There’s a rumor going around that one of the methods the people pushing EVs will use to make it less convenient to drive a vehicle that isn’t a device will be to decrease the amount of fuel new vehicles can carry (i.e., fit them with smaller gas tanks) so that people would have to stop more often for fuel – much the same as people who own devices have to stop more often for a charge.
It would work – so they hope – in the same general way that they hoped requiring speedometers to register no faster than 85 MPH – this was back int he late 1970s and into the early 1980s – would encourage (greasy word) people to hew closer to the then-in-force 55 MPH National Maximum Speed Limit.
It worked like “masks” worked to “stop the spread.”
Downsized gas tanks would “work” the same way.
It’d be an annoyance, of course, to have to stop twice a week for gas rather than just once. Just as it was annoying to not know how fast, exactly, you were going when you got going faster than 85 MPH (though it could be fun to crank the needle all the way around back to 10 or 20 MPH again, which you could do if you removed the stop that held the needle at 85 on the dial). But it would only be a minor inconvenience – just like not knowing how fast you were actually going.
The federally mandated 85 MPH speedos didn’t slow anyone down – and neither would the rumored downsized gas tanks.
Because it doesn’t take more than a few minutes to fill a gas tank. And it would take even less time to fill a smaller one.
Motorcycles make the point. The typical bike has a very small tank – relative to a car. Most have about 3.5 gallons’ capacity, give or take. And that’s why most bikes have relatively short ranges – typically 200 miles or so, which is comparable to the range of the shortest-range devices. But it’s never discouraged anyone from riding a motorcycle because the short-range isn’t a limitation, as it is with devices – because unlike a device, it only takes a couple of minutes to fully fill up a motorcycle’s tank.
As everyone knows by now, it takes at least 20-30 minutes to recover a partial (80 percent maximum) charge at the “fastest” of “fast” chargers. Even if that could be cut in half, it would still be more than twice as long – and most people just don’t have time for that. No doubt, this explains the piling up of unbought devices such as those made by Tesla. The relatively small pool of people willing to spend time waiting for a device to charge have already bought a device and now the “market” for devices is drying up like a puddle after a downpour in July after the sun breaks through the clouds.
Understandable panic is setting in – and not just among the EV pushers but also the vehicle manufacturers that bought into the pushing by pretending a “market” could be created for devices just by making lots of them. It seemed to work – at first – because there were some people who bought into the engineered mania for devices. These were mostly affluent Lefties who wanted to drive a device for the same reason that Lefties wanted everyone to wear a “mask.” Not because either “worked” – but because both aligned with an ideology.
Most people, on the other hand, just want to get where they need and want to go without wasting time getting there – or not being able to get there in time. So once word began to leach out about how much time a device owner had to spend charging a device and how much time had to be devoted to planning around charging a device, demand for devices began to dry up like the aforesaid puddle after a summer shower.
Desperation is beginning to set in. Hence the rumored desperation tactics, such as reducing the capacity of vehicle gas tanks. Another one that’s more than just a rumor is slowing down the rate at which gas pumps flow, so as to increase the amount of time people who don’t own a device have to waste fueling up. This could serve to “equalize” things between devices and vehicles. And it’s already being done at some gas stations – which have become mini-malls/grocery stores – in order to encourage people to spend more time buying other things. And to peddle things on them, via the obnoxious TeeVeee screens now built into many gas pumps.
And they could simply decree you’re only allowed to pump so much gas – and the pump won’t pump more than half a tank. Or less. This could be enforced via digital (no cash) payment, tying your ability to buy to the state’s permission – based on your social credit score or the exigencies of the “climate crisis.”
So, it’s not over yet.
Devices will not go gently into that good night – and neither will those who’ve been pushing them. It’ll take a push – from us – to make sure they do go into that good night, gently or not.
. . .
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They don’t even need gas tanks. They can force gas stations to slow down their pumps in the interests of preventing evaporative emissions. They could easily require stations to install pumps that have those corrugated hoses and then slow the pumps to 0.5gal per minute. No further regulation of the car industry required.
I finally got around to calculating the gas mileage for my daily driver Firebird with a 350. Driving it somewhat aggressively, it get’s about 12 MPG. Driving it somewhat conservatively, 13 MPG. I could probably get 15 if I tried.
