This week, Ford said it would lay off about 700 workers at the Detroit plant that manufactures its electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck and GM pushed back production of the Chevrolet Silverado EV, citing slowing demand.
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The first automobile was electric. There is nothing wrong with the idea, it’s not new. The motors are amazingly powerful and efficient, gobs of torque on demand. It’s the batteries that are still the weak point. Oh and the fact the our betters are forcing this on us. It’s our decision up to the point that all other options have been removed, again by our betters. Not sure about you but I am sick of the so called betters telling me what to do as our legal system is against us, the border is wide open, our tax dollars are spent in countries where we see any benefit. TL Davis just did a post and it sums up my feelings quite well. https://tldavis.substack.com/p/the-late-hour-of-our-republic?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=700076&post_id=138241322&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1lql1i&utm_medium=email
ReplyDeleteThis story fuels my schadenfreude tank. However, it's indicative of the culture split. The Progressive high earners will continue to buy Teslas, BMWs & Mercedes because they want to save the planet and the vehicles will be registers as business vehicles for tax write off. Fords and Chevys are more working and middle vehicles, especially pickups. Those folks like Litre V8s
ReplyDeleteI read an article yesterday about the EV scam, it stated that if all the government subsidies involved with them were removed it would add $50K to the purchase price of an EV.
ReplyDeleteIt's no surprise to me that the F150 Lightning isn't doing well. Seeing how awful it was in a towing test against a gas-fueled pickup. I wouldn't spend that kind of money on a truck that won't meet my needs.
ReplyDeleteBut it's not just the trucks. It looks like Mercedes Benz is learning that same lesson the hard way as sales of their luxury EVs have plummeted as well. Those who want (and can afford) them have already bought them. The rest of us aren't really interested because, from and engineering, environmental, and financial point of view, they make no effin' sense whatsoever.
Makes you wonder what, if anything Ford is going to build in their new plant in West Tennessee, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteMaybe tanks, if this thing in Israel/Gaza heats up some more.
Wouldn't be the first time Ford has been saved by war.
I am a retired Electrical Engineer and the EV push is not a good one. It has many negatives that will not lead to US people buying them over fuel vehicles. The main reasons is original cost, the charging issues, and distance driving issues. The production issues are that many require equipment from foreign countries and replacement issues take time and high costs.
ReplyDeleteThere are also serious secondary considerations. Many accidents can total an EV and if they don't repairs are still much higher and take longer. This (if it hasn't already) impacts insurance costs. Then there's problem that at around 10 years of age an EV is essentially valueless because of the costs of (even potentially having to) replace the battery.
DeleteLost its spark?
ReplyDeleteNo way!
The UAW is working hard to completely destroy the ICE industry throwing all those hundreds of thousands of people that make an honest living building, servicing and using those car onto the streets.
After that only lefty millionaires and corrupt congressmen (redundant, I know) will be able to afford to buy the only cars still available: an EV. And if there is any electricity available they even may be able to drive every alternate July.
Every EV maker except Tesla is losing money on every EV they make. Ford, GM, Lucid and Rivian loose $10k to $30k per car. They are cutting production so they don't go bankrupt as the math is pretty clear. They hope to have their shit together in a year or two and can then make a profitable EV. The Chinese are losing or just breaking even, hard to tell, they lie about everything. Tesla lobbied against EV subsidies, they don't need them and instead cut prices.
ReplyDeleteWhat is going to be different in a year or two?
DeleteI'm a camera buff, and a semipro photographer.
ReplyDeleteWhen digital cameras came out the resolution was poor, the tonal values in an image were limited. Battery life was short. The only appealing feature was near immediate ability to upload and being able to print at home even if you didn't have a dark room.
Thirty years later and digital cameras had gotten a lot better and I had a couple for certain applications but I was still shooting ten to fifteen rolls of film a month. Shortly later the house burned down and I then made the full transition to digital. Got a Nikon D70 which was acceptable. Still couldn't touch the medium and full frame cameras I had lost, but OK.
But nobody, especially the government, tried to strongarm me into converting into digital earlier. The government didn't take steps to increase the price of film. The manufacturers didn't stop making the still popular and higher selling film cameras to concentrate on the digital models only.
Digital cameras took over the marketplace by becoming vastly improved. And the marketplace decided. That's NOT what happened with EV's. And not enough people are asking "Why?"
Incidentally, I was wondering today about something. What happens to EV lithium battery packs during the next Carrington Event?
Went to a fire academy course on EV and lithium ion battery fires...scary!
ReplyDeleteNot to mention that in today's news was an announcement that China is now restricting the export of graphite on national security grounds. Turns out, per the article, that graphite is rather vital to the manufacture of big lithium batteries.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...
Energy storage is a huge technical problem, and the solutions don't scale well at all. Especially after you have already suffered the economic penalty of ~35% recovery for most fuel-to-electric conversions (boiler / steam turbine, etc)
ReplyDeleteUsing the electricity after it is produced is relatively economic. Trying to store it and use it later is the huge economic problem.
One of the goals of the EV fad has been to take advantage of baseload generating capacity (nuclear) in the middle of the night when no one is using it.
Batteries suck, and everyone knows it.
The only proven and commercially viable option is the diesel electric train scenario. The Prius comes close to that. But there's still a battery problem and when scaled down to car-size it really doesn't perform any better than the current internal combustion engines.
ReplyDeleteBut for Pete sake, can we forego the trend to put small turbo-charged 4-bangers in everything? Those are just gamed to beat the EPA fuel economy test, not provide real world driveability. As an American, I want a V-8, and dammit I want it in CUBIC INCHES, not that damn commie metric system liter crap.
Toyota announced recently that it had developed a solid state battery with a supposed 700 mile range and ~10 minute charging time.
ReplyDeleteThe article stated that the batteries are slated for their Camry and Tacoma lines.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/toyota-announces-mass-production-of-solid-state-batteries/ar-AA1ii246
If true, this battery tech will revolutionize the EV market and put all of the current players out of business.
Nemo
So now my story is "I'm keeping my Chevys until Toyota comes out with their new battery."
Delete(Disclaimer: I fukkin' hate Toyotas.)
Thanks for the link.
DeleteThat's mass-production in five years IF they can work out the bugs such as cracks in the plates when recharged.
Then there is the question, if they can get 600 mile range in ten minutes, that's commercial welding equipment range. A whole new set of chargers and still the same question; "Where is the power coming from?"
And fragile to boot. Most caps don't cotton well to shock or constant vibration. Given the material requirements, I can't see these being any different. Plus, pumping that much current in that quick is going to cause some significant resistance heating issues on the charging side of things.
DeleteIf the government would have stayed out of our business, we'd be driving Buicks to the moon by now. I hope Hoover and FDR are slow-roasting side by side.
ReplyDeleteWho did they think was going to buy all those $75 - $125k vehicles?
ReplyDelete