EVs and Non-Science

Electric Vehicles Aren't About the 'Science'

Sep 28, 2023

If we went by the ‘science’, which includes understanding the math, Electric Vehicles (EVs) wouldn’t make much sense, at least not at this time. There are so many problems, from the shortage of lithium supply for batteries, questions about battery life and low trade-in values, the need for more charging stations and an updated power grid, that it makes more sense to stick primarily with internal combustion engines until the ‘science’ on batteries and EVs catches up.

SCIENCE

Chinese EVs ready for shipment

“For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.” 1 Corinthians 1:19

Europe worries about competition from China

from David Blackmon’s “Energy Transition Absurdities”

“The South China Morning Post reports that officials in Europe are growing concerned that their legacy automotive industry is in danger of being overrun by cheap, heavily subsidized imports of high quality Chinese EVs.

Oh, you don’t say. Hey, who was it that taught the Chinese automakers how to make truly high quality EVs in the first place? As the CEO of an EV battery maker told me recently, it was the German automakers themselves, who have actively engaged in a voluntary technology and training exchange over the last decade.”

the problem is not renewable energy; the problem is the huge subsidies

Just because I’ve written quite a bit about the negative aspects of the global push towards renewable energy doesn’t mean I’m totally against it. EVs, for example, have a place – for short commutes in urban areas, golf carts, electric bikes, and for situations where maximum equipment power is needed instantly at startup. It’s just that it would be better to let a free market determine how much demand there is for EVs, or anything else, for that matter. Government interference and subsidies artificially distort the market and result in misallocation of capital. If the market for EVs were allowed to grow gradually, at its own pace, there would be time for the power grid to adjust to higher demand, and time for charging stations to be installed, and time for supply chains for chips and batteries to built up. I’m not against solar per se, either - just the push with all the subsidies. I have solar panels, a solar hot water heater, a solar oven, solar fruit drying racks, and a solar clothesline (Ha!) - all home made setups.

solar hot water heater - the plumbing is on a loop to pre-warm water before main hot water heater - see whole story

China, EU, and EVs

from “Irina Slav on Energy” 9/18/23

““Europe will do “whatever it takes” (whatever that means) to keep its competitive edge,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in her State of the Union address. She was referring to the looming influx of Chinese EVs into European markets — a danger that European carmakers have already recognised and are fretting about, with good reason.” Chinese EVs are as good as the European ones and they are cheaper…. Reuters wrote EU may become as hooked on China batteries as it was on Russian energy

EV push –misallocation of capital – Ed Ireland, 9/5/23

“The U.S. auto industry is accelerating its move south as car companies pour billions of dollars into new factories in Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee. …One would think that automobile manufacturers are building more EV plants because their current facilities cannot keep up with the demand for EVs. That would be a logical assumption, but it is wrong. The massive investments in EV infrastructure are not driven by a surge in the demand for EVs but rather by federal government subsidies and promises of more subsidies in the future. What changed was the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, BIL, followed by the perversely misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, IRA, which made available massive subsidies to car manufacturers to make EVs and EV batteries. With subsidies flowing freely and implicit promises of more to come, companies worldwide have decided to take advantage of the “free” money….Even with the expectations of these substantial tax breaks, car manufacturers are losing money on each EV they build. Robert Bryce reported recently that Ford reported a $1.08 billion operating loss on its EV business during the second quarter, during which Ford sold 14,843 EVs and lost $72,762 for each EV sold….The huge expenditures to build EV and EV battery manufacturing facilities are due entirely to the federal government’s plan to force EVs into a market that is not demanding them….Central planning has always failed. The federal goals of 50% of new car sales being EVs by 2030 and EVs totally replacing internal combustion engine vehicles will fail, which will have significant financial consequences. The enormous federal subsidies, coupled with the layers of loans and various financial instruments, will also fail and could create a potential financial crisis resembling 2008. The significant misallocation of capital will cause capital and labor problems for decades.”

coal isn’t dead - we still need it

Panasonic will receive a 6.8 Billion dollar subsidy to build a 4 Billion dollar EV battery plant in DeSoto, Kansas. (I’d be tempted too, to build something for 4 Billion if someone would give me 6.8 Billion to do it!) The Kansas City Star reports that the factory will require between 200 and 250 megawatts of electricity to operate. That’s roughly the amount of power needed for a small city. .. - the power will come from coal! “Evergy”, the utility serving the factory, said that the 4 million-square-foot Panasonic facility creates “near term challenges from a resource adequacy perspective,” according to the newspaper. As a result, the utility will continue to burn coal at a power plant near Lawrence, Kansas, and it will delay plans to transition units at the plant to natural gas….The situation reflects an ignored fact about EVs — they require enormous amounts of energy to produce. A 15-pound lithium-ion battery holds about the same amount of energy as a pound of oil. To make that battery requires 7,000 pounds of rock and dirt to get the minerals that go into that battery. The average EV battery weighs around 1,000 pounds. All of that mining and factory processing produces a lot more carbon dioxide emissions than a gas-powered car, so EVs have to be driven around 50,000 to 60,000 miles before there’s a net reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.” …there’s another, surprise and hidden cost to owning an EV - “when it comes to electric cars, the drop in resale value can be startling. After just three years, most electric cars sold in America depreciate significantly, dropping in value by over 50% of their original cost.” That rate is far beyond what’s seen with cars that run on gas, where those cars may lose only 15% to 30% of their original prices after three years.

UK backing off planned deadline to ban sale of internal combustion vehicles

From David Blackmon Sunday, 9/24/23 “For those who missed it, Sunak (British Prime Minister) proposed revisions include delaying the ban on the sale of new diesel and gasoline-powered cars from 2030 to 2035. …The revision to 2035 probably remains unattainable…”

UAW strike

– a lot of it has to do with the laborers’ fear that making more EVs will cause layoffs in the whole industry, including parts, because EVs have fewer parts than internal combustion cars.

Ford prioritizes EVs over workers

from David Blackmon

“In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper last week, Farley left no room for doubt that his company’s pursuit of government subsidies for the ongoing EV transition far outweighs any real concerns about the company’s employees. Even though he admitted during the company’s 2nd quarter earnings - i.e., massive losses - call several weeks ago that Ford plans to lose $4.5 billion on its EV unit in 2023 alone, Farley told Tapper that nothing the UAW demands can cause him to steer his company away from his plans to continue feeding at the massive government trough.”

hedge fund with blinders on

“Irina Slav on Energy” again

“A while ago, a PR for a hedge fund focused on so-called sustainable investments sent me an interview pitch with what the fund claimed was debunking of popular anti-EV myths…Needless to say, the biggest problems, such as grid constraints, were summarily brushed off as non-existent while others were reduced to just a small part of themselves.

At first, I laughed at this poor attempt at a narrative control. Then I got angry, I don’t mind saying, because I always have better things to do than sit and wonder how on earth could investors trust a fund that has such blatant disregard for facts.

More importantly, though, I wondered how on earth does the fund expect to stay in business without doing actual due diligence on, in this case, EVs. After all, funds make money by making their clients money and common sense dictates that they’d be careful to not lose their clients money.”

From “Tango with Renewables” by Kenneth Carter

“The amount of rare earth minerals required for the so-called net zero “energy transition” to allegedly operate modern societies using 100% intermittent and unreliable renewable along with electric vehicles is much more vast than one might think.”

government policies will create an energy crisis

David Blackmon’s “Energy Transition Absurdities” and the “Telegraph”, 8/23/23

“Policies enacted by the Biden administration and the previous, Democrat-controlled Congress are set to plunge the USA into a serious energy crisis in the coming years. It all has to do with the Biden government’s decision to try to force mass adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) before either the market or the power grid can adjust to meet the whopping new demand for power generation or to supply the critical minerals needed to make the batteries that power the cars.”

amazing little video clip from Bloomberg

Bloomberg – Bloomberg’s report, headlined, “China’s Abandoned, Obsolete Electric Cars Are Piling Up in Cities,” places the focus firmly on the issue’s impact in China”, but no one should think this problem will be limited to that country.

mRNA shots very bad for young people, with almost no positives

Alex Berenson’s tweet last week has already had over 5 million views and 40,000 likes! In other words, it went ‘viral’. Here’s what he posted: “From @CDCgov’s OWN data: 1 million mRNA Covid shots for teens will prevent 0-1 deaths and CAUSE 100,000-200,000 severe side effects. Yes, you read that right.”