That’s ok with me. I fill it up once a week and drive it like it’s supposed to be driven. I just try to stay out of the secondaries on the 4 barrel, because then you can almost see the needle moving on the fuel gauge. Though, the car sure likes it. It really makes it roar to life.
Lord help the man who tries to take this little joy of life from me. I’ll build it into a Firebird branded killdozer and go for one last memorable ride. As someone once said, “Sometimes reasonable men have to do unreasonable things.” LOL big talker.
Looks like some good news, on the “down-low” for the common man…
https://www.gminsidenews.com/threads/gm-changes-mind-about-v8-production.308821/
GM maybe starting to get broke from going woke???
One can hope….
I absolutely hate the fuel pumps which play commercials while I’m using them. I don’t need to be entertained dang it! Just leave me alone! I discovered the ‘mute’ function after a saint wrote it on the pump display at my local gas station. It’s worked at almost every station. I think the new displays at Circle K or Speedway can’t be muted.
‘There’s a rumor going around that one of the methods the people pushing EVs will use to make it less convenient to drive a vehicle that isn’t a device will be to decrease the amount of fuel new vehicles can carry (i.e., fit them with smaller gas tanks) so that people would have to stop more often for fuel – much the same as people who own devices have to stop more often for a charge.’
Automakers have been doing this with their pricing as well to speed up price equity with EVs….to normalize it and prepare people for 120 month contracts for your new device. [Or: free EV with 120 month service contract, just like a new iPhone].
Whatever, it’s devious and disgusting. And the Detroit [soon to be] BK Three have happily brought the rope to their own lynching.
Another aspect of this assault on ICE is making engines so small, miserable, overworked and cost cut that people will beg to be “saved” from unreliable ICE by an some sort of EV offering.
They are attacking from all fronts.
And to think, the book “The War Against The Automobile” was published in 1970
To allow EVs to compete with ICE vehicles they would have to lower the vehicle’s tank size to 3 gallons and ban portable gas cans. I hope I didn’t give them any ideas.
I hope this doesn’t give them any more ideas but, why are we “permitted” to pump our own gas? Isn’t that a hazard too far?
We need to get back to having only professionals, certified by GovCo, pumping this explosive liquid. NJ never took the bait to endanger “its citizens” [as in We Own Your Ass].
Just imagine the employment opportunities in the new regulatory apparat as well as Front Line Heroes Risking Their Lives To Fuel Our Cars.
How would this change Buccee’s business model?
Ever been to Oregon? I know they did that s%$t back in the 80s, pumping your own gas was a crime. The few times I ended up there, I committed that crime.
Eric,
Thanks 🙏🏻 for this post. That The Guv’ment has to, pardon the phrase, “gimp” Internal Combustion Engine powered vehicles to make battery 🔋 powered “devices” competitive reminds me of the “Balance of Performance” rules in sports car racing, or how NASCAR would “stage manage” racing (Oh, Chevrolet is winning and Ford isn’t? Well now Chevrolet has to run a bigger spoiler that adds more drag.).
I can choose not to watch sports car or NASCAR racing. Sadly I cannot avoid a bunch of Guv’ment pinheads that seek to ruin everything. Why cannot we ask “Who says?” Why can’t we ask who elected you? Nobody? Then go away. Sue them into oblivion.
Thanks, Mack!
It often feels as though I’m spitting into the wind, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing!
Hey Eric, et al,
Not spitting in the wind though I suspect once anybody older than about 35 currently has shuffled off this mortal coil, any free movement at all will have been outlawed…at least in this part of the world. I could be wrong, but my attitude is never comply, never submit.
Good morning, Giuseppe –
Indeed! Regardless of the outcome, it’s important to try to preserve the things that are necessary for civilization to endure – and to recover. It may not be for us to see civilization recover, but we can perhaps help the predicates for it survive. The future is important, even if it’s not our future.
I stopped watching NASCAR in 1992 when I became aware that they were using restrictor plates. I really dislike that “sport” because they place the driver above the support system for him or her. A win would be the result of cooperation between driver, engineers, builders, mechanic and track logistics. By putting restrictor, they choose to elevate some fragile ego versus the whole team that makes it possible.
They have been gimping cars for at least 15 years now, with the passage of 2007 gas mileage rules and the rest of the EPA and safety bullcrap.
