas, beliefs, values or emotional reactions. In a state of dissonance, people may sometimes feel “disequilibrium”: frustration, hunger, dread, guilt, anger, embarrassment, anxiety, etc
Our culture is strangely insane. On one hand we have Chicken Littles convinced of runaway global warming and on the other hand we drive giant CO2 emitting vehicles. Does that make any sense? If death by warming was imminent then why are we driving Suburbans and Zombie Smashers?”
Look up Robocop and Pontiac 6000 SUX
In the short story “The Marching Morons” by C.M. Kornbluth one of the more interesting plot elements was a turbine-driven automobile. It was quite large, very loud and the dashboard had a myriad of switches, gauges and controls. The speedometer went to ~200 MPH. However the protagonist described the trip to Chicago as a leisurely pace of about 35 MPH, even though the speedometer read much faster.
The spoiler is that of course it was only traveling at 35 MPH. The last of the “intelligent overseers” designed the car to move slower but report high speed to keep the morons from killing themselves. What isn’t mentioned in the story is how long it actually took to get to Chicago, or did the overseers just designate a city in New Jersey as “Chicago?”
At what point do they try to reset the mile and redraw the maps to make EVs “practical?”
I remember a time not too long ago, when it didn’t matter what political party we associated ourselves with. Nearly all of us agreed on one thing: moral boundaries should never be crossed. In other words, NO ONE has the right to strip ANY innocent human being of their basic, God-given rights to live FREELY and INDEPENDENTLY, regardless of one’s thoughts and opinions.
What we are seeing with these EVs, et al, is that it’s all part of an agenda SO evil and malignant, that it’s no longer a mere political issue, but rather, a SPIRITUAL war. These satanic bastards are deliberately trying to strip EVERYTHING from us that makes life worth living, thereby reducing us to mere vegetation status, and even THAT won’t be enough. Unlike Hitler, Mussolini, Castro, and Stalin (etc.), they want a SLOW and PAINFUL death to ~95% of humanity. They think that all they have to do is continue to “make it rain”, and everyone will simply turn a blind eye. But as we all know, one can only deny reality for so long. After the virtue-signaling dildos enjoy their “15 minutes of fame”, they will soon find out that it’s THEIR turn to sacrifice/be sacrificed. Once that happens, there will no doubt be a bloodbath that the world has never seen before.
“Occasional Use Vehicle (OUV).” This is a good one. I plan to use it regularly.
Hunga Tonga Pacific Ocean floor eruption added 146 Tg of water vapor into the atmosphere.
The height of the volcano’s blast traveled 58 km up to the stratosphere.
Tg, Tera grams, 1 trillion grams.
Probably the warmest mid-autumn weather in a long time.
Termites produce three percent of all of the natural methane emissions on the planet. Termite habitat is expanding, more termites than ever.
Just have to start eating termites, population control of termites can be done if you eat enough of them. You can reduce methane produced by termites and have bugs to eat.
Humans will become anteaters. Just live with the termites in South America, won’t need no EV.
It just is not going to happen, methane doesn’t stop, doesnt go away, always plenty of it.
At the next WEF, Klaus can have a termite feast.
It is my humble opinion that us boomers are of the last generation who took science and technology seriously, with a hunger to know how and why things work as they do. Us boomers had electrical and mechanical systems that we could work on and improve ourselves. Basic scientific principles were taught in school and reinforced with hands-on experimentation.
In today’s climate (and the climate of two previous generations) experimentation on the level of the 1950s and 1960s is seen as “too dangerous”. I can remember the chemistry sets of the day being sold with toxic compounds which could be used for nefarious (and fun) purposes. Such sets are banned today.
Today’s prime example of the public’s scientific stupidity being pushed by political considerations is that of electric vehicles, most people (even supposedly “educated” types) enthusiastically jumping on the bandwagon despite the major deficiencies and problems these vehicles have.
Let’s look at the technical side of electric vehicles vs. ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles. Range is a large factor in the desirability of ICE vehicles vs. today’s electric vehicles. One can fuel up an ICE vehicle in approximately five minutes and be on his way.
Not so for electric vehicles. Quite often electric vehicle charging stations are few and far between, which contributes to “range anxiety”. For short hops and city driving, electric vehicles can be an ideal solution, but for extended “road trips” forget it.
Electric vehicle batteries lose power even when the vehicle is not in use. (This is akin to a gasoline vehicle with a leaky gas tank). Add to that, cold weather and the use of accessories (air conditioning, heat, lights, etc) will reduce range considerably. Electric vehicles may be somewhat suitable for a California climate, but will fail in sub-zero Michigan winter snow and ice.
Batteries can be charged only to 80% of full capacity as overcharging will reduce battery life considerably. “Fast charging” is also detrimental to battery life. It’s all about time and convenience vs. battery life.
