Who the Hell Wants an Electric Car?
If people knew the full truth about electric cars it would kill off an already weak demand for them.
Of the 14.5 million car sales in 2020, as reported by the National Automobile Dealers Association, 322,422 were electric vehicles (EVs). That represents 2.3 percent of all vehicle sales.
You would think that, by now, many more of us would be driving electric cars. Look at the massive advertising push by automakers. Every politician interviewed singles out electric cars as crucial to saving the planet. So many “experts” have drilled the electric car story into our heads, telling us that this is our driving future.
We have been told about the benefits of electric cars for decades; how much we will save on gasoline, how much cleaner the air will be, how we will be an example to our neighbors on how much we care about the environment, etc. You can even power your house in the event of an outage. All of this marketing of electric cars for years and yet they only account for 2.3 percent of vehicle sales.
Simply put, electric cars are not wanted.
In 1996, the state of California mandated automakers to set aside a percentage of their production for the building of electric cars. And it was California that first issued price subsidies on electric cars to stimulate demand. The federal government joined California in 2010 by offering a credit of up to $7,500, creating a combined subsidy of up to $10,000 from the retail price of an electric car.
EV sales peaked in 2018 with the introduction of the Tesla Model 3, however this trend turned downward when the federal tax credits began to phase out in 2019, negatively impacting sales across all brands. Sales of EVs in the U.S. have never crossed 400,000 units annually and never will under normal market demand.
Why don’t people want electric cars? They are simply an answer to a problem that does not exist.
Affordable personal transportation that is reliable and safe is already available without the need for an expensive alternative that relies on the need to be plugged in anytime it is parked. People have access to affordable personal mobility that utilizes an energy source that is widely available, efficient and clean. There, I said clean; today’s internal combustion engine has evolved to the point where emissions are lower than ever. Everybody knows it – the issue is no longer relevant. We are not in the 1970’s anymore.
Let’s talk about range. This is the amount of miles driven on a single charge and the most important feature for an EV. The EV industry refers to this as “MPGe” and it is the most dishonest measurement of range possible. This mileage rating assumes no temperature fluctuation (really hot or really cold) during driving, no additional drain on the battery via cabin heating and cooling, and that you will charge the battery to 100 percent capacity which is specifically not recommended and in most cases not even possible. These MPGe and range ratings are the absolute maximum achieved in a controlled environment, not observed through actual driving conditions. So, the most important reason to buy an EV turns out to be something you will never encounter under real-world circumstances. This is straight-up deception and it’s been going on for over a decade.
Okay, but at least you don’t have fuel costs anymore, right?
Um, electricity still costs money. Hardly any charging stations offer their services for free. I found eight charging stations within a five-mile radius of my Southern California home. There are eighteen gas stations within the same radius. I can fill my gas-powered vehicle within five minutes; it takes at least fifteen minutes to recharge a depleted electric car battery to a recommended 80 percent charge. What if I had two cars ahead of me? I’d have to wait at least a half hour just to get plugged in.
Keeping your EV plugged-in at home overnight is a requirement if you intend on driving the next morning. That requires the installation of a charging station that can run between $1,300 and $4,000+ depending on design. The price to fill up your EV battery varies by state and charging during peak hours will spike your utility bill. Here’s a handy guide showing the average price of electricity by state. Louisiana is looking really good to me right now…
I’ve noticed a lot of articles on the “pros and cons” of electric car ownership, with most of the “pros” stating that you experience “lower maintenance costs” due to not having to change the engine oil. You’re talking about a $60 expense at Jiffy Lube every 10,000 miles, which is yearly or longer to most drivers. Another “pro” is having “zero tailpipe emissions” and a smaller “carbon footprint.” Rational people know that the emissions from your electric car have been displaced to another location that generated the energy you took to recharge your car as well as the pollution produced by the energy and materials that were required to manufacture your car in the first place.
The last “pro” are the subsidies and other incentives, which can be reduced or canceled at any time. Quite frankly, if you need to resort to government assistance as criteria for your “pro” argument, you’re not making much of a positive case.
The “cons” of ownership are much more extensive and real-world. First of all, electronic cars are extremely damaging to the environment.
The 1,000 lb+ battery in an EV is a toxic mixture of rare-earth elements such as neodymium, terbium and dysprosium as well as metals such as lithium and cobalt. Together, these elements are highly poisonous, flammable and caustic. The mining of these elements takes place in parts of the world with hardly any workplace safety rules and uses child labor in some cases. The disposal of old EV batteries qualifies as hazardous waste and must be handled accordingly.
And let’s remember that electricity consumed for recharging the EV has to come from an electrical generation plant somewhere that is likely powered by either natural gas or coal. Unless you’re getting juice from a hydro-electric or nuclear power plant, your carbon footprint is as big as anyone else’s.
While cars in general are a poor economic purchase choice due to rapid depreciation, electric cars are even worse. Because of their relatively high purchase price – between 10 and 40 percent higher than their gas-powered equivalents – electric cars tend to lose 75 percent of their resale value after 5 years and 100,000 miles, just like high-end gas models.
And that “low maintenance” benefit we discussed? When your vehicle battery needs to be replaced, that will run you up to $6,000. Maybe it will cost less, but it’s an expense you will certainly have over time. These babies last about eight to ten years. If you’re in the market for a used EV, that’s a big consideration.
The automakers and government forces trying to sell electric cars to the public are selling a product the public clearly does not want to buy. They are doing this by not discussing the realities of electric car ownership – the long charging time, the need for more frequent charging, the range issues, the high cost of ownership, the low resale value, the actual impact on the environment, the “zero emissions” lie, the subsidies that are not guaranteed, etc.
The more people learn about the total cost and hassle of owning an electric car, the less they want one.