I won’t be watching nascar nor will I ever buy a car made after about 2014 or so.
Smaller gas tanks? How about NO gas tanks, says John ‘Bozo’ Bozzella of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, an industry umbrella group which collaborates with Big Gov:
‘Just months after the EPA eased its final tailpipe emissions rules, NHTSA announced relaxed fuel economy standards for light-duty cars and trucks that would require an average fleet fuel economy of 50.4 mpg by the 2031 model year.
‘The nation’s top auto safety regulator said the new corporate average fuel economy standards for the 2027-31 model years will require a 2 percent per year improvement in fuel efficiency for cars. Light trucks will similarly need to see a 2 percent per year increase but only in the 2029-31 model years.’
“CAFE’s a relic of the 1970s — a policy to promote energy conservation and energy independence by making internal combustion vehicles more efficient,” Bozzella said. “But those vehicles are already very efficient. And EVs? They don’t combust anything. They don’t even have a tailpipe.” — Automotive News
https://archive.ph/yBK4O#selection-7563.13-7575.210
Bozo, of course, is lying out the wazoo. EeeVees are external combustion vehicles. Public utilities burn the hydrocarbons and expel them into the fouled sky through their giant smokestacks, after losing over half the energy content to unavoidable efficiency constraints. But let’s not speak of their dark satanic mills!
Next on Bozo’s agenda: the AAI notified car buyers that its members would make rear seat reminders standard on US vehicles by the model year 2025. Another feature we didn’t ask for. Another way for overchipped nanny vehicles to harangue and pester us.
One expects that vehicular homicides — meaning people like me blasting the nagging Clownscreen to smithereens with a load of buckshot — are becoming more common. Kill your device! Then set it on fire, whether it’s got a gas tank or not. 🙂
And in other News of the Stupid:
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-06-07/new-air-quality-rule-gas-water-heaters-pools
>In one of the biggest moves to reduce air pollution in the past decade, Southern California air regulators on Friday adopted a rule that will require pool and hot tub owners to go electric.
>The rule will lead to the replacement over three decades of more than 1 million gas-burning appliances — including an estimated 700,000 pool heaters and 300,000 tankless water heaters — with zero-emissions technology.
Well, no, actually offsite emissions technology. The natural gas will get burned in a power plant, heat water to make steam, which will drive a steam turbine to generate electricity, which will get transmitted through power lines, losing some along the way.
The possibility of using sunlight to heat water directly onsite is evidently not addressed, though this is a simple technology which has been around for decades.
In other news, the California Department of Agriculture is continuing research into the development of California Electric Oak trees (Quercus electrophorum) which, if successful, will allow this novel new species to be tapped directly for electrical fluid, analogous to the way sugar maples are tapped for syrup in Vermont.
Roble electrico, they call it in Spanish — the árbol milagroso that can light up your casa, if you plant a couple in the front yard.
It’s the greatest thing since fusion in a jar. And it’s as natural as Governor Gavin’s shiny white teeth.
Rock down to Electric Avenue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuwxZSIS__4
Why can’t NG be burned directly in a gas turbine, vs. using it to heat water, make steam, and turn a steam turbine with it? Wouldn’t it be more efficient to just use NG to fire a gas turbine, which would turn the generator?
NG gas turbines exist. Steam turbines came first, in the coal age. Coal can be burned in a boiler to make steam, but can’t be burned directly in a gas turbine.
These days, both are used in combined cycle plants:
Gas turbine –> heat recovery steam generator –> steam turbine
It is, that’s why GE (General Electric) makes jet engines. They started out with stationary turbines for peaking plants.
Electric Vehicle Panacea Crashing In California And America
from ZH comments….
The entire climate change/Net Zero narrative is BS – the goal isn’t green energy and EV’s for everyone – the goal is 500 million people living in 15 minute cities on a techno-feudal prison planet…..7.5 billion…gone….
This is why they’re not bothering to build any EV charging infrastructure.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/electric-vehicle-panacea-crashing-california-and-america
Why are they pushing 25 mpg…$50,000 coal powered EV’s….that have zero residual value after 10 years when the battery is screwed….
Buy a diesel use far less fuel…less polution….
