Tag: electric vehicles

Analysis: Electric Cars Are Not ‘Zero-Emission Vehicles’

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While praising California’s decision to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035, Governor Gavin Newsom declared that this will require “100% of new car sales in California to be zero-emission vehicles” like “electric cars.” In reality, electric cars emit substantial amounts of pollutants and may be more harmful to the environment than conventional cars.

Toxic Pollution

The notion that electric vehicles are “zero-emission” is rooted in a deceptive narrative that ignores all pollutants which don’t come out of a tailpipe. Assessing the environmental impacts of energy technologies requires measuring all forms of pollution they emit over their entire lives, not a narrow slice of them. To do this, researchers perform “life cycle assessments” or LCAs. As explained by the Environmental Protection Agency, LCAs allow for:

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Tucson City Council Moves in Favor of Increased Electric Vehicle Readiness; Rising Costs a Concern

Neil Jones

The Tucson City Council recently approved an amendment to the Unified Development Code to ensure that new commercial development in Tucson is Electric Vehicle (EV) ready.

“These new regulations would require all new commercial development, multi-family, office, and retail to include EV stations or outlets, as well as conduit to support future expansion of EV capacity,” according to the city of Tucson. “These new requirements come after more than a year of stakeholder and public engagement, community input, and technical analysis to develop the proposal.”

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Lithium-Based Company Announces $582 Million Investment in Southeast Tennessee

Kaitlin Housler

Piedmont Lithium officials announced Thursday that the company would invest $582 million to establish a lithium hydroxide processing, refining, and manufacturing facility in Etowah.

The new facility will be located at the North Etowah Industrial Park, creating 117 new jobs in McMinn County. According to the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD), the facility will be America’s largest “lithium hydroxide processing” facility.

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Republicans Say California’s 2035 Ban on Gasoline-Powered Cars Will Apply in Virginia

Eric Burk
Glenn Youngkin

California regulators moved forward with a plan to ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars by 2035, a policy that also impacts Virginia and other states that have chosen to link their emissions law to California’s. In the wake of the decision reported by The New York Times, Virginia Republicans are once again expressing frustration over the 2021 legislation that tied Virginia’s regulations to California’s zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) requirements.

“In an effort to turn Virginia into California, liberal politicians who previously ran our government sold Virginia out by subjecting Virginia drivers to California vehicle laws,” Governor Glenn Youngkin said in a Twitter statement Friday.

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Toyota Executive Calls Market for Electric Vehicles Not ‘Mature Enough,’ Georgia Has Almost 4,000 Charging Stations

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The United States, including Georgia, isn’t ready to fully adopt electric vehicles (EVs), and hybrids continue to be a better alternative for the near term, a high-ranking Toyota executive told the  Wall Street Journal.

High EV prices and a small charging infrastructure are holding the market back, Jack Hollis, executive vice president of sales at Toyota Motor North America said during “a virtual event with journalists,” the Journal reported in its news story.

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Massive Volkswagen Plant in Chattanooga Begins Producing Electric Vehicles

Peter D'Abrosca

A German automobile manufacturer with a plant in Chattanooga Wednesday announced that that location has become the first company’s first site in the United States to solely produce electric vehicles. 

“We’re just starting to write a new chapter for Volkswagen in America, and it is very much an American story,” said Thomas Schäfer, global  Chairman of the Volkswagen. “When we promised to bring Volkswagen EVs to the millions, it always included American workers building those EVs right there in Chattanooga. We couldn’t be prouder to see that vision realized today with our ID.4 electric flagship rolling off the lines. This is another milestone in Volkswagen’s ambitious electrification strategy for the U.S. market and globally.”

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Georgia Senate Committees to Study Growth of Electric Vehicles Statewide and HBCU Expansion

The Center Square

Several state Senate committees will explore topics ranging from the electrification of transportation to how the state can support growth at historically Black colleges and universities.

The Joint Study Committee on the Electrification of Transportation, established by Senate Resolution 463 and running until the end of the year, will, in part, explore how to build electric vehicle charging infrastructure across the state. Georgia officials have announced more than 20 EV-related projects since 2020.

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Gov. Whitmer Launches State Parks Electric Vehicle Charging Network

The Center Square

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer celebrated the installation of two of the 30 eventual electric vehicle (EV) charging stations at state parks. She made the announcement at Holland State Park.

“This partnership to install charging stations in our state parks speaks to the collaborative approach we are taking to grow our economy and address climate change head-on through clean, reliable energy,” Whitmer said in a statement. “These charging stations along the Lake Michigan EV Circuit build on our rich Pure Michigan tradition of exploration and bringing together communities and businesses to ensure that we honor our past as the place that put the world on wheels and continue to invest in our workforce as we lead the transition to electric vehicles.”

