Musings, opinions, observations, questions, and random thoughts on island life, Fernandina Beach and more

Musings, opinions, observations, questions, and random thoughts on island life, Fernandina Beach and more

Thinking Of Buying An EV? Maybe It’s Time To Think Again

Folks considering the purchase of an electric vehicle should brace themselves for more than sticker shock.

If they are still charged up after they get past the price tag and end up with one plugged into an outlet in their garage their troubles could just be beginning.

Despite many buyers expressing disappointment with their pricey EVs the Biden White House dictates that in just eight years they’ll have no other choice.

Not since Prohibition has the federal government attempted to ban a product as popular as the internal combustion engine. But last week, the unelected, faceless finger-wagging nannies at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA] released their final emissions standards rule, requiring that 70% of new vehicle sales must be pure battery-powered electric or hybrids by 2032.

An EPA already brimming with more than 15,000 government leeches and nuisances, also announced recently that it is looking to hire another 1,000 full-time harpies this year to further hassle and extort taxpayers.

This is the “Deep State” hard at work folks. Their government overreach is nothing new as these unaccountable bureaucrats already dictate what kind of light bulbs you can buy, the type of dish and clothes washers you can purchase, even the detergents to put in them, and more. They’re also coming for your gas stove.

For folks living in California or Virginia it’s worse. Those states have banned the sale of all nonelectric cars by 2035. By then my family will probably have taken my car keys from me.

The EPA’s decision comes despite the fact that the average consumer doesn’t want an EV and many that bought them regret their decision. A Consumer Report survey late last year found owners of EVs from the past three model year reported 79% more problems compared with internal combustion engine cars.

Senator John Kennedy (R-LA} once said of another politician: “He’s the reason space aliens won’t talk to us.” He could have been just as easily describing the people inhabiting the EPA.

If EVs were affordable, efficient, and saved consumers money as environmentalists and bureaucrats claim, consumers would be clamoring to buy them. They aren’t. People have to be coerced into purchasing them and companies bribed by the government into producing them.

“Rarely has an industry been so heavily subsidized to make a product that so few consumers want or can afford to buy,” opined a recent Wall Street Journal editorial about automakers’ massive stocks of unsold EV inventory.

Some EV car manufacturers have gone belly-up while more established ones have abandoned EVs altogether or limited their production. The spark is gone.

Car rental giant Hertz announced in January that it was is dumping 20,000 EVs and reinvesting a portion of the proceeds from the sale into the “purchase of internal combustion engine (“ICE”) vehicles to meet customer demand.”

EV enthusiasts and those at the EPA either won’t admit it or don’t know it but their electric vehicle charging stations are powered by diesel generators since solar and wind can’t handle them at this point.

The nation’s electric grid is a long way from operating without fossil fuels or nuclear power. The hypocrisy of the hand-wringing climate change doom-and-gloomers is staggering. And the EV’s fire-prone lithium batteries are produced through a process that further pollutes the environment and relies on child labor in China and Africa.

Car dealers nationwide are experiencing six to 12-month backlogs of EVs on their lots compared with a month’s supply of gasoline-powered cars reported the Wall Street Journal last December. Buyer enthusiasm has slowed dramatically. It appears only wealthy virtue signaling buyers are still enthusiastic. They can also afford gas-powered backups.

A pair of exploded EV timebombs.

Numerous news outlets increasingly report that electric car buyers are getting mostly heartaches for the exorbitant prices they paid. The issues include range anxiety, long waits at charging areas if one can even be found, tires wearing twice as fast at twice the price, unavailable parts compared to internal combustion engine vehicles, no cost savings, replacement batteries costing $10,000 and up, dismal trade in values, and fire and explosion fears.

To prevent their cars from unexpectedly bursting into flames, drivers are being warned to avoid exposure to water. Water seeping into EV battery compartments can cause short-circuits and a fire in its lithium-ion battery. These batteries contain flammable chemicals and release oxygen as they burn enabling an EV fire to ignite hours or even days after it appears to be extinguished. They also emit toxic fumes. It’s not very reassuring having one of these electric timebombs sitting in the garage. Some New York and California  parking garages are banning electric cars and E-bikes due to their tendency to erupt into flames. Some ships carrying EVs have gone up in flames due to exploding batteries.