Highest MPG Diesel Cars In The World…top 20
mileage of 78.4 mpg, the Peugeot 208 BlueHDi 100 S/S takes joint first place.
mileage of 78.4 mpg, the Audi A2 1.2 TDI 3L takes joint first place.
mileage of 78.4 mpg, the Volkswagen Lupo 3L TDI takes joint first place.
mileage of 75.9 mpg, the Peugeot 308 BlueHDi 120 S/S takes fourth place.
https://www.encycarpedia.com/us/top/best-mpg-diesel-cars
Don’t buy a $50,000 EV…get a VW diesel and get real fuel economy…
This guy bought a 2011 Volkswagan Passat.. 1.6 tdi diesel.. blue motion for 2500 pounds…$3281
It gets 45 mpg city 65 mpg highway…
A coal powered EV gets 25 mpg…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhGaBfFG80o
2011 Volkswagan Passat.. 1.6 tdi diesel.. blue motion
1200 mile range highway….
Here we’re in complete agreement, choom.
Buy a diesel, a 90s LJ73 would be ideal for me, and use that to commute for less than the price of a Douche Buggy (EV)
2014 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Torque enough to pull your house off the foundation, 35 mph highway typically 28 city. 29 gallon tank.
Jacksonville Fl to Denver Co. Got fuel once along the way, still had 1/4 tank on arrival, with testing 130.on I-70.
VW Polo Mk5, rented for 3 week holiday across Italy, never saw less than 75 mpg touring from Rome to Naples, Amalfi coast up the eastern coast to Venice, Milan, Florence back to Rome.
If you can get 50 miles per gallon, a 10 gallon tank will have 500 miles of distance you can go.
Five gallons will be all you need to have 250 miles of distance, plenty of gas then.
A five gallon tank, all you will need.
Farm tractors and semis can have 30 gallon tanks, no more.
No more 50 gallon saddle tanks for 500 bushel box farm trucks to haul grain to the elevator.
Train engines can have tanks that are 300 gallons, not 1500.
Air Force One can have a maximum of 5000 gallons of jet fuel, not 54,000.
Gotta be fair across the board.
What more do you want? Eggs in your beer?
Up here, that sometimes happens when it is really cold. One of the gas stations I use, sometimes the pumps work veeeeery slowly during the Winter, which is highly annoying. However, it is still far better than than an unreliable, EV. So, I sit in the car, and screw around on my phone while I wait. It will be a cold day in hell before many of us give up our ICE vehicles for a stupid EV. So what if the gas tank is only 10 gallons or less? It still takes far less time to fill it than charging a battery. And, like Mike in Boston says, just keep a five gallon jug of the stuff in your trunk, when “they” decide how much you will be “allowed” to have in one sitting. Won’t let you charge multiple times on one credit card? Get several, and charge what you can on multiple cards. Do these people (who hate our guts, and the freedom we have with ICE vehicles) seriously think we will not find a way around this? I say they can go straight to hell, and I will give them map and directions if they do not know the way, ’cause I was born and raised there.
Well…..hypothetically,
A vehicle which uses less fuel requires a smaller tank to achieve the same range as one which uses more fuel. So, a 25mpg car would require a 16 gal tank for a 400 mi range, whereas a (hypothetical) 50 mpg vehicle would only need an 8 gal tank for the same range. At 6 lb/gal, you would also be carrying 6*8 = 48 lb less fuel. Not much, but perhaps noticeable.
My ’89 F150 gets 15mpg highway officially,
https://fueleconomy.gov/feg/bymodel/1989_ford_f150_pickup.shtml
which means it requires 7.1 gal to travel 100 miles. With a fuel capacity of ~30 gal (2 tanks), the range is ~423 mi. That’s 180 lb of fuel at every fill up. And believe me, I do notice the difference between fully FOB and “running on empty.” As they say, YMMV.
Buy your allotted fuel. Then drive one block to the next station and finish fueling. Use a different credit card in case they monitor cards. Idiots.
If they pull that crap I’ll do what I did during the gas “shortage” back in 1974, keep a couple five gallon cans of gas securely strapped in the trunk.
The government could build on this small gas tank idea by mandating smaller grocery store shopping carts. By limiting the amount of food you could buy at any one time, it might fool some into thinking the cost of their food was not increasing so aggressively.
