I am often accused of being an EV-hater, in that I write so often about the shortcomings of said vehicles and, more often, the uncertainty of keeping them alive, so to speak.
I don’t hate EVs. If I still lived where I used to live in Chicago, I would almost certainly be tempted by, say, an electric Smart Fortwo* or something similarly tiny with which I could make my way around the city in small, convenient trips to get stuff (like groceries) that are a huge PITA to carry around on the bus or in a taxi, both of which are in steady supply in Chicago. In fact, the real utility of an EV in such a scenario comes not in the little trips to and from the supermarkets, book stores and liquor stores, but in trips slightly further afield, such as trips to the racecourse, a concert venue like Rosemont and similar suburban destinations. You see, while getting a trip out there is no big deal, finding a cab or bus for the return trip can be problematic (ask me how I know this).
And if I lived in a coastal town e.g. somewhere in Florida, I could equally be tempted into using an electric runaround like an e-Moke for those little trips to restaurants, beaches and yes, supermarkets and liquor stores.
However, there are several drawbacks to owning an EV as one’s primary (or only) transport, principal of which is that the EV market presupposes a convenient, reliable and unending supply of electricity. And as we’re rapidly discovering, said supply is not only none of the above, but in fact, the situation is likely to get still worse as demand starts to exceed supply and the infrastructure, already proving to be inadequate, start to fall apart.
“But you can always just recharge your EV at home,” you may say.
Perhaps this little story from Britishland may be instructive:
T.T. writes: Eon Drive installed an electric vehicle (EV) wall charger at my house last year but it has never worked.
Despite offering a guarantee, Eon has refused to attend my property to investigate or fix the problem.
Tony Hetherington replies: Eon told you the problem was ‘voltage fluctuation’ in the electricity supply to your home, so you had it monitored by Energy North West. When this showed nothing was wrong, you contacted Utilities Alternative Dispute Resolution – a sort of licensed ombudsman scheme which referees problems involving EV equipment.
The ADR adjudicator ruled Eon had to fix the charger or remove it within 28 days. This did not happen, and in the end you sold your electric car.
The story continues, with all sorts of typically-British complications thrown in, but the point made is still valid: electricity is not necessarily a slam-dunk commodity in terms of its supply… anymore. Indeed, the very fact that EV batteries typically require a “boosted” power supply to work properly or at least be recharged more rapidly should give plenty of reason for skepticism. Ordinary household electrical systems, apparently, are just not up to the task.
That seems to be the case in 240v-powered Britishland, in any event, with its short distances between destinations; how we are going to fare in 110v-Murka with its endless highway system and huge distances between Points A and B? I leave it to you to guess.
The reasons, by the way, why I said yesterday that FJB’s new regulations aren’t going to work Over Here are quite simple.
In the first place, there is no way in hell that we are going to be able to build not only the generation system (we used to call them “power stations” back in simpler times) but the delivery infrastructure to satisfy the enormous increase in demand that a mandated universal EV regime would require.
Secondly, we are not Europeans or Brits, who have a long and storied heritage of supine acquiescence to government diktat; in fact, we are notorious for our inherent resistance thereto.
So government flunkies and their lickspittles can pass all the laws and regulations they want; we’ll just ignore or –far more likely — actively resist mandated regulation.
We shall see how it all shakes out, of course. But I am more optimistic than most, in this scenario at least.
*except that Smart can’t actually make an electric Fortwo because it’s not big enough to hold the size of battery required, hence the Smart #1 which is a complete POS, not the least in its nomenclature.
They will simply do what criminal gov’ts always do, make ICE vehicles too expensive to use. Say, incremental increases in gas prices up to $20/gal for example. Same with vehicle registrations and insurance. Raise the prices til most people can’t justify the cost.
If you knew, right now, that in 5 years your ICE vehicle insurance cost would be $10k per year what would you do about it?
Again, the objective is not to get us all into EVs. It’s to get us out of our ICE vehicles.
You have to keep the peasants on foot, disarmed, living in pods in their 15-minute cities, and eating the bugs.
This. The plan is to force us to ride bicycles (which will have a high registration fee too make up for lost gasoline taxes) or walk (with high taxes on shoes for the same reason).
I’m happy with the Lexus Hybrid SUV I’ve been driving. It has 140,000 miles on it and the leather seats are starting to show their age, It goes thru Pads and Rotors faster than other SUV’s, and for some reason, It’s also abusive to it’s 12 volt battery system. Otherwise problem free and all of that I can replace myself, so I don’t need to deal with the thieves that pretend to be the Lexus Dealer Service Center.
I’ve driven a number of EV’s. No interest in Tesla ( although the stock has been very good to us. – thanks Elon) but I was very impressed by the Taycan. The replacement for the Lexus will be a Plug in Hybrid Cayenne. We’ll see what happens when Tesla reports on it’s quarterly deliveries later this week. Expectations are that deliveries and sales have slowed. Other Manufactures are see that also. So the issue with electric cars may resolve itself. Government seems to forget that consumers get a vote.
> Smart can’t actually make an electric Fortwo because it’s not big enough to hold the size of battery required
There’s a company that took a Chinese knockoff of a Fortwo and electrified it:
https://www.autotrader.com/car-video/wheego-electric-smart-car-clone-you-can-buy-united-states-281474979855361
I’m pretty sure it doesn’t have the legs for road tripping (range is maybe 100 miles), but it’d work as a cheap-and-cheerful grocery getter or commuter. (Except that they sold for about $36k new, which isn’t exactly cheap.)
Does it meet US safety standards? It’s not challenging to improve a battery-operated golf cart to where you could get around a city with it, but it won’t be legal on any road the federal government helped build or maintain, because a tap by any Fed DOT-approved car would probably kill the driver and passengers.
If you want a street-legal EV much under 2 tons, it has to be classed as a motorcycle, so there’s no requirement to keep you alive in a crash. The fed bureaucrats can’t figure out how to require a roll cage on a two wheeler, nor ABS that wouldn’t dump the bike on it’s side long before it stopped on ice, so they left them as mostly “ride at your own risk”. Maybe a trike could be classed as a motorcycle, but it will be less stable than a 4-wheeler, and if you managed to fit a heated cab on it, I suspect it would also be considerably more accident prone than a two-wheeler with a skilled rider who is feeling the weather.
About those used wind turbine blades–
https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/wind-turbine-blade-landfill
When I joined my wife on the dark side (she has an electric mini) by buying a beemer i4 we ponied up for a (I think) 15kw charger.
BMW strongly recommended we use their installer. Said gentleman mentioned in passing that he has observed that a very large % of domestic chargers are incorrectly installed. Ours has worked perfectly from day one.
My wife does 4,000k a year so the woeful range in the mini causes no problems.
The jury is still out on the beemer. We tend to break longer trips with overnight stops and are seeing more and more motels install chargers. You have to plan more with the EV which seems to be the only drawback we have seen so far. Though we have a two car garage and can get both cars to the charger with no inconvenience.
If you had to park on the street, or did a lot of varied travelling (I lived in motels for years at a time being constantly on the road for work) need to travel over 400ks on a regular basis then a fully ev is probably the wrong choice.
I am told that the next generation of batteries will address the range issue but charging locations will still be a problem.
The i4 is basically an app with wheels. It’s aimed at the “screen” generation. My grand daughter intuitively could adjust all the controls and screen menus (there are many). After about a month, a non issue for me as I’ve got it set up the way I want it to work.
The quality is more like my wife’s old Honda civic than my old e36 three series.
It goes and drives fine once you get used to the different torque curve.
I fully expect to get done over on resale.
Let’s see…..