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Plug-in the Numbers on Plug-in Cars

I like finding bits of real insight that spring from real data and some analysis that puts it all in context.  Some other tidbits from the last year are here.  The Gavinor is bound and determined to disallow gas-powered car sales in California in 12 years.  Executive order directs state to require that, by 2035, all new cars and passenger trucks sold in California be zero-emission vehicles.  Twelve years may or may not be a long time for battery technology evolution.  It's physics, chemistry, metallurgy and economics after all.  In the meantime, this letter to the Wall Street Journal should open some eyes in the Gavinor's office

In “The Electric-Vehicle Unicorn Crash” (op-ed, May 20), Allysia Finley mentions that 434,879 EVs were sold in the U.S. last year. This represents a mere 2.88% of the 15.1 million vehicles sold here in 2021.

Global lithium-mine production reached a record high of 100,000 metric tons last year, 65% of which is used in EV-battery construction. (The other 44% is used in lubricants, cellphones, etc). The Electrek news site estimates that the Tesla Model S uses 63 kilograms (138 pounds) of lithium per EV, which means that if Tesla used every available pound of world-wide lithium for Model S battery construction, it could produce only 1,040,000 Model S EVs a year. Granted, the Model S is a top-end product that requires more lithium than smaller EVs, but the point is simple: Neoliberals who want to replace the internal combustion engine-powered car with EVs are living in a fantasy world.

To make matters worse, the U.S. currently has only one large-scale, active lithium mine, in Nevada, with two more proposed mines nearby. But the same kind of environmentally woke folks who demand a move to an all-EV fleet are holding up the opening of those two mines in court.  Unfortunately, the happy talk that defines the modern Democratic Party also prevails in the EV industry.

Russ Andrews

Aspen, Colo.

1.04M cars is about 7% of 15.1M cars.  That's 93% away from 100% for those following at home.  And that uses world-wide production just for cars, never mind Tesla Powerwalls for homes or the giant batteries that may someday bring some stability to our summertime electric grids.  Newsom better hope for some electrifying innovation soon.  Mining stocks are looking better every day. 

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46 responses to “Plug-in the Numbers on Plug-in Cars”

  1. David

    I believe in pragmatism, and the points Joe and Russ raise are valid. However, if we wait for all the stars to align perfectly to find solutions to climate change, our children and grandchildren will be living in a world that is even more precarious than the one we live in now. I have no doubt that the transition to more eco-friendly energy is going to be messy. So are wildfires, hurricanes, floods and droughts. Maybe we need to adopt the Agile development process more widely to innovate more quickly than we are now. We’re running out of time.

  2. Paloma Ave

    I believe it is ridiculous to think that we can change the climate, we need to adapt.
    Just like we cannot get everyone to love one another, we can hope to get people to tolerate one another.

  3. Paloma Ave

    Just now on Facebook I am looking at a picture of hundreds of non-running electric cars sitting in an open field in Paris.
    The caption reads:
    This is a used car dump near Paris, France with hundreds of electric cars. Please note, these are only used cars of the city of Paris and not personal vehicles.
    Everyone has the same problem …. the battery storage cells are dead and need to be replaced.
    Why not replace them, you ask yourself? Well, there are two reasons.
    One, battery storage cells cost almost twice what a new vehicle costs, and two, no landfill will allow you to dump batteries there.
    So, these green fairy electric cars are dumping toxins from the battery right into the ground.
    Still think we need to go green?

  4. Joe

    I suppose I need to be more clear. I’m not opposed to EVs, I just want to be, first, pragmatic in the sense that for a good long while they are not going to be for everyone in every situation. I had this chat with my neighbor in Tahoe yesterday. For summer trips up here they are fine but he wouldn’t think of doing so in the middle of winter due to the poor battery performance in cold weather. And it will be sometime before chargers exist where they are needed.
    Second and more importantly, I am very opposed to these pie-in-the-sky, top-down-from-Sacramento rules/laws/demands. The governor has never run anything more complicated than a restaurant IRL and I’m guessing he hired a professional general manager to do that. I’ll bet $20 when he made the 2035 rule he had no idea of the things I list in this original post. I’ll bet another $20 that he doesn’t care. It’s optics of “doing something” that interests him.
    ps. This is entirely my stance, Russ has his own I’m sure.

  5. Newsom is a fascist

    Newsom is a fascist. It is just that simple. He is an autocrat who does what he wants. Get in line, serf. You will buy what I tell you to buy. You will eat what I tell you to eat. You will cook how I tell you to cook and you vill like it.

  6. Spurrina

    Two parcel taxes coming.
    How can any government body think about taxes these days?
    Out of touch, guaranteed income adjusted for inflation government can!
    Vote nope!

  7. Joe

    Another WSJ reader’s reaction to a different piece by an HSBC banker (that eventually got him in “truth trouble” – that is the trouble you get into for telling the truth:
    I am reacting to the relentless and consistent nature of the propaganda. The kicker is that people have no idea how this will affect their standard of living. The Net-Zero states (CA, NY, NJ) are hurtling towards disaster. The politicians have no idea how much would be needed in battery backup to eliminate fossil fuels, nor do they have the faintest idea of the cost, both financial and environmental of batteries on that scale. Once these populated states get a taste of living with brown outs and blackouts, there will be some questions asked, but in the meantime, the grid, and energy supply will have been seriously compromised. We are hurtling towards disaster and even if you do think that an incremental increase in the trace gas, CO2, is a problem, China is pumping out so much of the stuff that what we do here really doesn’t matter.

  8. hollyroller@gmail.com

    I do not post here much anymore.
    So, I spend a little more time digesting opinions and Fake News before I respond.
    I stopped commenting due to topics that are non-controversial…Boring.
    This one may have “Legs.”
    The more “articles” I have read without commenting on are Scary. Very Scary.
    Thank you, Joe, and Rusty.
    You two provide a Very Cool Web Site.
    Good to be back!

  9. Joe

    Thank you, holly, …..I think? I guess that was complimentary? I’ll try not to be Boring, but after all, it has been called “Boringame” since I first worked in town in 1983…..

  10. MBGA

    Somewhere while reading an article about Gavin Newsom, and not even a hit piece if I remember, it was mentioned he had acknowledged that he had some learning disabilities or something related to why he did not excel in technical subjects when a youth. The piece was praising his other abilities. I’d try to find it but that is not the main point.
    The main point is: What the heck is going on with these seemingly stupid decisions that are in every way impractical and certainly can’t work. Are the NWO, one green world types just fools? or are they up to some real evil? The answer to these type of questions is usually both, and a lot of both lately. So besides stupidity and the evilness of trying to force us to do it knowing full well that China and India, Africa, etc wont be doing it, shows pure dishonesty.
    Gavin and his minions must know it can’t be done and I imagine in the back of their minds or in the back rooms, they are saying “Well, it’s just a law, and we are making it, so we can always change it when we get to 2034, and we will just extend it for some politically beneficial reasons, like to save jobs.” The left has no integrity at all. They know they can do it because their base proves everyday that they are getting dumber, so hey, what the heck.

  11. Cassandra

    Same with the southern border.
    If they fix things there will be no talking points for dumb voters.
    Gotta keep tossing that word-salad: equity-diversity-inclusivity
    Intersectionality…

  12. Joe

    The drumbeat just keeps rolling on:
    In January the Interior Department revoked long-held federal leases for mining in Minnesota’s Duluth Complex, which accounts for 95% of America’s nickel, 88% of its cobalt and more than one-third of its copper.
    Minerals and metals will still be mined, but in countries with far fewer environmental protections such as Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and China.
    —————-
    Do you think anyone has lost their job over that decision?

  13. Handle Bard

    https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/electric-car-four-day-trip-more-time-charging-sleeping

  14. Christopher Cooke

    This article displays a lack of knowledge about the lithium industry and potential sources for it. There are startups with significant VC funding that can filter lithium from inland lakes and seas with no harm to the ecosystem in locations throughout the world. The WSJ had an article on this two months ago and my daughter is heading to South America with several co workers to start operations there.

  15. Joe

    I have no doubt that rising prices for lithium (and every other metal needed) will drive investment and innovation. There is another piece in the Journal that notes “the Lithium Valley in California with newly tapped molten lithium in which GM is investing. It could produce 600,000 metric tons a year of lithium as a byproduct of geothermal-energy production.” Good luck to your daughter. Sounds like an interesting job.

  16. Joe

    More factoids on pricing of metals and the cars themselves from today’s WSJ:
    Auto makers have been raising prices on electric cars, partly to offset the soaring cost of materials used in their large batteries.
    Last week, GM tacked on $6,250 to the price of GMC Hummer electric pickup-truck models, which now range from around $85,000 to $105,000, citing an increase in commodity and logistics costs. The waiting list for the recently released truck is about two years, a GM spokesman said.
    Tesla this year has increased prices three times for a performance version of its top-selling Model Y SUV, adding a total of about 9% to the sticker price, which is now $69,900, according to Bernstein Research.
    Overall, the average price paid for an electric vehicle in the U.S. in May was up 22% from a year earlier, at about $54,000, according to J.D. Power. By comparison, the average paid for an internal-combustion vehicle increased 14% in that period, to about $44,400.
    ————
    And a different piece from last week noted:
    Oil-price increases have been modest compared with the rally in the metal that underpins electric-vehicle batteries. Despite a recent pause for breath, spot prices for seaborne supplies of the key lithium compounds, carbonate and hydroxide, have more than quintupled over the past year, according to data from price-reporting agency Fastmarkets.

  17. Joe

    Here is an eye-opening calculation from the WSJ:
    Bets on charging networks are supported by a doubling of EV auto sales in the U.S. last year. However, that amount accounted for only a fraction of the U.S. car market, highlighting the challenges charging infrastructure faces generating sustainable profits. An analysis by consulting firm AlixPartners in 2020 showed that the average fast-charging station, charging market price for electricity, would take 20 to 25 years to pay off its initial investment.
    A 20-25 year payback is not something to jump at……….

  18. Joe

    Whoops. The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) reports:
    By quantifying the externalities (both greenhouse gases and local air pollution) generated by driving these vehicles, the government subsidies on the purchase of EVs, and taxes on electric and/or gasoline miles, researchers found that “electric vehicles generate a negative environmental benefit of about -0.5 cents per mile relative to comparable gasoline vehicles (-1.5 cents per mile for vehicles driven outside metropolitan areas).
    Researchers specifically pointed out that despite being treated by regulators as “zero-emission vehicles,” electric cars are not emissions-free. Charging an EV increases electricity demand. Renewal resources supply only 20 percent of the country’s electricity needs. The remaining 80 percent were generated by fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas, despite billions of dollars in green subsidies.
    And the American Economic Review assesses:
    The comparison between a gasoline vehicle and an electric one is really a comparison between burning gasoline or a mix of coal and natural gas to move the vehicle.
    ——————
    So B’game is harming the environment by encouraging more EVs? Not mention wasting a good amount of parking spaces in public lots……..

  19. Joe

    Another Whoops from today’s WSJ:
    Sean Nemeth, the owner of a plug-in hybrid Chrysler Pacifica, was perplexed when earlier this year he received a rather surprising recall notice, advising him to park his vehicle outside and away from structures. The notice informed him that his particular model is at risk of catching fire—even while stationary and turned off—and the cause is still unknown.
    “What am I supposed to do with it then?” said Mr. Nemeth, recalling his reaction at the time. He eventually decided to park it across the street from his house in a low-traffic cul-de-sac. (Ed: It’s gonna be hard to charge it from across the street….)
    As a precaution, auto makers are issuing “park outside” orders that instruct drivers to park in the open air and away from houses and structures that could be potentially damaged if a fire were to occur. In many cases, the remedy isn’t immediately available, leaving drivers to figure out what to do with the vehicle in the interim—sometimes for months.
    At least 31 recall campaigns covering 3.3 million vehicles have been launched with park-outside orders in the past decade, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The majority of those—18 campaigns, or about 60%—occurred within the past two years, NHTSA’s data show.

  20. Peter Garrison

    From WSJ Opinion Saturday-
    Youngish vot­ers in par­tic­u­lar say cli­mate is their first con­cern and yet a nil per­cent-age bother to dig any deeper. Voilà, the bud­ding au­di­ence for lu­di­crously sub­si-dized prod­ucts (if the goal is re­duc­ing CO2 emis­sions) like to-day’s plus-sized elec-tric ve­hi­cles. Their dream­land is Nor­way, where hy­brid and elec­tric-ve­hi­cle miles now ex­ceed con­ven-tional-ve­hi­cle miles, thanks to gen­er­ous sub­si­dies to EV buy-ers. Paid for how? With 0.07% of the world’s peo­ple, Nor-way ex­ports 2% of the world’s oil and gas, 30 times its share of global pop­u­la­tion.

