by GNL ➕follow (0) 💰tip ignore
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Tesla stock is down 15 percent, representing a $94 billion loss so far. Bloomberg News styles this a “reality check as EV winter sets in.” The Financial Post says 2024 is the company’s “worst start to any year – ever.”
My point is
Tesla stock is down 15 percent, representing a $94 billion loss so far. Bloomberg News styles this a “reality check as EV winter sets in.” The Financial Post says 2024 is the company’s “worst start to any year – ever.”
It's a nice technology, that if it wasn't being shoe horned, it would be much more stable and practical. If you like electric cars, then you should get an electric car. They should not be subsidized, nor should every model be a spying smart luxury car.
I keep my golf cart parked outside, 20' from the house at closest. If it burns all I can do is let the battery burn the son of a bitch. Oh well. Better than my house and I technically wouldn't even need to call the fire department. I know the risk with an electric cart.
WookieMan says
I keep my golf cart parked outside, 20' from the house at closest. If it burns all I can do is let the battery burn the son of a bitch. Oh well. Better than my house and I technically wouldn't even need to call the fire department. I know the risk with an electric cart.
Swap out the lithium batteries for AGM batteries.
https://realclearwire.com/articles/2024/01/28/so_many_problems_continue_to_plague_the_ev_industry_1007949.html
November, nearly 3,900 automobile dealers across the country sent a letter to President Biden telling him that EV demand is “not keeping up with the large influx of BEVs arriving at our dealerships prompted by the current regulations. BEVs are stacking up on our lots." They continued, saying EVs are “not selling nearly as fast as they are arriving at our dealerships.”
As I explained in the written testimony I submitted to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last month, EVs have always been a niche-market product, not a mass-market one. And that niche market is dominated by wealthy, white, male, liberal voters who live in a handful of heavily Democratic cities and counties.
Further, that niche market is primarily defined by class and ideology. Some 57% of EV owners earn more than $100,000 annually, 75% are male, and 87% are white. Last March, Gallup reported, “a substantial majority of Republicans, 71%, say they would not consider owning an electric vehicle.”
Last October, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, released a remarkable study that found “counties with affluent left-leaning cities” like Cambridge, San Francisco, and Seattle “play a disproportionately large role in driving the entire national increase in EV adoption.” The researchers found that over the past decade, about half of all the EVs sold in the U.S. were sold in the most heavily Democratic counties in the country. The summary of the study deserves quoting at length:
The prospect for EVs as a climate change solution hinges on their widespread adoption across the political spectrum. In this paper, we use detailed county-level data on new vehicle registrations from 2012-2022 to measure the degree to which EV adoption is concentrated in the most left-leaning U.S. counties. The results point to a strong and enduring correlation between political ideology and U.S. EV adoption. During our time period about half of all EVs went to the 10% most Democratic counties, and about one-third went to the top 5%. There is relatively little evidence that this correlation has decreased over time, and even some specifications that point to increasing correlation. The results suggest that it may be harder than previously believed to reach high levels of U.S. EV adoption.” (Emphasis added.)
Ford and the other big automakers have been spending billions of dollars to cater to the whims of a tiny segment of the overall car market — a segment heavily concentrated in a handful of liberal counties. That’s a lousy business strategy. But it is an even worse strategy for federal policymakers who must be responsive to the transportation needs of every American, not just those who live in liberal cities and large, wealthy states
In October, the chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation, Akio Toyoda, gloated about his company’s success with hybrids and the friction other automakers face in the EV business. Toyoda said automakers are "finally seeing reality" about all-electric cars. Unfortunately for Ford and its shareholders, finally seeing reality comes with multi-billion-dollar losses.
A final note: Ford’s EV sales in January fell by 11% compared to the same period last year. There’s more carnage ahead for FoMoCo.
He's just invested shitload of money into the lithiums. Swapping them again would be imprudent.
I read Toyota and Volkwagen are going the hydrogen fuel cell route (not lithium batteries) for their EV's.
Put it under pressure on a steel cylinder, and that cylinder will get brittle in time.
Hydrogen has GREAT energy density in terms of kg/joule - better than just about anything, but it's bulky because it's a large molecule
richwicks says
Hydrogen has GREAT energy density in terms of kg/joule - better than just about anything, but it's bulky because it's a large molecule
?? Isn't hydrogen the smallest possible molecule? An H2 molecule has only 2 hydrogen atoms, each with only one proton and one electron.
Hydrogen's reactivity IS WHERE the energy comes from. Oxidation in particular.
I think Tesla will still be standing, but as posted on Patrick.net, the major automakers are downsizing their EV manufacturing.
I think Tesla is going to be improving steadily such as providing up to 600 miles range for even the cheapest of its EV's, the Tesla 3. And this will happen with Tesla still using lithium batteries.
I read Toyota and Volkwagen are going the hydrogen fuel cell route (not lithium batteries) for their EV's.
EV's are shit unless you drive 10-20 miles a day and charge at home.
That is over 60% of the available US car market!
