We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

From America’s Premier Editorial Cartoonist

Today’s essay and cartoon have been unlocked for free subscribers. Paid subscribers receive timely delivery of my latest cartoons, exclusive sketches, and early access to my weekly essays, plus additional benefits like discounts on merchandise and the ability to comment. Thank you for reading! -Michael

Out of Gas

By Michael P. Ramirez, January 28, 2024

A friend from Michigan shared a story with me about a patient who recently drove to her dentist’s office in an EV.  She apparently drives 90 miles to see her dentist. That’s not even the crazy part of the story… 

She started with a fully charged vehicle with a range of 290 miles. After her appointment, when she got back in her car to go home, it barely had a range of 100 miles. Michigan was part of the cold weather front, and cold weather kills batteries. So, she ended up sitting at a supercharger for an hour before she could drive 90 miles back to her home. 

She was one of the lucky ones.

There were many reports of people getting stranded in the bitterly cold weather because their electric vehicles would not charge. One Tesla charging station in Chicago was surrounded by abandoned vehicles when half of the charging stations didn’t function. Adding to the problem was that the cars used more battery power in the cold weather. 

One of the people interviewed on Fox News said he had spent three hours waiting for a charger after waiting 8 hours the day before. One angry driver blamed Tesla for “the disaster.”

This is just one small facet of a larger approaching disaster. 

President Biden’s Bilge Broke Blatter plan envisions EV vehicle sales will constitute 50% of all cars sold in 2030. 

Good luck with that. 

Auto manufacturers are scaling back on production because they are losing TENS OF THOUSANDS of dollars for each vehicle sold. 

Ford announced in December that they are cutting the F-150 production in half. According to a Reuters article, “Ford lost an estimated $36,000” on each EV vehicle it delivered to dealers in the third quarter. Ouch. 

Forcing to market products that consumers have not naturally transitioned toward never works. That’s economics 101. Given that consumers are not convinced of the efficiency or reliability of EVs, and putting aside for the moment the hypocrisy of these much heavier vehicles which utilize more energy, create more environmental damage, and are tearing up our infrastructure, new electric vehicles cost almost $8000 more than a new gasoline powered one. 

According to a Wall St. Journal article on sluggish EV sales, “American car buyers paid $51,668 for a new EV in November compared with $44,112 for a new gasoline-powered model, according to J.D. Power data.”

That’s about 2,367 gallons of gas…. or about four and a half tanks in California. 

Electric vehicle sales are slowing down significantly. They sit on dealer lots much, much longer on average than gasoline-powered cars. And now, there are questions about their environmental benefit. 

According to leading environmental news website, Earth.org, “the additional cost of transporting these batteries results in a higher carbon footprint than ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles. A 2021 study comparing EV and ICE emissions found that 46% of EV carbon emissions come from the production process while for an ICE vehicle, they only account for 26%.

Not to mention, where does all this electricity come from? It does not come from the electricity fairy. Batteries do not produce energy. They merely store energy. 

As I mentioned before in a Substack essay titled, Unreliable Energy almost a year ago: 

Most of our electricity comes from fossil fuels. Almost 60% of the electricity produced in 2022 came from Natural gas (39.8%) and (19.5%) Coal. 

It is ironic that California, which has the highest energy costs in the nation, is simultaneously raising the cost to produce energy, and depending on unreliable alternative energy sources, while reducing traditional and nuclear energy companies’ ability to maintain production by taxing and over-regulating them. At the same time, they are demanding that 100% of new cars and light trucks sold be zero-emission vehicles by the year 2035. 

Let’s see how far those cars will go during one of their rolling blackouts. 

This is not even considering the complications of the dependency on unfriendly foreign actors for the EV and battery supply chain. 

I am not sold on EV technology… yet. I am not opposed to EV development. 

Finding an efficient battery is important. Sodium-ion-based technology holds great promise. But the market is much better at dictating the pace of innovation. Squandering federal resources on things people have yet to accept is a dead end. Letting the federal government pick winners and losers is always a losing proposition. Consumers are much better at filling demand than having it forced upon them.

What happens if there is innovation in hydrogen technology and it supersedes EVs? What do you do with all the investment in EV infrastructure?

I think Teslas look cool….  But, looks can be deceiving. 

Charging an EV costs about twice as much a year as a refrigerator. It doesn’t sound like much until you add two refrigerators to every household and add that to a power grid powered by unreliable green energy. 

These decisions should be made on careful consideration and sound judgment rather than superficial politically expedient decisions imposed on everyone. The money wasted on these arbitrary deadlines, rules and regulations, compulsory legislative coercion, and forced compliance would be better invested in incentives for innovation, innovations that the consumer demands, funded by companies that actually profit from them.

For those who cherish emotional value over practical importance, that looking morally superior is far more important than being deliberatively prudent, who would rather demonstrate an environmental consciousness that entails little effort and little thought, but elevates you in the eyes of your peers and on social media, whose entire posture is based on the simple belief that a superficial embrace of EVs secures a higher Karmic place in the universe, just remember… EV is the beginning of EVIL and ICE is part of nice. 

Ok… but seriously, letting the market determine winners is far more efficient than depending on the hot air from the mouths of politicians, and will make winners of us all. 

Latest Essays: