When you talk about EV Vehicles there are multiple camps on these types of vehicles. Myself, I do own a Hybrid KIA car which I have enjoyed. With gas mileage of up to 40mpg I have enjoyed the gas savings it offers to me. But – As for going full electric, I have several reasons that I refuse to do this. This as the federal government and the Biden administration is fully planning to push this idea down the throats of the American people. Being involved in Emergency planning, I thought I’d put down in writing some of the reasons I refuse to go full EV. Though I may be forced to some day, I will retain one gas or diesel vehicle at all times.
ELECTRIC IS NOT ALWAYS CHEAPER
One of the early arguments was that the cost savings through electricity was greater as opposed to that of gasoline. To help to push this, Costs of gas were almost immediately pushed up by the regulatory acts of the administration. Almost as soon as the 2020 administration took office. The pushing of environmental controls has discouraged investment in drilling and in future oil development. This has helped to put our country on a negative tract for energy independence. But – Along with the rising cost of gasoline, so has the rising cost of electricity been occurring.
This as well as costs of the use of charging stations has pushed up the charging costs for electric vehicles. The best solution is the installation of enough home solar energy to facilitate the charging of your vehicle. This would only apply if the daily driving distance for your vehicle was low enough to allow proper charging.
ELECTRIC IS NOT ALWAYS AVAILABLE
This can be covered by a number of problems including:
- Lack of power during power outages
- Lack of charging stations – The charging station infrastructure is just weak.
- Lack of WORKING charging stations – Reports in 2022 showed that nearly 1 in 4 charging stations were actually BROKEN.
- Insufficient Charging stations in the event of an evacuation – I live in Florida. Where do you charge when a million people are on the road evacuating? A car can take an hour or longer to charge on one of a limited number of stations?
BATTERY TECH IS NOT THERE
EV Cars depend on Lithium battery technology still today. These batteries do have hazards and risks still. Elon Musk is one of many who is working towards new technologies that will eventually overcome this for EV cars as well as energy storage for Homes and other purposes. But – As of 2023, the tech is still problematic.
BATTERY MANUFACTURING REQUIRES SLAVERY
Yes – This is a topic ignored by most. The mining of cobalt for the manufacturing of the batteries is done in a limited area of the world leading to child labor and even near slavery in many parts such as the Congo regions of Africa. If you don’t believe me look it up. So are we going to say we support this technology even if it requires near slave labor? In the upcoming future new technologies using Sodium/Salt based batteries will help to resolve this, but that tech is still growing and we are not there yet.
EV BATTERIES ARE SUPER EXPENSIVE
The high cost of replacement for these batteries can often run in excess of ten thousand dollars. Though covered under warranty, how many of us have had vehicles exceeding 100k miles? If a battery fails due to damage from an accident or battery failure, we can quickly find ourselves with a nearly worthless EV car. Replacement batteries for many EVs will run $10,000 to $20,000. And – If the car is older than just a few years, often these batteries are no longer available. EV cars tend to age out faster than our tradition reliable carbon-combustion cars.
The National Insurance groups have argued that with the new changing emission standards that will be coming down in 2027, we can look at much higher insurance premiums due to the higher repair costs that will be coming with the damage of EV cars in accidents.
EV CARS HAVE A HUGE CARBON COST
EV Cars have a higher carbon footprint due to the high carbon cost in battery production and higher carbon cost in the manufacturing process than a good old-fashion combustion engine. By the time the cars balance out or the EV becomes at a point with a lesser carbon footprint, we are approaching the 100k mile mark which then places the car out of warranty with the car becoming too costly to repair in an accident or out-of-warranty battery repair.
LOSS OF CONTROL OVER OUR CARS?
This one goes into the conspiracy category, but as EV cars become the norm we may see a point where the government has more visibility over the use and operation of our cars. Think of the possibility of the car being able to be shut off if driven outside of an identified range? Or hour or use? Ford has already patented a design by which a self-driving car will return to the bank on it’s own if a payment is missed. And remember – we are in a world where the COVID virus being released from a lab was a coo-coo theory and Trump was a Russian collaborator – both stories now that have changed with the most common belief that Covid was from a Lab, and that the Russian-Trump story was in fact a story that was made up. Today’s conspiracy is in fact sometimes tomorrow’s reality.
A BIG COMMITMENT TO CHINA
We are currently in a period of time where we have a contentious relationship with one of our biggest suppliers of electronics and metals ever – China. China has a near-monopoly on many of the critical components we use for batteries – Lithium and Cobalt. During the Covid crisis in 2020 we saw China holding back on making critical medical supplies available even to countries who were manufacturing many of these supplies for export. US companies had expanded (And have still) manufacturing of items including medications and batteries to China. If China were willing to withhold products we were manufacturing for US consumption during covid, why would we expect them not to do this with Batteries someday? And if the number of EVs we have grows and out dependency on batteries becomes critical, why would we want to depend on a possibly unfriendly country?
Overall – My biggest concern over an all-electric society is the inability to escape if you needed to. Florida sticks out like a thumb hitchhiking for any passing storms which makes us heavily prone to these types of storms, and not having the option to leave if necessary is, well, not an option. Though I can appreciate having an EV as a short-range commuter vehicle, having it as my only vehicle I will not see as a good option.
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