Actually, it’s worse than that. Many of the mRNA Covid shots have CAUSED silent heart damage, and even DEATH from myocarditis, especially in young, healthy people – sudden, unexpected heart attacks from myocarditis. And the latest mRNA jabs were approved by the FDA and CDC without even being tested in humans!

FINANCE

^“Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due…Romans 13:7

From “The Daily Feather” - the federal business tax credit fueled the economy, but that artificial prop stopped in July…

fed bus tax refunds dropping fast since July, after Emp. Ret Credit was finally phased out.

The bus tax credits were artificially propping up the economy. Now the bankruptcies will start increasing as higher interest rates push us into recession.

rising interest rates

From Jim Rickards’ “Strategic Intelligence”

Rising interest rates, after being near zero for years, have consequences…

“This story reveals that not only are banks and consumers losing money, but the Federal Reserve System is losing money. The Fed has recently lost over $100 billion to be exact. …this makes the U.S. budget deficit even worse. It looks like hard times all around, but it’s especially hard when you realize the Fed and Treasury are among the big losers in this meltdown.”

Jim Rickards is also saying that with recently rising oil prices working their way through the economy, inflation is bound to continue, and to watch out, because the market hasn’t yet priced it in.

biggest crypto hack of the year

“Techcrunch” reports “Hong Kong-based crypto company Mixin announced on Sunday that it was breached and that the hackers stole around $200 million.” The most disturbing sentence in the report is “At this point, it’s unclear how hackers were able to steal the money after hacking into Mixin’s cloud database, given that — in theory — Mixin is decentralized.” Remember, decentralized is supposed to mean that no one person, company, or government has control - control is spread out; ‘decentralized’, so it’s supposed to take many unrelated individuals and companies to agree that a transaction is legitimate before it can be finalized. See my Sept. 14th post on “Re-evaluating Bitcoin - Just How Risky is it?” for a fairly thorough analysis.

“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” ¹⁴Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. ¹⁵Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” James 4:13-15

FAITH

marriage

Excerpts from CMI’s (Creation Ministries International) answer to why marriage is important, written by Keaton Halley, 9/21/23

“It is not good that the man should be alone …” (Genesis 2:18). So, He created Eve out of Adam’s flesh, and then the text says, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh”

… the institution of marriage is actually a powerful piece of evidence that supports the truth of the Christian worldview. Far from being useless, marriage is something recognized and practiced by basically every culture throughout history. Why would this be the case if it served no purpose? Yet it is the book of Genesis that explains how the very concept of marriage is rooted in the way God designed the world. God is the one who invented marriage when He created Adam and Eve. Genesis tells of how God made Adam first, and then God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone …” (Genesis 2:18).

The voices claiming that “marriage is useless” (or “just a piece of paper”) are incredibly naïve. A mountain of social science data overwhelmingly proves that marriage is a social good, yielding higher rates of health and happiness, sexual satisfaction, and better outcomes for children than any other romantic arrangement. To reduce marriage to “a piece of paper” is absurd. Marriage involves a promise of lifelong commitment and fidelity to one’s spouse. This is why traditional marriage vows include phrases like “for better, for worse” and “till death do us part”. Cohabitation does not include this same level of commitment, so it cannot provide the same level of security to spouses and children that marriage does. Even from a legal standpoint, the “piece of paper” which represents the marital covenant secures the rights of spouses and children to things like inheritance, authority to make medical decisions, etc.

If a cohabiting couple is reluctant to get married because they say “a piece of paper doesn’t change anything”, their reluctance is a sign they don’t even believe their own claim. …It seems they actually realize that the piece of paper does mean something, and that marriage does bind them to one another and to any children they might have in a much deeper way. The fact that divorce is so devastating to spouses and children also shows that marriage does make a big difference….

Furthermore, there is always a chance of becoming pregnant outside of wedlock. A new life should be joyful news, but often outside of marriage it is unwelcome. Of course, this circumstance is a major reason why we have an abortion industry and a push to make or keep abortion legal in many countries. But elective abortion is a great moral evil. It is the murder of innocent children for our own convenience. A lack of adherence to God’s commands regarding sex and marriage has led to the slaughter of millions of valuable human lives, as well as many other harms to mothers, fathers, abortion providers, and politicians.”

EVs and Non-Science

Electric Vehicles Aren't About the 'Science'

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