In case you didn’t know, this is the second coming of the electric car. In September 1990 California adopted a regulation that would force car manufacturers to sell zero-emission vehicles in the state by the year of 1998, and in subsequent years to follow, thus initiating a paradigmatic change in car technology by an attempt to revive the battery-only electric car.
The car manufacturers fought the measure, which was brought before Alan C. Lloyd Chairman of the California Air Resources Board. It has been strongly speculated that Lloyd was “bought” for one million dollars by GM to reverse the decision regarding the electric cars.
At the new hearings, where each side was to be given equal time to make their points, Lloyd gave 10 minutes to the pro-electricity supports and 50 minutes to the auto industry, which feared the sales of its gas-powered cars would suffer and that due to the projected longevity of electric cars, would decrease revenues long into the future.
The California Air Resources Board’s reversal of the mandate was due to the relentless pressure and suits from automobile manufacturers and the well-earned payoff to Mister Lloyd.
The measure to adopt the electric car was defeated. All 5000 electric cars were designed and manufactured by Chrysler, the Ford Motor Company, General Motors (GM), Honda, Nissan, and Toyota; were destroyed or donated to museums and educational institutions.
GM, as its primary example, engaged in both negative marketing of the electric car as its intentions toward the car and California legislation changed. In earlier days, GM ran Super Bowl “doomsday-style advertising featuring the EV1 and ran customer surveys which emphasized drawbacks to electronic vehicle technology
This pushed California to abandon its ZEV mandate regulation. George Bush’s chief of staff Andrew Card had recently been head of the American Automobile Manufacturers Alliance in California and then joined the White House with Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, and other federal officials who were former executives or board members of oil and gas companies. They quickly deep-sixed the idea.
Now, the major car manufacturers are embracing electric cars as the future of automobiles. And you think they are looking out for the environment and clean energy and the welfare of the people? If so, you are living a fantasy.
The car business has always been about profit; and profits only. This to the detriment of the environment, the rest of the economy and the future of America.
So why the change of heart? Again profits. The electric car mandates now state that gas-powered vehicles will no longer be allowed on the roads after 2035. That means every car owner will need to sell or trash their gas-powered car by then, providing the car companies with a tremendous turnover.
But isn’t that a good thing?
No. Electric cars are not the future. Actually, it’s the salvation of the car companies. Those bean-counting, bottom-line, quarterly-profit, stock-buyback, self-serving companies are always coming up with something new, some way to stimulate fledgling sales or boost profits.
A little background…
First, it was leasing, which really came into its own in the early 1990s. A neat way to buy something you can’t really afford. You see, you don’t earn equity when you lease, because what you owe on the car only catches up to its value at the end of a lease. This is a waste of money since you’re not gaining equity. But, like buying a vehicle, you’re required to maintain full coverage auto insurance while you lease.
Car dealerships make little to no money when they sell a car. 90% of the profits come from the options, parts, dealership repairs and finance kick-backs and leasing. They make far more on trucks because of the number of options and models.
The dealerships are charging about $10,000 more for an electric / hybrid version of the same car, while the actual incurred cost of doing so is far less.
What new car dealerships have been doing for the past ten years, is trying to put all independent repair shops out of business. Manufacturers design new cars each year that need new, one-off, expensive tools. Independent shops can rarely afford to buy such tools AND they normally will work for only one year when manufacturers will change the design again.
New car dealers charge up to $185 an hour for shop time. Parts are marked-up 40-100%. Accessories are marked up 100%.
Does that sound like an altruist industry to you?
So, now that cars are lasting longer (not due to the good efforts of the American car manufacturers, but due to competition from better made foreign cars), what was the next great scam to boost sales?
Well, how about electric cars! Since most states are now imposing restrictions on the sale of gas engine vehicles, which means by 2035, gas powered cars will no longer be legal.
That will force even the poorest of people to buy new cars.
Will someone explain to me how low income people, who live in row houses or apartment buildings in dangerous neighborhoods, are going to charge their cars? They don’t have garages. They don’t have ports at their homes costing 1,500 – $15,000, and if they did they’d need a hundred foot extension cord (only to have it stolen while they sleep, or transferred to another car (and come down the next day to see their car empty of change and a neighbor’s car fully changed.). There will not be any charging stations nearby.