  21. Joe

    Today’s Journal has a big “Not So Fast” piece about South American lithium coming from brine farms. Here are some snippets:
    As the Chinese EV giant BYD Co. recently learned, tapping into that resource can be a challenge. Earlier this year, after BYD won a government contract to mine lithium, indigenous residents took to the streets, demanding the tender be canceled over concerns about the impact on local water supplies. In June, the Chilean Supreme Court threw out the award, saying the government failed to consult with indigenous people first.
    Similar setbacks are occurring around the so-called Lithium Triangle, which overlaps parts of Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. Production has suffered at the hands of leftist governments angling for greater control over the mineral and a bigger share of profits, as well as from environmental concerns and greater activism by local Andean communities who fear being left out while outsiders get rich.
    In Bolivia, the government nationalized its lithium industry years ago and has yet to produce meaningful amounts of the metal. Mexico, a smaller player, also recently nationalized lithium. In Argentina, output is only starting to take off.
    Unlike oil, which is produced all over the globe, lithium is less common. South America, Australia and China are the key locations. Outside South America, it’s extracted from hard-rock. In the region, lithium is found in salty, underground water that is evaporated by the sun after being pumped into large man-made ponds. South America’s lithium is less expensive to produce, but miners say the drawback is it takes far longer to build a mine—about eight years.
    Chilean officials and environmentalists worry about the impact on water supplies. Willy Kracht, Chile’s undersecretary of mining, said recently that up to 2,800 cubic meters of water are needed to produce one ton of lithium in Chile, versus 70 cubic meters for a ton of copper.
    Environmentalists believe that mining has caused some nearby lagoons to dry up, harming the population of wild flamingos that rely on them to feed on shrimp and build nests. “The damage is irreversible,” said Cristina Dorador, a biologist who was a member of a special assembly that wrote the draft for Chile’s new constitution.
    —————-
    Ruh-Ro

  22. MBGA

    Not sure whether to post this here or in the You and your Cat thread.
    https://www.kbb.com/car-advice/ev-charger-cable-theft/
    I’m sure this will warrant a town hall meeting at some point.

  23. Joe

    Both places would be fine. Interesting article–can’t imagine there are even $200 worth of copper in each cord, but what do I know?

  24. resident

    Maybe we should have the police patrolling the neighborhoods this coming week looking for people charging their electric cars between 3pm and 9pm? The grid will maxed out so it’s only fair that EVs don’t get charged then. Can the city shut off the charging stations during those hours?

  25. JP

    The city needs to start a registry of EV owners and their addresses so we can track these electricity hogs. We need regular reports about their excess use during high use hours.

  26. HMB

    Speaking of charging cables… What’s the deal with people who won’t charge in their driveway and cause a tripping hazard by running the cable across the sidewalk to their car parked on the street? At least at one house the family puts an outdoor carpet over the cable on the sidewalk so it’s not so likely to be tripped over. But still, really????

  27. Spurinna

    Car in the garage would be nicer.

  28. Joe

    An intrepid Voice reader sent me this link which may explain the whole “Charging in the street” phenomenon…watch to the end:


  29. HMB

    Ah, so they don’t park in the driveway because the battery might explode. I guess it’s better to risk someone injuring themselves falling over the cable than risk your house burning down…
    Time to have a talk with your homeowners insurance company, pronto! Sounds like a risky situation between the fire risk and the danger someone is going to suffer physical injury tripping over a hazard.

  30. Cassandra

    Or, the person trips, gets mad, burns down your house.
    Or, the car sets the pedestrian on fire who trips over the cord while running into your house for help, setting it on fire.
    Or, the house just decides to burn down, falling on the pedestrian who trips on the cord and dents the car which shorts out and burns to the ground.

  31. Joe

    @resident I checked with the city on your question about the EV charging stations during FLEX-alert periods. Here you go:
    EVgo owns and operates the charging stations at Lot Y, so the city doesn’t control those and can’t turn them off. The citys owns but does not operate the charging stations at the train station. We don’t see anything in our contract for the train station chargers that speaks to turning them off during Flex-Alert hours.

  32. Peter Garrison

    WSJ Editorial 9/8/22
    “De­moc­rats blame cli­mate change for the state’s week-long warn­ings to con­serve power, but Cal­i­for-nia’s cli­mate hasn’t sud­denly changed. Triple-digit tem­per­a-tures aren’t un­prece-dented even in early Sep­tember, de­spite Gov. Gavin New­som’s claims. What has dras­ti­cally changed in re­cent years is Cal­i­for­nia’s elec­tric gen­er­a­tion.”
    Duh

  33. Joe

    Enjoy reading how the Chronicle attempts to wriggle away from the notion that more EVs will worsen our grid problems
    https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/No-Newsom-s-push-for-electric-cars-isn-t-the-17426102.php
    Sure, sure. People don’t charge during peak hours (unless they run out). People can use their Tesla to power their house. Sure, sure. But mostly EVs don’t affect the grid because there aren’t very many of them——-YET.