Hi Bill,
Don’t give them any ideas 😆
Grocery stores already do this to you, by decreasing the sizes of food packages. Check out how many weird sizes of packages you can find, all of which no doubt were once a size which was an integer multiple of common units, such as 16 oz, etc. Ain’t da gummint, in this case. It is corporate ‘Merica.
And then of course we have the “ingredients.”
Is there any actual cream in store bought “ice cream?” Doubt it.
Read the packaging, if you dare.
I use a cheap, Suave hair conditioner to make my own fabric softener (6 cups distilled water, 3 cups white vinegar, 2 cups of your favorite hair conditioner, for anyone interested). I buy the “Family Size”, so I get more uses. I noticed last year that the “Family Size” is not anymore, as it decreased in size by 11 ounces. I do not know how in the hell they can call that a “Family Size” any more. More like a “normal size”, and the “normal” must be for someone who is losing their hair, and probably does not need the stuff anymore. All I could do is roll my eyes, and wonder if these manufactures thought we were all stupid enough not to notice the shrinkage.
A “pound” of coffee hasn’t been 16 oz for decades.
Last time I checked, it was down to something like 10 or 10.5 oz.
Pretty soon it’ll be a half-pound & I suppose the cycle will start all over again.
The raghead gas station owners will be happy to charge another transaction fee and sell overpriced cokes, chips, etc.
I doubt most ICE drivers would even notice, and if they did, it’s not going to convince them to buy an EV they can’t afford. However, nearly all EV drivers most assuredly DO notice the half hour at a not very fast “fast” charger, or the all night charge at a level 2 charger, or the much longer wall current charge, at home.
We are being deliberately tortured into a much lower standard of living. They don’t care if you can’t afford any vehicle, because they have destroyed the value of your money. Suits them just fine.
“Another one that’s more than just a rumor is slowing down the rate at which gas pumps flow, so as to increase the amount of time people who don’t own a device have to waste fueling up. This could serve to “equalize” things between devices and vehicles.”
THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal
before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.
-HARRISON BERGERON by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
https://ia803002.us.archive.org/25/items/HarrisonBergeron/Harrison%20Bergeron.pdf
Like 1984, Brave New World, and other dystopian fiction our “leaders” saw those prescient novels not as dire warnings but as ‘instruction manuals’. It is scary how much closer we inch towards Harrison Bergeron every year as the “Equity” bullshit just keeps getting ratcheted tighter & tighter.
Well of course! They assume they will be the Alphas. Even poor thoughtful Bernard wouldn’t trade his perfect society for a day out in the badlands. While we’re supposed to think we’d be John the Savage, in reality we’d likely turn out to be like poor Linda, cut off from her tribe and doomed to be a drunk and pining for her good old days of vapid but orderly and clean lifestyle.
Beats the hell out of having to hunt for your supper.
And the assumption is that we’ll all be alphas. Oh no, if you actually read the book thoughtfully, you know the goal was to make everyone just fine with their place in the universe. Or at least get them to be compliant and unassuming. The gammas weren’t programmed to want to do anything but be gammas, the epsilons weren’t capable of comprehending anything other than the bare minimum of ideas. There are no tall blades of grass, just perfect soulless uniformity.
‘to peddle things on them, via the obnoxious TeeVeee screens now built into many gas pumps.’ — eric
Many websites, when you attempt to land on or leave them, stick you with a Google Vignette:
‘You can choose how often vignette ads are shown to your users. Vignettes are shown when a user leaves a page or comes back to it.
‘The default vignette frequency is set to 10 minutes. You can choose your own frequency from 1 minute to 1 hour. If you’re looking to earn as much as possible from vignettes, you might select the lowest frequency setting (1 minute).’
https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/13956167?hl=en
Ads every minute — even network TeeVee didn’t go that far. Evil Google makes the best case for corporate capital punishment.
I hate what Google did to YouTube, where if you fail to hit stop or replay in the final seconds, YouTube jumps to another vid that you didn’t want or ask for. That’s obnoxious. But what would one expect from a couple of grasping peddlers named Brin and Page?
Had a new 79 Honda CB 750 Super Sport with that stupid 85mph speed-o….It bury it in 2nd gear. Three more to go….didn’t slow me down…. Everything goberment touches they f$%k up.