How do people with no garages charge their cars? Do you think they’ll place hundred thousand dollar charging stations in dangerous neighborhoods where they will be vandalized the first night…and every night after that. How about people who live in large apartment complexes. Will there be a charging nozzle for every apartment or one changing station for hundred(s) cars? How about people who live in high rises? Five hundred people. Charging stations for 500 cars? Do you see a problem here?
So, if you don’t have a garage, if you’re poor, you will have to go out at night and stand at a charging station for hours. Dangerous? People in poor neighborhoods do NOT GO OUT AT NIGHT because it’s too dangerous. How about when it’s ten below zero? How about robbers hanging around charging stations waiting for easy marks? How about gangs that have their vehicles tying up all the nozzles and charge you a fee to let you in?
How about people who can’t afford a charging station for their home and can’t afford to use a high speed charger. Are there food and drink stands and restrooms nearby so that they won’t pass out while waiting for their cars to charge?
Do you see a problem here? 40-60 % of all nozzles at charging stations are broken due to complex machinery. That doesn’t include vandalism which will take place by people who don’t own an electric car…and must now take buses to work…and are jealous of you.
But what about solar farms? Of course. But the only place solar farms are efficient are New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and the middle of California. That means the electricity produced in the “solar states” has to be transmitted thousands of miles: to where the great majority of American cars are.
Well, then we can simply transmit the electricity produced to those areas where it’s not efficient to place solar panels. Wrong, A/C power dissipated over long distances. It requires a fantastic number of “boosting transformers: to drive the electricity thousands of miles. There are already rolling blackouts in California where electric car only make up .06% of total cars. What happens when there are 3% or 30% or 90%.
AC power won out because of the ease of changing voltage levels with a transformer that use of polyphase induction motors. Today, with few exceptions, the electric grid is predominately AC. Digital equipment, solar PV, storage batteries, electric vehicles and other end-use devices all require DC power. Thus the need for an inverter. So, the electrical power grid must be completely rebuilt to run on DC power. Cost to correct? Five trillion dollars.
Solar panels are not capable of charging an electric car. Solar can only run the regular electrical requirements of a house.
Charging stations….
There are now 56,000 electrical charging stations in America, but only 148,000 ports available. BUT…..only 40% – 60% of charging ports are working at a given time. So, leave a major city and roll the dice. Good luck getting across the country in an electric car. It will be like the pioneers crossing the nation in covered wagons, searching for water and food along the way.
Change your schedule to adapt for several hours at a charging station as opposed to 3 minutes at a gas station.
The biggest full battery electric cars (e.g. Audi e-tron Quattro) are heavier and get ~20 miles of range per hour at 7kW. That would mean 15 hours to full charge. (Plug-in hybrids are usually less efficient than full battery electric vehicles). The average car gets 30 miles of range in the slowest charger.
There are three levels of EV charging; Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3. Level 3 is broken into DC Fast Charging and (Tesla) Supercharging. The higher the level of charging, the faster the charging process, as more power is delivered to the vehicle. It’s important to note that different EVs charge at different speeds on each level, because each EV can accept different levels of power from the EVSE, industry-speak for electric vehicle supply equipment, the charger.
When an electric vehicle is plugged in, there’s a communication process before the charger is energized. Basically, the car asks the charger how much power it can deliver, and then the car calls for the maximum amount of power that the station can deliver and the vehicle can accept.
The car always determines how much power it accepts, so there’s no need to worry about plugging into a charging station that can deliver more power than your EV can handle. The car will not allow the charger to deliver too much power.
Level 1 Charging: 120-Volt. Level 1 charging uses a common 120-volt household outlet. Every electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid can be charged on Level 1 by plugging the charging equipment into a regular wall outlet. Level 1 is the slowest way to charge an EV. It adds between 3 and 5 miles of range per hour. That equates to 90 hours to full charge.
Level 2 charging is the most commonly used level for daily EV charging. Level 2 charging equipment can be installed at home, at the workplace, as well as in public locations like shopping plazas, train stations and other destinations. Level 2 charging can replenish between 12 and 80 miles of range per hour, depending on the power output of the Level 2 charger, and the vehicle’s maximum charge rate. At the middle figure of 50 miles of range per hour of charge, that means 6 hours of charging.