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Commentary: Joe Biden Is Threatening Our Freedom of Movement

RealClearWire

The federal gov’t and silicon valley are looking to clamp down on your freedom of movement. Your ability to move about as you please does not fit with their goals for the future of our world. Automotive-related freedoms, including access to fuel, allow us to be free to move without the permission of silicon valley and the federal government. Automotive freedoms are not only hobby related; they are essential to preventing yet another step along the road to serfdom at the hands of woke corporations and federal bureaucrats.

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Michigan Gives $577,400 in Grants for Electric Vehicle Programs

The Center Square

Six private companies will share $577,400 of Michigan funding to expand electric vehicle infrastructure, promote EV adoption, and enhance electric bicycle sharing and charging.

Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II announced Thursday a round of funding that will launch additional EV charging stations, increase access to EVs and expand adoption of EVs with Michigan drivers. More than $577,400 will be appropriated to six mobility projects from the Michigan Mobility Funding Platform, which was created through a partnership between the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the Michigan Department of Transportation, and the Office of Future Mobility and Electrification.

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Honda, GM Partner to Make ‘Affordable’ Electric Vehicles

The Center Square

General Motors (GM) and Honda plan to produce millions of “affordable” electric vehicles (EV) with prices of some popular models starting at around $30,000.

GM Director of Finance and Sales Communications David Caldwell told The Center Square that the collaboration will result in “a series of compact crossover EVs – the most popular vehicle segment globally.”

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Commentary: Joe Biden’s Electric Car Plans Support the World’s Worst Humanitarian Abuses

RealClearWire
Joe Biden

In his State of the Union Address on Tuesday, President Joe Biden promoted electric vehicles (EVs), trumpeting his plans to establish “a national network of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations.” In so doing, Biden is unwittingly supporting the worst humanitarian abuses in the world. This is because of the way in which the materials used in manufacturing the batteries that power today’s EVs are obtained.

To obtain a reasonable amount of power per pound of battery weight, EV manufacturers generally use various forms of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, so named because the battery’s positive electrode, called the cathode, is largely made up of the highly reactive metal lithium (Li). To keep the cathode stable when a battery is not in use, the lithium is combined in a metal oxide matrix, with different manufacturers using different combinations of metals.

Most EV manufacturers combine lithium with nickel, cobalt and manganese to create a Li-Ni-Mn-Co oxide matrix to form the cathode. Tesla substitutes aluminum (Al) for the manganese, yielding a Li-Ni-Co-Al oxide matrix for the cathode on their batteries. Tesla maintains that their formulae is more cost-effective as less cobalt is required.

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Government Could Increase New Home Construction Costs in Georgia by Mandating They’re Wired to Charge Electric Vehicles, Expert Says

Chris Butler

Some people want to mandate that every new home comes wired ready to charge electric vehicles (EVs), and those mandates, if enacted, would likely raise a home’s construction costs. And the people who want those mandates will likely push for them in about two years, said Home Builders Association of Georgia Vice President Austin Hackney.

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Biden Plan Would Build EV Chargers on Interstate Highways Before Rural Areas

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President Joe Biden’s ambitious $5 billion plan to construct an electric vehicle charging network across the country would prioritize the Interstate Highway System.

The federal government will distribute the funds to states over the course of five years under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program, according to a joint Department of Transportation and Energy Department announcement Thursday. In 2022, $615 million will be made available to states that submit plans for how the money will be used to construct chargers along the interstate highway network, the announcement said.

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Senators Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to End U.S. Reliance on Chinese Minerals

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Mark Kelly and Tom Cotton

A Republican and Democratic senator introduced legislation Friday that aims to end U.S. reliance on rare-earth metals sourced from and produced in China.

The Restoring Essential Energy and Security Holdings Onshore for Rare Earths (REEShore) Act would prevent supply disruptions and bolster domestic production of the minerals, according to Sens. Tom Cotton and Mark Kelly, the bill’s sponsors. They said the legislation is important for American national security and development of advanced technologies.

“The Chinese Communist Party has a chokehold on global rare-earth element supplies, which are used in everything from batteries to fighter jets,” Cotton said in a statement. “Ending America’s dependence on the CCP for extraction and processing of these elements is critical to winning the strategic competition against China and protecting our national security.”

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Commentary: The Reckless Push for Electric Vehicles at the U.S. Postal Service

RealClearWire

As Democrats regroup and forge ahead with plans to implement components of the Build Back Better legislation killed by Senator Joe Manchin, calls for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to be given billions to electrify its vehicle fleet are likely to soon reach a fever pitch.  

