Duggan Flanakin
Duggan Flanakin is a Senior Policy Analyst with the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow. A former Senior Fellow with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Mr. Flanakin authored definitive works on the creation of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and on environmental education in Texas. A brief history of his multifaceted career appears in his book, “Infinite Galaxies: Poems from the Dugout.”
In his 1968 book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, author Tom Wolfe portrayed Ken Kesey as a man seeking to create a new religion. Kesey’s followers and peers – the “Merry Pranksters” – sought to create a new society based on psychedelic transcendence. Actually, it all started thanks to a CIA-sponsored drug study in which Kesey was given LSD.
Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors, apparently finds driving an electric vehicle to be as thrilling as one of Kesey’s LSD trips. In a recent social media post, she announced, “Once you’ve experienced an [electric vehicle] and all it has to offer – the torque, handling, performance, capability – you’re in!”
The euphoria of EV zealots is rarely challenged directly by little things like facts – like the fact that the vast majority of people just do not want one. A recent Rasmussen survey found that 52 per cent of American adults think EVs are not practical compared to just 25 per cent who think otherwise: the rest are just not sure. Ten years ago, 19 per cent favored EVs – that’s a six per cent jump in a full decade.
According to the 2022 Deloitte Global Automotive Study, more than two-thirds of Americans said their next vehicle would not have any electrification, while only five per cent saw their next vehicle as an EV; 17 percent would consider a hybrid car. In Southeast Asia, China, and India, majorities also had no desire for an electrified vehicle.
Automatic transmissions were introduced into motor vehicles in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Seven decades later, nearly half of all new models offered in the US were still available with either an automatic or manual transmission. Yet by 2016, only three per cent of US vehicles were manual vehicles compared with 80 per cent in some European and Asian countries.
There has never been a federal mandate requiring all vehicles to use only automatic transmissions. Yet the US government, the governments of several states, and governments worldwide have already demanded that non-electric vehicles be banned from sale within the next seven years. Soon after, such vehicles may not even be allowed on highways and streets.
These totalitarian measures have been inflicted upon unwilling citizens of supposedly democratic nations in the name of “climate change,” despite a dreadful lack of legitimate evidence that the EV mandates are achievable, let alone practical, all things (including production capacity) considered.
For governments to impose unwanted mandates – and for giant automakers to meekly fall into line, despite the wishes of their customers – suggests that the EV mandate mania is born of religious fervor.
The first EV mandate was issued in 1990 in California, which continues to push the envelope to force the rest of America to conform to Los Angeles standards. As of 2021, 42 per cent of the nation’s one million US electric vehicles were registered in California.
General Motors, which has partnered with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp since 1998, delivered 2.3 million vehicles in China in 2022, a third of which are zero-emission vehicles. Still, GM, which relies on the Chinese market to stay afloat, cannot sell cost-competitive EVs in the United States (outside California).
The ebullient Barra even admits that “Battery costs are still not at a point where you can get to the mass market, which is this $30,000 to $40,000 vehicle, that’s what the bulk of new car sales are, frankly, around the globe.”
To be sure, price and range perceptions are major reasons cited for people unwilling to risk buying an EV as their only transportation [78 per cent of US EV owner households also have a second gasoline-powered vehicle]. But for those who have not drunk the EV Kool-Aid, there are multiple other reasons.
A recent study by the American Automobile Association found that the range of electric vehicles can fall by up to 25 per cent when made to carry heavy loads. Another study by Recurrent found that EVs can lose up to 35 per cent of their range in freezing conditions. One can only imagine the loss of range when carrying a heavy load in freezing weather.
Parking EVs is another concern, especially for the large number of drivers who do not have covered garages in which to charge their vehicles. The charging infrastructure is far from adequate to meet current and future needs, especially if these mandates come to pass. Another problem is that multi-story parking garages are incompatible with battery-heavy electric vehicles, according to the Institution of Structural Engineers.
Many underground parking garages have banned electric vehicles over fire concerns – because even if such fires are rare, fire brigades lack the proper equipment to extinguish lithium-ion battery fires. Because of the chemical reactions, a lithium-battery fire can continue for days, putting nearby vehicles at risk and making the facility unusable for even longer. Such a fire under a commercial building could destroy the entire structure.
These and many other nitpicking concerns over EVs are among the reasons people in Europe and the US are not sold on the vehicles their governments insist they MUST purchase – or walk. Yet perhaps the biggest reason to slow down on EV mandates is that their increased use compromises the electric grid.
A new study by the Pacific Research Institute found that California will fall more than 21 per cent short of the power generation levels required to support the state’s EV mandate. The Golden State has moved to phase out coal and natural gas plants in favor of wind and solar energy that rely on favorable weather conditions to operate anywhere near full capacity.
The immovable object (the energy shortfall) is about to meet the unstoppable force (the California green energy and EV mandates). As the PRI says, California will have to rapidly expand its power generation or risk facing “acute electricity shortages” in the near future. And, as California goes, we have been told, so goes the nation.
Kool-Aid, anyone?
This article originally appeared at Real Clear Energy.