During Hurricane Ian some homeowners in South Florida that evacuated in gas-powered cars returned home to discover that saltwater flooding into their garages caused their EV to ignite. Firefighters doused them with tens of thousands of gallons of water only to see them ignite again after being loaded onto a tow truck or in a salvage yard.

According to the American Automobile Association (AAA], electric vehicles also cost 25% more to insure than comparable gas-powered vehicles. That’s because replacement parts are more expensive, labor more complex than for gas-powered ones, and there are fewer people to do such repairs.

For buyers living up north it’s even worse. They’re discovering electric vehicles have an extremely low freezing point and batteries can be drained by as much as 40 percent overnight. That may make for a chilly commute, particularly since the battery heats the car. In freezing weather is can take up to two hours to charge, not the traditional 45 minutes.

Simply put, the government is forcing companies to make an existing product less efficient, less safe, and more expensive and forcing consumers to buy it.

(An abridged version of my above column appears in Biz Pac Review , BPR, Saturday, March 30, 2024,  https://www.bizpacreview.com/2024/03/30/thinking-of-buying-an-ev-maybe-its-time-to-think-again-1449066/

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Good Grief! There’s a local online site hereabouts called “Next Door” where folks from various Nassau County neighborhoods can bellyache to each other about each other and post comments that confirm they have the IQ of hummingbirds.

Finger-wagging harridan.

Mostly its populated by little old ladies looking for one of their many housecats that escaped or reporting stray dogs wandering their street. Most times people get on the site and grouse about service or food at local restaurants. Dim folks with ample time on their hands post photos of their backyard garden hoses and inquire: “What kind of snake is this?”

I’ve rarely seen a worthwhile post but do scan it occasionally as I find it amusing to see what aggravates the querulous gray-hairs.

Earlier this week I spotted one where a woman complained that she was annoyed by cigar smoke from an adjacent business while she was sitting on the downtown Fernandina Beach Patio Restaurant patio. She said the cigar smokers in the cigar business next door spoiled her experience by actually SMOKING CIGARS! Yikes, cigar smokers in a cigar business smoking cigars.

I couldn’t  resist commenting on this absurdity and posted the following: “Good grief, local finger wagging harridans want to ban everything that’s fun or tastes good. Order another kale smoothie and leave the cigar smokers in the other building alone.”

For this I was booted off the site because I whined about a whiner whining. The anonymous scolders that run this site said my post was deleted because I was “disrespectful.”  Despite this I highly recommend the site as it clearly identifies those folks hereabouts you want to avoid.

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Speaking Of Dimwits: Despite what the Democrats and their surrogates proclaim the poor in the U.S. are so well-fed, their major health problem is obesity. However, when black gangs explode in murderous looting and beating rages and storm retail stores with cars and sledgehammers moronic New York Democrat Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC} tells us it’s because they need bread and milk.

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Words To Ponder: In a recent Wall Street Journal interview by black columnist, Jason Riley, famed black economist, lecturer, and author of 49 books, Dr. Thomas Sowell (94], dismissed calls for reparations to blacks in the name of social justice saying: “When someone black says, ‘I’m worse off because of slavery’, there’s no way in hell you can say that with a straight face. If you’re going to base reparations on the difference between where blacks would be if it were not for slavery, then blacks would have to pay reparations to white people.”

He compared slavery to the situation of conquered people, particularly those conquered by the Romans, adding: “There’s no question that conquered people have been treated in a terrible way. Being conquered by the Romans was not a fate you would wish on anyone. But the fact is that the net result has been that those parts of Europe conquered by the Romans have been the most advanced parts of Europe for centuries.”