Gasoline and diesel fuel has an large energy content (density) in a small package, something that, in their present stages of development, electrical vehicles cannot achieve.
Let’s make a comparison…gasoline contains approximately 33.7 kwh per gallon. A gallon of gasoline weighs approximately 6.1 lbs. The typical ICE vehicle can hold about 15 gallons of gasoline with a weight of approximately 90 lbs. total, with a total energy content of approximately 500 kwh.
High-end electric vehicles have an energy capacity of approximately 120 kwh. This is equal to less than four gallons of gasoline. The typical electric vehicle has a 75 kwh battery pack, equivalent to approximately 2 ½ gallons of gasoline.
Keep in mind that the battery pack weight is well over 2000 lbs (1 ton) and still has a limited energy capacity compared to gasoline. The typical electric vehicles weighs approximately 2 ½ tons (5000 lbs.), having to haul around a heavy battery pack. This also contributes to “wear and tear” on other automotive systems such as brakes and tires. (Yes, I am aware that regenerative braking exists and is a part of electric vehicle technology).
From an environmental standpoint, lithium is nasty stuff, reacts with water violently and is much more volatile than gasoline. Electric vehicle accidents are much more hazardous than those of ICE vehicles. Water cannot be used to put out a lithium battery pack fire.
Yes, gasoline is dangerous, but we have learned to control it and live with it successfully for over 100 years.
Most of today’s generation do not understand scientific principles; hence the enthusiasm for electric vehicles which are “not yet ready for prime-time”. The inability of today’s generation to understand basic scientific engineering principles is responsible for their gullibility and ignorance.
Hey Anarchyst,
Spot on analysis. Interestingly enough, certain otherwise intelligent young people seem to persist in the idea that everything wrong in the world can be lain at the foot of Boomers. It’s ironic that some people who espouse individualist rhetoric can fall into such a collectivist intellectual trap. That said, I have not lost all hope in young people though I truly believe that the West is in a state of rapid decline and that most young people are not psychologically prepared for what the future holds….hell, I know I’m not but my expiration date is a lot closer than most folks. We are in the midst of very interesting, in the Chinese curse sense, times and I’m afraid the best individuals can do is establish parallel communities, either virtual or physical, to build something positive in the shitstorm that is brewing…..pass the popcorn. Hey, at least the election of Milei in Argentina has shaken up a few of the assholes in charge….
P.S. – it is interesting that when you bring up facts related to EVs, the cheerleaders for those vehicles react with anger and sometimes violence, but always name calling….
Hi anarchyst,
Very well said, unfortunately I think the lack of actual science training in the public schools is a feature, not a bug. I’m the leading edge of the so-called boomer generation (born 1947) and I learned lots of valuable stuff from physics and shop classes. I remember having a Gilbert chemistry set that had vials of mercury in it; would coat pennies with it and try to pass them off as dimes 😆. Most schools nowadays no longer have shop classes, got to teach everyone to code computers I guess. If you want to learn an actual useful trade you need to go to one of the regional tech schools, which I highly recommend. My nephew went to one and is now a master electrician with more business than he can handle, while his brother, who went to college, is still bouncing from one crappy job to another.
Most everyone tinkered with “stuff” in a basement or garage workshop, spent summers building scooters and go carts out of cast off plywood and 2x4s. Jr High age building model rockets (Estes) and gas powered line control planes. Sr High it was cars, part time job to pay for it. Now? Cars can’t be tinkered, apartment dwellers have no shop space, kids parked in front of a computer.
Some hope, grandson is in a Sr High metal shop where they, gasp, learned arc welding! He and I build model planes and he flys them and gramps drone too.
In ’61 my dad obtained one of those homebrew projects. My tiny electric go kart was powered by a rechargeable battery big enough to keep it glued to the ground. Big enough pillow and I could mash that pedal till it stuck. What 3 year old wouldn’t want one?
Wasn’t long before I noticed how Dads fuse was directly disproportionate in length to my cars battery range. . .
That soon well cursed TOY was nothing but another problem Dad hadn’t imagined. I was bored with the BS in short order. AT 3 !
That lesson still sticks 6 decades later.
re: lack of Science principles
As a fellow boomer (late), it baffles me that the Scientific foundations we learned “Carbon is the building block of life” isn’t thrown in their faces and Carbon Dioxide is the food plants need to give us a “Green” world
That’s the first thing I say to people who start spouting off about “carbon footprints” and such… “Why do you hate plants and trees?”
They have no comeback, ever.
I love the Kwh reference. So now I’m going to inform stupid people that my truck has a 1000kwh capacity, (what’s yours got?). Thanks for that.