Most EV owners choose to install Level 2 charging equipment at their residence, because it charges the vehicle up to 10 times faster than Level 1 charging. Charging from a Level 2 source usually means the vehicle will be completely charged overnight, even if you plugged with a nearly empty battery. Level 2 chargers can deliver up to 80 amps of power. But that requires a 100-amp 208-240V dedicated circuit and a heavy, costly supply line from the breaker box.
Level 3 charging is the fastest type of charging available and can recharge an EV at a rate of 3 to 20 miles of range per minute. Unlike Level 1 and Level 2 charging that uses alternating current (AC), Level 3 charging uses direct current (DC). The voltage is also much higher than Level 1 & 2 charging, which is why you don’t see level 3 chargers installed at home. Very few residential locations have the high-voltage supply that is required for level 3 charging.
Additionally, DC Fast Chargers cost tens of thousands of dollars. So even if your residence has 400-volt electricity service, the cost to install the charger would most likely cost more than your EV. Tesla calls their Level 3 chargers Superchargers; others are called DC Fast Chargers.
The number of charging stations would have to triple just to charge the current number of electric cars in America. 1.6 million, or .000567 of the total number of cars in America.
There are 150,000 gas stations with approximately 8 pumps. That means 1 million four hundred thousand available nozzles.
A typical electric car (60kWh battery) takes just under 8 hours to charge from empty-to-full with a 7kW charging point. Most drivers top up charge rather than waiting for their battery to recharge from empty-to-full. For many electric cars, you can add up to 100 miles of range in ~35 minutes with a 50kW rapid charger. That, as opposed to 500 miles on a gas driven car that fills up in three minutes.
Did you ever see the initials “PZEV” on the back of a Subaru? It stands for “partial zero emissions vehicle.” That’s right, zero emissions for a gas engine. And that is, was, improving every year.
Gas mileage. If it wasn’t for Trump rolling back car gas mileage standards, the average car would already be getting 50 miles per gallon. Within 5 years, the average car could be getting 100 miles per gallon and burning cleaner.
Batteries. Has anyone thought about where you’ll dispose of those 1,000 pound batteries that last a hundred or two hundred thousand miles and are then worthless? The batteries in many electrical cars weigh an average of 1,000 pounds and last an average of eight years and cost $15,000 to replace. That means, a used electric car is worth zero. Basically there is no used car market for an electric car. Just junk it. Then start thinking about how to get rid of those batteries.
You know, the batteries that can spontaneously combust days, weeks, or months later. Of course they’ll be disposed of properly in expensive, controlled environments watched and codes strictly enforced. Well, maybe you’ve forgotten that the mafia controls 40% to 60% of the waste disposal business in America and they’re going to dump their batteries in the first open field they come to. The heavy metals will seep into the groundwater and destroy whole ecosystems.
People don’t even recycle the AA or AAA batteries correctly. The car batteries have a dozen heavy metals in them. Electric car batteries are composed of lithium cobalt, manganese, nickel, and graphite and more. If the useless, dead batteries are disposed of improperly (which you can bet your very last dollar they will be) and these metals leach into the groundwater, it will become undrinkable. You won’t even be able to take showers with it.
Does anyone see a problem with this? I refer here to the work down by Block and Scarpitti: Poisoning for Profit – The Mafia and Toxic Waste in America….
“Information from undercover investigations, hearings, taped conversations, confessions, and suppressed official reports documents organized crime’s involvement in illegal toxic waste dumping and the ineffectiveness of government agencies responsible for regulating toxic waste disposal.
“A historic review chronicles organized crime’s domination of the solid waste disposal industry in the Northeast and the illegal tactics used to eliminate competition and fix prices. The expansion of organized crime into toxic waste disposal is then detailed, with particular attention to the practice of dumping such wastes in areas not legally designated as toxic waste dump sites. Case studies of the consequences of such dumping are presented. Also described are the efforts of a few law enforcement officials to counter illegal toxic waste disposal and expose the payoffs, bribes, political favors, and collusion between organized crime, industry, and the government that hindered a concerted effort to stop illegal toxic waste dumping. Although much of the book focuses on illegal toxic waste dumping in the New York-New Jersey region, evidence of the same pattern in other States is also presented. The halting and sometimes obstructionist efforts of the Environmental Protection Agency under the Carter and Reagan administrations regarding the regulation of toxic waste dumping are discussed. 56 references and a subject index.”
