The venerable George Will reports that government subsidies are keeping the electric car industry alive and when they are removed, sales plummet. The vast majority of EVs are purchased by households with incomes over $100K (they can afford to pay what EVs cost) and the subsidies therefore equate to a transfer of wealth to those who need it least. Read the article here.
I have noted this before, but maybe when it’s a quote from George Will, people will take notice:
Electric cars have cachet with advanced thinkers who want to be, or to be seen to be, environmentally nice. They do not think of such vehicles as 27.4 percent coal cars, that being the percentage of U.S. electricity generated by coal-fired power plants. According to a Manhattan Institute study:
[B]ecause of stringent emissions standards and low-sulfur gasoline, new ICVs [internal combustion vehicles] today emit very little pollution, and they will emit even less in the future. Compared with new ICVs, ZEVs [zero-emissions vehicles] charged with the forecast mix of electric generation will emit more criteria air pollutants.
And the reduction of carbon dioxide — “less than 1% of total forecast[ed] energy-related U.S. CO2 emissions through 2050” — “will have no measurable impact on climate.
I have no problem with electric vehicles. I think the Tesla Model S may be the best automobile ever made. If folks want to drive electric vehicles so be it. But let’s not be fooled.
I get steamed when I read the license plate frame that comes with each Tesla. “Zero Emissions.” Baloney. It should read “Moved Emissions”. Unless they can guarantee that the electricity they use comes from wind, solar, or hydro sources, they burn petroleum, too. Just in a different place.
But I digress. EV’s are a money loser for the auto companies. Period. They build them because the government requires them to do so. Period. People don’t want to buy them because they cost more than conventionally powered vehicles, and for other reasons including range anxiety, lack of power, and in many cases inability to get the job done. (SUV vs Prius).
Half the EVs in the US are sold in California. A look out my front window will attest to that. But people aren’t crazy. The guy down the street owns a Tesla, but also a GMC Yukon. He has his bases covered. He is environmentally pure and can still get his kids to soccer practice. My friend Clyde has and electric smart car and drives it because its fun. But he also has a Lincoln Aviator. He drives it when he wants to get somewhere.
I know this flies in the face of all who campaign for electric vehicles and make their living off of them. But the economics simply aren’t there.
Time for a reality check on EVs.
JVH