  34. Peter Garrison

    “This is all why elec­tric cars still re­quire such mas­sive sub­si­dies to sell. Nor­way is the only coun­try where most new cars are elec­tric, and that took wip­ing the sales and reg­is­tra­tion tax on these ve­hi­cles—worth $25,160 a car—on top of other tax breaks such as re­duced tolls. Even so, only 12.6% of all Nor­we­gian cars on the road are elec­tric. The coun­try has the wealth to pay for them partly be­cause of its oil rev­enue, and the trade is du­bi­ous: To cut one ton of CO2 emis­sions through the sub­si­diza­tion of elec­tric cars, Nor­way has to sell 100 bar­rels of oil, which emit 40 tons of CO2.“
    The hypocrisy drives me nuts.
    WSJ 9/10/22

  35. MBGA

    Comrade, the California legislature (CAL AB 2021 section 3C.1.43905c) restricts the use of the word “hypocrisy”, under most circumstances. This would be one of them.

  36. Joe

    Another regular reader forwarded this take on EV viability which appeared on Facebook:
    From an anonymous State Trooper
    I’m not a fan of all electric vehicles. Too many variables affecting battery consumption. Definitely not suited for cold climates. The following experience just cements my distaste for EV’s, especially Teslas.
    I get sent to a motorist assist the other day, at the start of our snowstorm. There’s a Tesla on the side of the interstate, dead battery. So I arrive on scene and the occupants have the right-front door open. They tell me that they can’t open any other doors, because the battery is dead. Sure enough. Can’t open the doors from inside or outside. The driver also can’t get her license out of the glove box where she put it during their trip. Because the glovebox opens electronically… and the battery is dead. You actually have to use the computer in the center of the dash to open the glovebox.
    They said they had 10% battery left, should’ve been plenty to get from that location to the charging station nearby. Then all of a sudden the whole car shut off and they coasted to the shoulder.
    So now I have to find them a tow. No one wants to tow EV’s. Finally found one company to do it. 8-mile trip to the charging station in Tomah. $1,000! Normal vehicle on the flatbed would’ve been $150.
    So now we’re at the Tesla superchargers. Guess what? Can’t open the charging port because the battery is dead!!! The ports open, you guessed it, electronically!!!
    And we also can’t open the doors now (had to close the one open door when it was loaded onto the wrecker). The owners manual is in the on-board computer, but the battery is dead.
    I got the occupants to a store where they’d be warm while calling the rental company to figure out how to charge this thing, so I’m not sure of the outcome. I had to leave for a crash report.

  37. Joe

    Here is a quick reality check that is no April Fool’s joke from the WSJ:
    Ford Motor Co. has again raised the starting price of its all-electric F-150 Lightning truck, after temporarily halting production and shipments to address a battery issue.
    The cheapest of the company’s electric trucks now costs $59,974, marking the latest in a series of price increases since the full-size, battery-powered pickup trucks began rolling off Detroit assembly lines in April of last year. At that time, the starting price was roughly $40,000. By August, it had jumped to $46,974. In October, Ford executives raised it to $51,974, and in December, it increased to $56,000.
    The company has attributed the price increases to the rising costs of raw materials.
    ——————
    That is UP by 50% in a year. I look forward to Newsom spinning this news.

  38. Spurinna

    Only the wealthy can afford the new mandates.
    But wait, DEI will make sure subsidies will allow everyone to have an F-150

  39. Joe

    Here is another taste of real data courtesy of Holman Jenkins at the WSJ today:
    Transportation may be 20% of emissions, but cars and vans represent only 8%, and 72% of these are personal vehicles—which means they sit idle most of the time. Going by U.S. and European averages, commercial vehicles rack up four times the annual mileage. Global society’s personal vehicles may be a majority of cars, but they account for a minority of light-vehicle emissions—about 39%, or 3% of total emissions.
    And, of course, the Biden plan affects only the U.S., with 12% of the global fleet—so 0.36%. And swapping out a gasoline engine for a battery eliminates only half (at best) of lifetime emissions—so 0.18%.
    I could go on. When all factors are considered, such as the shrinking U.S. share of global emissions, such as the slow turnover of the U.S. auto fleet, the climate effect of the extravagantly expensive Biden plan will steadily approach zero as time goes on even without counting the signal to others to consume the fossil fuels that EV drivers allow to be available at a lower price.