There is a far greater chance those batteries will lend up in swamps, forests and protected habitats than in regulated, controlled, monitored sites.
So, what am I suggesting?
The answer: Skip electric cars and go directly to hydrogen powered cars. Zero emission, simple fill up…in just minutes — not hours. It’s 100% emission-free, costs about the same as gas to fill up, and involves no fossil fuels. The only thing it emits is pure, clean water.
Hydrogen can be pumped into a vehicle’s fuel tank just like gas. You can fill up quickly, the same way you would with gas or diesel. And once it has a full tank, a fuel-cell vehicle can travel just as far as a gas vehicle
- What’s the Secret of Fuel Cells?
“Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle” sounds pretty exotic, but in reality it’s just an electric car that replaces the bulky, heavy and expensive grid-charged battery pack with a relatively small, lightweight and expensive electrochemical system that produces electricity onboard.
- Where Do We Get the Hydrogen?
Hydrogen is the most common element on the planet, so there are no worries about shortages. It rarely exists as free hydrogen, however. It usually is bound to something else, like hydrogen in water or in natural gas.
A Hydrogen filling station cost 1.2 million to build, roughly the same cost as a gas filling station. But…once a hydrogen station is built it produces the hydrogen on site. There are no more gas deliveries.
- Is Hydrogen Fuel Safe?
The University of California at Irvine has operated a public hydrogen station for a dozen years without incident, says Carl Baust, alternative energy projects specialist for the Orange County Fire Authority. Several other hydrogen stations opened in Southern California and the Sacramento area to fuel test the vehicles that have been plying the state’s highways since 2002. So far, they also have been incident-free.
.5. Typically, a fuel-cell system is twice as efficient as a gasoline system. Most of the fuel-cell vehicles coming to market in the next few years will be able to deliver close to 70 miles per kilogram of fuel. That’s the equivalent of 70 miles per gallon. There is no established retail price for hydrogen fuel, but most suppliers say $10 per kilogram is about right for the early days of low-volume sales. The price is expected eventually to fall to parity with gasoline.
Additionally, fuel-cell systems are much lighter and smaller than the battery packs that dominate plug-in electric drive systems. That means they can be more easily scaled up without the weight penalties that make plug-in systems impractical for large sedans, SUVs and pickup trucks.
So while battery-electric vehicles tend to be compact and subcompact models with limited range and lengthy recharging times, fuel-cell vehicles are quick and easy to refuel. Fuel-cell systems could power everything from minicars to large pickups.
- What Will They Cost?
Hyundai is offering the Hyundai Tucson fuel-cell vehicle, a midsize crossover SUV, on a lease-only basis for $499 a month. The lease payment also covers all maintenance and fuel.
Toyota has followed Hyundai’s lead with its own $499 monthly lease that includes free fuel. It also will sell its Mirai for $58,325 before federal and state incentives that could knock the real cost to buyers down to around $48,000. Honda hasn’t announced pricing yet but is expected to be competitive.
Funding for construction, at an average of about $1.5 million per station, is being provided by grants from California’s Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program. About the same cost as building a regular gas station.
The whole electric thing is farcical.
But instead of waiting a few years for the hydrogen cars, the American manufacturers wanted to force you to get rid of your gas cars now, then get rid of your electric cars when the hydrogen fuel cell cars arrive en masse.
How’s that make you feel?
Do you see a problem with this? Right now, there are not enough charging stations for all the electric cars in America and only 1% of cars in America are electric. What happens when electric cars make up 3% or 30% or 100% of cars in America? This is a ridiculous.
Suppose you run out of charge on a desolate highway? Do you want to wait while they put in a changing station close enough to where you can push your car? How about they tow your vehicle a hundred, or two hundred miles to a charging station. I’ll bet that’s cheap. Do you know what a 100 mile tow costs…do you really want to know? It’s $100 – $200 just to hook up the car, then $7-$10 a mile. So that 100 mile tow cost you $1200. A tesla owner broke down in the Midwest. Had to have the car towed 1,000 miles. (since there are only a few certified tesla dealerships in the entire U.S.). Cost him five thousand dollars.
Do you see a problem with this? It’s a joke. The auto manufactures know it’s a joke. Once the electric car fiasco falls apart, then the auto manufacturers will start producing hydrogen powered cars (already in process) and you’ll have to get rid of that expense, useless piece of crap.
Does anyone see a problem with this?
But what about the environment! Won’t electric cars protect that? Have you ever asked yourself where the electricity comes from? No? Well, it’s predominantly coal-fired power plants: the worst polluters in the world.
Just about the time everyone has been forced to switch over to the electric car, the hydrogen-powered cars will become cheaper to drive. So, electric cars will go by the wayside and hydrogen powered cars will become the norm.
So, what am I suggesting?
Skip electric cars and go directly to hydrogen powered cars. Zero emission, simple fill up…in just minutes — not hours. It’s 100% emission-free and involves no fossil fuels. The only thing it emits is pure, clean water.
The car takes moments to fill and lasts 300 to 500 hundreds of miles on a fill up.
Hydrogen can be pumped into a vehicle’s fuel tank just like gas. You can fill up quickly, the same way you would with gas or diesel. And once it has a full tank, a fuel-cell vehicle can travel just as far as a gas vehicle
What’s the Secret of Fuel Cells?
“Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle” sounds pretty exotic, but in reality it’s just an electric car that replaces the bulky, heavy and expensive grid-charged battery pack with a relatively small, lightweight and expensive electrochemical system that produces electricity onboard.
Where Do We Get the Hydrogen?
Hydrogen is the most common element on the planet, so there are no worries about shortages. It rarely exists as free hydrogen, however. It usually is bound to something else, like hydrogen in water or in natural gas.
Is Hydrogen Fuel Safe?
The University of California at Irvine has operated a public hydrogen station for a dozen years without incident, says Carl Baust, alternative energy projects specialist for the Orange County Fire Authority. Several other hydrogen stations opened in Southern California and the Sacramento area to fuel test the vehicles that have been plying the state’s highways since 2002. So far, they also have been incident-free.
Typically, a fuel-cell system is twice as efficient as a gasoline system. Most of the fuel-cell vehicles coming to market in the next few years will be able to deliver close to 70 miles per kilogram of fuel. That’s the equivalent of 70 miles per gallon. There is no established retail price for hydrogen fuel, but most suppliers say $10 per kilogram is about right for the early days of low-volume sales. The price is expected eventually to fall to parity with gasoline.
Additionally, fuel-cell systems are much lighter and smaller than the battery packs that dominate plug-in electric drive systems. That means they can be more easily scaled up without the weight penalties that make plug-in systems impractical for large sedans, SUVs and pickup trucks.
So while battery-electric vehicles tend to be compact and subcompact models with limited range and lengthy recharging times, fuel-cell electric vehicles are quick and easy to refuel. Fuel-cell systems could power everything from minicars to large pickups.
What Will it Cost?
Funding for construction, at an average of about $1.5 million per station: the same or less than the cost of building a conventional gas station. However…once the hydrogen station is built, there is no transportation. The hydrogen is manufactured on site), and is being provided by grants from California’s Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program.
Hydrogen tanks are refueled in a process that’s pretty much the same as with a petrol or diesel car. You just need to lock a pipe to the car and wait. The cost of filling the tank is also comparable at around £10 per kg, which is equivalent to petrol.
How do hydrogen cars work? What are some of the advantages of hydrogen vehicles?
Faster refueling: compared to recharging an electric car, a hydrogen vehicle can be fully fueled in three to five minutes.
No harmful emissions: the only thing to be emitted from a hydrogen fuel cell car is water.
An impressive range: with a range of around 300 miles per tank, hydrogen cars are on a par with many conventional vehicles.
Good efficiency levels: Fuel cell power trains are much more efficient at getting energy out of hydrogen than traditional cars are at getting energy out of petrol or diesel.
Just keep in mind…the car companies and the oil companies are going to do what is best for themselves and their shareholders. What might look to you as progress is just them reshuffling the deck.
What to do with electric cars? Refit them with Hydrogen powered drive trains. Recall all of them and replace them with hydrogen powered cars. Have the manufacturers split the cost with the government. Do it now before we only get deeper and more mired in this abomination.