Don’t forget those lithium battery fires that blow up when you least expect it!
Despite the Biden administration’s pressure and patronage, the Ford Motor Co. recently announced it had lost $4.7 billion on EV’s in 2023 (https://redstate.com/benkew/2024/02/07/ford-announces-billions-in-losses-on-electric-vehicle-range-worse-than-even-expected-n2169794). They had predicted a loss of $4.53 billion, so this was worse.
Never mind! says Ford’s CFO: “We’re moving in the right direction.” The quote brings to mind Custer at the Little Bighorn shouting “We’ve got ’em now, boys!”
Meanwhile, General Motors has abandoned its plan to manufacture 400,000 EV’s by mid-2024.
My prediction: most people will cling to their gas-powered cars as long as they can, rather than spend a fortune on a new electric car.
Remember–this is being done for an altogether silly made-up reason: Electric cars, dangerous and costly lithium batteries and all, are needed to fight Climbit Change!
Never mind Climbit Change. We need regime change.
There, you got it– regime change, that is the need. The whole idea of EV’s is nutty. The regime is nutty also.
I’m all for true progress. I’m not even against the concept of an electrically powered automobile, if … and “if” is the operative word … if it can be done in such a manner that it is safe, has reasonable driving range, can operate in a wide range of temperatures efficiently, does not leave a battery disposal problem, and most of all, does not have even the remote possibility of cell voltage imbalance causing a fire. A battery fire is very, very hard to extinguish, and can spontaneously reignite, even if it seems extinguished.
The lead acid battery used commonly in conventional automobiles, are low voltage devices, and while they have a lot of current stored within, the 12 volts of potential makes them pretty safe. To deliver the current required to propel an automobile in an efficient manner, cells are connected to deliver a higher voltage potential, which means that there is greater risk. In the past, I have worked with batteries in uninterruptible power supplies which had potentials as high as 480 volts, and that is every bit as dangerous as a 480 volt industrial circuit, provided by a public utility. If someone thinks that every battery is as innocuous as a AA cell or a 9 volt “transistor radio battery”, they are mistaken.
There may come a time when electric cars are able to meet the conditions I mention above: safe, reasonable driving range, efficient operation in a wide range of temperatures , no battery disposal problem, and most of all, not even the remote possibility of cell voltage imbalance causing a fire, but that day is yet to arrive. My personal opinion is that the current interest in electric cars will wane and they will be pushed off into the future.
I hope you’re right. But this is not about “saving the planet” or any of that other guff. It’s about globalist fat-heads lusting to control our lives.
I agree completely. I’m skeptical of the claims that electric cars are as clean as some people would like to believe.
Ford will probably be reimbursed by Biden Administration as the buyers of EV’s are subsidized by the gov’t. I see where they have discovered an abundant supply of lithium to compete with China. Here in Arkansas, we have lithium mines. Let the fed gov’t get out of the way of the free market system (which is true democracy) and see how far EV’s really progress.
Not very far, I suspect.