  40. Phinancier

    Bay Area-based electric bus and battery maker Proterra filed for Chapter 11, with CEO Gareth Joyce citing “various market and macroeconomic headwinds that have impacted our ability to efficiently scale.”
    The EV firm, which sold more than 1,300 electric buses to public transit systems in the US and Canada, was valued at $1.6 billion when Biden, 80, took office in January 2021 — but closed with a market value of $362 million, according to Reuters.
    Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm held between $1 million and $5 million in stock of the electric vehicle company, The Washington Free Beacon reported, prompting ethics concerns and calls for her divestment.
    Granholm raked in $1.6 million in profit after selling hundreds of thousands of shares in May 2021, months after she had first pledged to do so. She served on Proterra’s board from February 2017 until just before her Senate confirmation hearing in January 2021.

  41. Joe

    Whoa, Nelly. I totally missed that this was a BURLINGAME company losing its charge. Do we get a RHNA rebate when a hometown company goes C11?? Today’s DJ has the story:
    BURLINGAME, Calif. (AP) — Electric bus and truck maker Proterra says it is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from a federal court in Delaware.
    The Burlingame, California, company is a big supplier of buses to transit systems across the nation. A statement on Proterra’s website Monday said that it intends to maintain normal operations and will file motions with the court to use existing capital to keep funding operations, including paying employees, vendors and suppliers.
    https://www.smdailyjournal.com/business/electric-bus-maker-proterra-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy-protection/article_f199e45c-c40f-5d21-b6ad-c08679d210bb

  42. hollyroller@ gmail.com

    I apologize for having NO idea regarding E Cars. My main vehicle gets @ 20MPG. @ 500 mile per “Fill.” $100.00.
    What is the cost of fully charging an E vehicle, and how far can you drive?

  43. Phinancier

    That is a more complicated question than you would think. If you stay in moderate weather like Burlingame and drive like an old lady you get about what they say you get. If you go to Sacramento or the Central Valley and it’s hot and you drive normally and use the cabin features you get a lot less miles per battery consumption–the miles driven are less than the rate of decline of the miles remaining. There is a new lawsuit filed about this with Tesla.

  44. Joe

    How nice. The San Carlos city council is excited to spend $91,400 bucks per pickup truck to “go electric”. They think they got a deal…………..
    Five new Ford Lightning electric trucks will be added to the fleet of vehicles owned by San Carlos after councilmembers voted unanimously to spend $457,000 on the purchase this Monday.
    The vehicles will be purchased locally from Towne Ford in Redwood City. Machida said the purchase was a “rare opportunity” given that most people and agencies have to wait about a year, from purchase to delivery, to receive a Ford Lightning truck and the city wasn’t on a list to access one of the vehicles yet.
    “It looks like a good opportunity for our city and our climate goals so this is great,” Vice Mayor John Dugan said during Monday’s City Council meeting.
    Councilmembers agreed to purchase five electric trucks to replace five aging gas-operated trucks, making about 10% of the city’s vehicle fleet electric, Public Works Director Steven Machida said.
    https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/san-carlos-purchases-new-electric-trucks/article_60bb3468-3cac-11ee-819f-03fbba8e4ee5?utm_source=smdailyjournal.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletters%2Fheadlines%2F%3F-dc%3D1692280819&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline

  45. Joe

    More bad news for the EV industry from McKinsey no less:
    A brand new study from McKinsey has revealed that nearly half of Americans who own EVs want to go back to traditional gas powered vehicles.
    Apparently trillions of dollars in ‘green’ taxpayer-backed global subsidies over the last decade are no match for good ole’ fashioned common sense and free markets. Go figure.
    Speaking to Automotive News, Philipp Kampshoff, leader of the consulting firm’s Center for Future Mobility said: “I didn’t expect that. I thought, ‘Once an EV buyer, always an EV buyer.’ ”
    The study found that over 40% of U.S. electric vehicle owners are likely to buy a combustion engine car next.
    Charging concerns are a major hindrance to EV adoption, with 29% of global EV owners considering a switch, rising to 46% in the U.S. Consumers cite inadequate public charging infrastructure, high ownership costs, and impacts on long-distance travel as key issues.
    These concerns align with the slow rollout of the U.S. National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program. Only eight stations are operational, and 23 states have started using funds from the $5 billion federal program as of May, according to EVAdoption.

  46. Cassandra

    Worries about driving to Carmel.
    Good for around town.
    Electricity expensive.
    Kinda feel trapped by a poor decision.

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