Dr. Sowell didn’t have anything handed to him. He was born to sharecroppers in segregated North Carolina in 1930, orphaned as a toddler, and raised in Harlem from age nine. He never finished high school and earned a GED after serving in the Marine Corps during the Korean War. He used the GI bill to attend Howard University, moving on to Harvard where he graduated magna cum laude, then to Columbia where he earned a masters, and eventually the University of Chicago where he earned his doctorate in Economics. He was the first person in his family to advance beyond the 6th grade.

  • Comment (31)
  • Dave, for once I totally agree with you! The government went about electric cars backwards. First they should have made sure the grid could support all the households in the U.S., and then added enough charging stations so the cars could be re-charged. Second they should have pushed hybrids, cars that re-charge themselves and still save a lot in gas usage and emissions. Then gone all electric. But then that would be too logical….

  • Dave:

    Always wondered why it took government subsidies, mandates and restrictions to create the EV industry. If EVs make sense why didn’t the guys who manufacture golf carts just evolve into making cars? Great to see your weekly column now in the fast growing and free Yulee News. I pick up mine in the entrance to the downtown library or at the American Legion hall.
    If we didn’t have you hereabouts we’d have to create you and in the words of that old Irish prayer “may you continue to write long after your family takes the car keys away”.

  • Dave, if you think Nassau county’s version of Next Door is amusing you should see the Duval version! It has the usual lost pet posts, “reviews” of restaurants and businesses, and such. It is also filled with people asking for something for free, whether it be money, items, or help with something. And the there are those who seem to think it’s their personal social media complete with updates on their’s or a family member’s health. It’s like a train wreck, I don’t want to look but I have to!

  • The best thing on Facebook is “Best of Nextdoor: THE GROUP.” You can cut straight to the chase without all of the lost dogs and traffic complaints. The posts are cherry-picked for their absurdity and the responses are hilarious.

  • Golf carts. Ugh! “The difference between men and boys is the cost of our toys.” My three year old “toy” has less than 100 total island miles, has a ‘whopping’ range of some 16-18 total miles before recharging overnight and already is in need of battery replacement. Price? $1400 to do so. I know. Bad investment. The thing sure looks impressive parked while under cover and sits, waiting for the owner to save his money and have it towed to the golfcart repair shop on 8th Street. Expensive toy, I admit. Lesson learned.

  • When liberal Democrats call for reparations to black people who may or may not be descendants of slaves, it reminds me of the hypocrisy perpetrated by BLM – the call for today’s companies and citizens to pay in order to have their forefathers sins erased. Marxism is alive and flourishing in the USA thanks to these delusional politicians pandering for votes.

    • Reminds me of the “selling forgiveness of sins” by the Catholic church in the 15th century. Which also was used to fill the coffers of the Pope.

  • Dave, pardon me for plagiarizing myself, but…

    In the 1970’s the big scare was the “The Coming of a New Ice Age.” It was all our fault! DRASTIC STEPS were needed, and fast! Use less oil! Tax the hell out of everything that runs on anything other than sunshine and wind! Bring all technology to an immediate halt!

    It took a decade or two to realize that those predictions were very, very wrong.

    Today’s big scare is “global warming.” It is all our fault! DRASTIC STEPS are needed, and fast! Stop using oil! Tax the hell out of everything that runs on anything other than sunshine and wind! Bring all technology to an immediate halt!

    When the solution to even diametrically opposite problems is the same assortment of anti-human, anti-technology hysterics, the hysterics might just really be the point of it all.

    • While it’s true that some scientists were predicting a cooling of the earth back in the 70s, it was a very small percentage. The press just ran with it, making it appear to be a threat that in reality, the vast majority of the scientific community did not agree with. In fact, there were far more scientists and climatologists warning of just the opposite starting as far back as the 70s and 80s. Don’t believe me? Read the 1970 Study of Critical Environmental Problems, as well as the 1972, 1974, and 1975 National Science Board reports on the environment. So no, it did not take decades to realize that an ice age was not coming. But the warming of the earth has been on the radar for over 50 years.

  • EVs are heavier so tires wear out faster, insurance is higher, and repairs are more $$$.
    America is about freedom of choice, the market should determine what’s available NOT one of the many thousands of EPA bureaucrats.

    • Sounds like you are describing my side g-f of the last 28 years. She is heavier, wears out faster and insuring our privacy and repairing the damage when that don’t happen costs me a lot more nowadays.

      • Guess I can go back to the pseudonym I used in the beginning (Fred). LOL Thanks for making the typing easier for me Faux Fred.

    • Not only is the auto insurance more expensive, homeowners insurance is beginning to climb for those who park their electric firebombs inside the garage. Maybe in a few years premiums will stabilize but, in the interim, the insurance companies are re-evaluating their risk.

  • EVs –

    Another boondoggle by Calamity Joe Biden. Encouraging development of gas-alternative cars is not the problem. The problem is that Biden and the EPA are discounting ‘buyer demand’ as the test of the new tech for car makers to consider, and substituting ‘government demand’, forcing the production of EVs without regard to whether people want them or not. Government demand was the way that ZIL cars that were built for a small market of ‘official’ cars for Soviet leaders. It’s out of business now.

    I’m really concerned that the most serious action by Biden is his threat to seize the financial assets of Russia that are invested in US bonds and T-bills because of the invasion of Ukraine. The uncertainty that action creates among all nations keeping their petrodollars in the U.S. is driving many nations to reduce the investment they have in the U.S. The deal between Saudi Arabia and the U.S. to require petroleum sales to be conducted in U.S. dollars is in its 50th year now, and has contributed substantially to the economic power of the U.S.

    Now some nations are worried that if the U.S. becomes displeased with a nation’s actions in the world might lead to their investment in the U.S. being seized. This could be the most dangerous mistake that Biden or any president has made – ever.

  • The EV mandate dates back to the late 70s with the passage of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Act. Unless and until that law is repealed, the power to declare an EV mandate will exist. So, Congressman Bean, if you are listening, that law should be repealed ASAP after the 2024 election. Hopefully we will have a 3 sweep with Trump, and Republican control of the House and Senate.

    • Oh, here we go. Another imposter… LOL I guess the saying the highest form of flattery is imitation, applies here. So funny that you try to imitate me to take an opposing view. As if anyone with half a brain on here knows I don’t adhere to your inane and insane comments.

      • So you are saying that the typical fan of this blog has only half of a brain? I could not agree more.

  • The article on electric vehicles paints a much brighter picture than what you will find when owning and operating one. You get less distance going against the wind. You get less distance in the rain. Not just a little, sometimes 40% less. The first thing you need to do after charging your sourced in China EV battery is start planning on where your next charge will take place. And plan on waiting 30 minutes for a quick charge. And be aware that there aren’t many charging stations at some locations, not many as in ONE, and you may have to wait as someone else chooses to get a full charge. I love Elon, but as for EVs, one and done.

  • Found this while doing some ev research. WTF is wrong with you people? And, I am referring to a lot more than just the general sentiments being expressed against ev’s.

  • Dave, Couldn’t agree more on the Next Door thing! The “moderator” of my neighborhood’s version was absolutely the worst and even attempted to shame me because he didn’t believe I “owned” the house I lived in. LOL Quit that nightmare about 5 years ago and haven’t looked back since. On a side note, I did contact Next Door directly to ask them how they choose their moderators, with no response back.

  • Sowell confronts the social justice agenda as an economist. He gets very irritated at other economists who behave unscientifically. Then he does the same thing. Lots of apples compared to oranges. If you’ve read a decent amount of Sowell, you will identify a great deal repetition.

    My opinion is that economics is not a science. I’ve yet to see an economist who doesn’t start with their conclusions and choose the data to fit, as is exactly what Sowell does.

  • Of course there was that Back to Africa movement many years ago largely based on the premise that African conditions were, or could be designed to be so much better than the USA.
    Not many takers.

  • Did you read Dr. Sowell’s quote in Dave’s blog? “When someone black says, ‘I’m worse off because of slavery’, there’s no way in hell you can say that with a straight face. If you’re going to base reparations on the difference between where blacks would be if it were not for slavery, then blacks would have to pay reparations to white people.”

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