Tesla can't be everything for everyone, but the available US market is plenty big.
Hybrids are still retarded with twice the complexity and twice the maintenance and things to go wrong compared to straight up BEV's - they are not much cheaper and you don't get the massive performance of a Tesla. I don't drive Tesla's to save gas or be environmental. I drive them because they are the most powerful and advanced car I can afford. How is that not understandable? I can't afford a comparable Porsche, BMW, Mercedes or Audi.
I spend alot of time driving - life's too short to drive something boring or weak if you have some options.
That is over 60% of the available US car market!
Tesla can't be everything for everyone, but the available US market is plenty big.
You live in CA. Where I live in IL I'd be constantly worried about running out of juice. I'm going to Wisconsin tomorrow and would need to charge on the way up making the trip 30 minutes longer and then having to use a friends electric to charge.
GNL says
You mean you didn’t take your cyber truck?
Can't afford one yet.
Consumer Reports video on Tesla:
A Tesla's charge port is on the side of the car. Maybe she is thinking of the Buicks long ago that had the gas filler tube under the license plate. Just get behind the car, pull down the cover (license plate) stick in the tube and pump in the fluid.
A Tesla's charge port is on the side of the car
Looks to be in the back of the car to me. That's sure as hell not the front or middle. But not too far from where gasoline pumps go in ICE cars, too.
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By eric -January 17, 2024
Putting out an EV fire is the other problem. One arising from the problem that EVs can – and do – catch fire spontaneously, which is a new problem.
It was once the case that a car didn’t catch fire unless someone else ran into it – or it ran into something else – at a speed high enough to puncture the gas tank and cause the sparks (from mashing metal) needed to ignite the leaking gas.
Cars didn’t just catch fire – while parked – unless someone put a lit rag in the gas filler neck.
EVs, on the other hand, can – and do – catch fire when parked. Maybe not often, but that is beside the point. People don’t often get AIDs, either. But it’s prudent to avoid situations where AIDs might be acquired.
https://youtu.be/itGeAq9rBeY?si=mppfpcgsXAeqJ_6Q
Just so, it is prudent to avoid situations that might lead to your house catching fire. As by leaving an EV parked in the garage. Or even in the driveway, for that matter – as EV fires burn extremely hot and are extremely difficult to extinguish.
This brings up another problem:Dealing with EV fires.
And paying for it all.
EV battery fires are not like ordinary fires, which can be extinguished with water and – once extinguished – are extinguished. EV battery packs are not only susceptible to spontaneous combustion, they are capable of spontaneous re-ignition. They also cause the emission of extremely toxic gasses – as opposed to the innocuous gas (carbon dioxide) arising from the burning (in an engine) of gasoline. We breath in C02 (along with oxygen and nitrogen) with every breath we take – with no harmful effects.
Breathe in some of the gasses emitted by an EV fire and see what it does to your health.
Ask a fireman about that.
They use heavy duty gear – including self-contained breathing systems – to avoid breathing the emissions of EV battery fires. Because they’d die if they didn’t.
And they have special, expensive additional equipment to deal with EV battery fires that can only be suppressed rather than extinguished. For example (as in the video above) a special blanket to wrap the EV in, so as to try to dampen the fire. The soldering hulk is then dragged onto a flatbed and convoyed – with escorts – to the junkyard, where it must be set as far away from the other junk that’s already there, in order to prevent the smoldering hulk from catching all of that on fire, too.
EVs can also catch fire – and keep burning – when exposed to water.
https://youtu.be/MocjA8G2saI?si=ByJZISnz_5Dy4VGD
Under water.
You can probably guess who’s going to pay for all of this.
Expect your property tax bill to go up (again) in order to provide the fire department in your town/county with the additional equipment it needs to deal with the problem of EV battery fires – arising from the EV problem of spontaneous combustion. In addition to the problem of EVs catching fire when struck in an accident, which they are more prone to because all that’s needed to start a runaway reaction is damage to the battery pack.
A spark – the second necessary factor in a gasoline fire – is not necessary for a conflagration.
Expect something else, too.
Expect your insurance – both car and home – to increase, even if you do not own an EV or park one anywhere near your home. The costs generated by those who do own them will be transferred over to you, just the same as the cost of throwing away an otherwise-repairable car that is an economic throw-away due to the cost of replacing multiple air bags relative to the value of the car, itself, is already reflected in the costs were forced to pay for the insurance we’re required to buy.
In addition to what we’re (effectively) forced to buy when we buy a new car equipped with the air bags we’re required to buy as part of the deal. It’s interesting to note that these “safety” devices also have a tendency to catch fire spontaneously – as when their “inflator” system spontaneously triggers and the bag blows up in the victim’s face.
The air bag risk can be reduced but never eliminated. Just the same as regards EV battery pack spontaneous combustion.
It is interesting that such risks are considered acceptable by the very same people who often insist that any risk they regard as “too risky” must be ameliorated by any means they say necessary, no matter how much it costs.
And no matter how little the gain.