Personally I’m on the cusp, born mid 1964, I’ve always said I was gen X and felt I was following a ravening plague of locusts through life. What you say is true, but the boomers also were too busy enjoying their good times to do their duty and keep the crazies in line. Eventually the radical boomers left their counterculture and became yuppies, the hippie chicks became feminist harridans and sent out to destroy men and manhood, that subset of crazies set out to rule the world and mostly succeeded. The 60’s hippie became the 70’s/80’s yuppie and implemented their utopian state. Can’t blame all the boomers, but still…
Many of the problems of the electric car can be solved, but the most unforgivable thing you mention is the loss of that precious energy just sitting for hours or days. My gasoline will go bad but it takes a few years (gasohol a few weeks) and my diesel will keep for decades. Nobody with any knowledge of reality accepts an everyday artifact which just goes bad. It’s like a razor which goes dull in a day whether used or not, what kind of idiot would accept such a thing?
It appears establishment media is once again engaging in fear mongering about how the planet is going to DIE unless gas is “Banned now!” while politicians and psychopaths are meeting at the climate change conference called COP 28. They’re even claiming that 2023 is the “Hottest year ever!” Of course, the establishment won’t be giving up THEIR private jets and steak dinners. They want the little people to give up THEIR gas powered vehicles, gas stoves, and to quit eating meat. To paraphrase Marie Antionette, “Let them eat bugs!”
It has become increasingly obvious that these people pushing this crap are either quite arrogant, insane, or downright evil.
Summer 2023 was hot in Texas, and while the heat wasn’t record setting, the temperatures and lack of rain made quite an impression on the masses of transplanted West Coast residents who have moved here since the last truly record setting Summer in … 2007? Maybe 2008?
Hottest year ever. Climate change! Methane! Looks like methane is on deck now so they can push the nat gas bans.
The brainwashing is working as planned, Seattle low lying areas in the news due to recent king tides. The News interviewed a resident that got flooded the prior year, her first statement blamed “climate change”! Another interview re lack of early snow in our low lying mt. areas, some women “there was always snow here by now” yet she’s only lived there for 10 years. Newsflash, I drove over the pass in mid December ‘91 to pick up a trailer, no snow even at the top of the pass till late December that year. “Snow happens” well, sometimes it doesn’t.
‘People read “90 MPGe” …’ — eric
MPGe is a fake metric. It excludes thermal power plant efficiency, which when taken into account slices MPGe by about two thirds. By contrast, the unavoidable efficiency loss from burning fuel in an internal combustion engine is fully included in traditional MPG.
Apples and oranges, in other words. Yet they are invalidly averaged together in computing CAFE (Corporate Average Fleet Economy).
MPGe — along with $7,500 tax credits and “Biden’s” new $190 per ton ‘social cost of carbon’ — is just another fraudulent ploy to tilt the playing field in favor of EeeVees.
Like carefully filling out forms in triplicate at a concentration camp, the MPGe sham masquerades as ‘legally compliant’ when its underlying basis is wholly illegitimate, malicious and wrong.
Doesn’t it also Exclude transmission losses?
And conversion losses. Electricity, as wonderful as it is suffers from inefficiency at the generator, losses in the lines, losses every time it is transformed. That’s why Tesla the man was so obsessed with wireless/quantum transmission. But if it doesn’t travel through a wire it can’t be metered and sold…
Hence if we lose control of the oil supply it’s back to horses and buggies . . .
Sadly the infrastructure is almost gone to support a horse and buggy based transportation system and bringing your horse to the Vet will make bringing your truck to the mechanic seem affordable.
Actions speak louder than words – why else would Bill Gates be buying up farmland because the future is Amish.
From Automotive News:
“Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints, report says”
Also available at Reuters (for those who experience a paywall from Automotive News):
Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints
Hi Stufo –
Thanks for this! It’s of a piece, eh? And the government is complicity silent about the fraud being sold to people.
I wonder why?
Hi Eric,
Crazy. The government went after Volkswagen several years ago for allegedly cheating on its emissions tests, but are silent with regard to this. Makes one wonder if the EV lobby has the same influence over the government that Big Pharma does.
From the Reuters article:
“I do love my Tesla,” the engineer said. “But I have just tempered my expectation of what it can do in certain conditions.”
Final line in the book 1984: “He loved Big Brother”
“We would like to cancel your visit.” […]
some employees celebrated canceling service appointments”…
Wow. …Just, wow.
Unreal. And people still buy those things by the hundreds of thousands a year.
Electric vehicles suck.
Amiga Forever.
Don’t worry. Once enough of those dildos either burn up (both from the summer heat and the Li-ion battery fires) or freeze to death, something will be done. Just gotta let nature take its course.
Buried lede is that a service appointment costs Tesla $1000! What the heck are they paying their techs?