As if life isn’t hard enough in the tundra of the north without having to worry about your car starting in the cold weather. It’s one thing when the battery dies in your gas powered car. You either get a jump or a new battery. No big deal. But when the battery is your engine, like in a Tesla, it is a big deal. The anecdotal stories are coming in fast and furious from places like Chicago and other Midwestern cities grappling with the recent artic cold weather. According to Fox Business, one woman was quoted saying, “I had to charge, like, multiple times every day the last couple days. I had to wait for, like, 45 minutes for a charger and then I pull in. It doesn’t work, and then I pull out and then someone else takes the next charger. And then I had to wait again.” Such sentiments have been echoed around cold-weather climates all week.
If you want the science behind why these batteries don’t work in the cold, just Google it. For those of you who own EV’s, hopefully you Googled it before you purchased. If you are frustrated by your EV’s performance, you are not alone. By the way, the jury is still out on how green electric vehicles are for the environment. In addition to the ridiculously low adoption rates and the limitations on EV’s, the battery life is again being called into question. One must realize that you have to make electricity to create the EV. Currently, we use a ton of coal to do just that.
Until the climate crazies came along, no one was standing in line to get rid of their Toyota Camry. Like most new green boondoggles, it is a classic economics case of putting a product into the market that can’t be absorbed profitably. Hence the huge government incentives being given to those that produce the unwanted product, as well as to the few who have decided to purchase them. According to Kevin O’Leary, we’re at an “inflection point” as to the reality of electric vehicles. EV’s make up only a small percentage of new car sales in the U.S. and in Europe.
Sales of EV’s have slowed considerably, and car makers are noticing. Ford Motor is drastically reducing production of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup. Tesla has also said that it will cut vehicle prices in Europe and China, and perhaps most telling of all, Hertz stated last week that it is dumping some 20,000 EV’s form its rental fleet, replacing them with good old fashioned gas engine cars. They’re doing that because that is what the consumer wants and the market dictates.
It’s humorous how the same crowd who talks about income inequality pushes a subsidized product that isn’t affordable to the masses. The average Tesla Model 3 sells for roughly $43,000, twice that of the most popular selling combustion engine Toyota Camry. One finds it hard to believe that there are plans for putting EV charging stations in the inner city economically challenged areas. With that said, auto executives and analysts believe that more affordable models of electric vehicles will begin to hit the market in 2025. According to Stephanie Valdez Streaty, an analyst at automotive services company Cox Automotive, “We’re going to start to see more of these EVs under $35,000 to $40,000. It’s a major transition. It will go forward, but there will be major bumps and zigzags.” In an inflationary environment with real wages declining, the average consumer isn’t as likely to pony up for an expensive electric vehicle.
Politics is heavily imbedded in the auto industry, from unionization to subsidies. The upcoming presidential election in the U.S. as well as elections in Europe will have much to say as to how the industry progresses. According to auto maker Stellants CEO Carlos Tavares, “Of course, affordability is key. The feedback from the consumer is loud and clear: ‘As soon as you do not fix the affordability issue by giving me a significant subsidy…then I stop buying.’”
The industry standard Consumer Reports publication has weighed in on the matter as well. According to CEO Marta Tellado, “What matters most to consumers remains the same: finding safe, reliable cars.” Can you imagine that? You don’t need consumer reports or any studies to figure that out. To the point, Consumer Reports found that new EV’s have 79% more problems than gas powered cars. Anecdotally, mechanics are under the gun, and under prepared to work on EV’s, as the technology is new and ever changing. The green mafia was working overtime this week as the EPA sent its draconian ruling on auto greenhouse emissions to the White House for approval. Over-regulating one while subsidizing another is market manipulation and will never work. In Orwellian speak, “Tail pipe bad, battery good.”