USPS is a high-profile, well-regarded institution through which progressives want to unveil new programs. Progressives pulled out all the stops to provide USPS with electric vehicle funding in 2021 and will likely double down in 2022. 

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‘A Mad Scramble’: One Rare Mineral May Spell Doom for Electric Vehicle Market

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Lithium — a mineral that is key for electric car batteries — continues to rise in price, jeopardizing the ongoing transition to renewable energy outlined by Western governments.

The cost of lithium has skyrocketed more than 250% over the last 12 months, hitting its highest level ever, according to an industry index from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. While the cost of manufacturing a lithium-ion battery for an electric vehicle (EV) has fallen sharply over the last decade, the decline has slowed in recent months due to rising lithium costs.

The average cost of an EV battery pack fell to $157 per kilowatt hour, a measure of energy capacity, in 2021, the Department of Energy said in October. That means a typical EV battery is between $6,000 and $7,000, a BloombergNEF analysis showed.

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‘Truly Historic’: Biden Environmental Protection Agency Introduces New Regulations to Force Electric Vehicle Transition

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The Biden administration rolled out a series of new emissions regulations for passenger vehicles and light trucks that it said would “unlock” $190 billion in benefits for American consumers.

The regulations will be enforced beginning with 2023 car models and will be revised with more stringent standards in 2027, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced. The EPA said the new emissions standards would ultimately quicken the transition from traditional engine vehicles to zero-emission cars.

“This day is truly historic,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said during an event on Monday.

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Electric Vehicle Push Is Sparking Massive Deforestation, Environmental Damage

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A major nickel mine in a Philippines rainforest has continued to expand, mowing down acres of trees as global demand for minerals essential for electric vehicle manufacturing surges.

The Rio Tuba mine in the region of Palawan supplies an important mineral for electric vehicle batteries in Tesla and Toyota cars, but the mine is nearing an expansion that would cause it to grow from four square miles to 14 square miles, according to an NBC News investigation. The growth of the mine would cause massive deforestation of the land which environmentalists warn could destroy the area’s ecosystem.

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Biden Bashed for Action That Could Ban Minnesota Mining Project

The Center Square

President Joe Biden’s administration wants to lead an electric vehicle (EV) revolution, but apparently doesn’t want domestic production of rare earth minerals vital to EVs.

The Biden administration announced a two-year study on a proposed Twin Metals copper-nickel mine in northeast Minnesota that could delay it for 20 years and stop one of the few planned copper-nickel mines in the nation while the U.S attempts to pivot to EVs from gasoline-powered internal combustion vehicles.

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Tennessee Approves $884M in Funding, Creates Board for $6B Ford Project

The Center Square

The Tennessee Legislature finished its special session on Ford’s $5.6 billion electric truck project Wednesday by approving $884 million in spending and creating a Megasite Authority of West Tennessee board to oversee operations.

“This is the largest single economic investment in rural Tennessee’s history,” Gov. Bill Lee said. “… It is, most importantly, a win for western Tennessee’s workforce.”

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Michigan Prepares for Future Electric Cars Usage

The Center Square

A rise in the number of electric vehicles rumbling off manufacturers’ assembly lines and hitting the state’s roads and highways has Michigan planning to build out a network of charging stations.

A state report predicts by 2030, hybrid or electric vehicles (EV) will represent 51% of all vehicle sales; 50% of vehicle production will have Level 2 autonomy or higher; and software will account for more than 50% of the value of a new vehicle.

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Commentary: America’s Automotive Future

Admin

Joe Biden, emulating trendsetting blue state governors like California’s Gavin Newsom and New York’s Andrew Cuomo, recently has declared that by 2030, new car sales must be 50 percent zero-emission electric vehicles.

The problem with this decree is that it violates the proverbial rule against the government picking winners and losers. It’s one thing for the government to subsidize energy research, or, for that matter, any pure research. Libertarian purists might object to that, but sometimes these public-private research partnerships can accelerate innovation and help keep American manufacturers competitive. It’s quite another thing, however, for the government to restrict what sort of technology powers our vehicles, because there’s no way we can predict how technology will evolve between now and 2030.

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Critics Pan Biden Order Calling for Half of U.S. Vehicle Sales to Be Electric by 2030

The Center Square
Electric car being charged

A new executive order from the Biden administration has accelerated the timeline for electric vehicles and raised questions about the economic impacts of the transition away from gas-powered vehicles.

President Joe Biden signed the executive order Thursday aimed at making 50% of vehicles zero emission in the U.S. by 2030, an aggressive push toward electric vehicles. About 2% of new cars sold each year in the U.S. are currently electric, according to the Pew Research Center.

“The Executive Order also kicks off development of long-term fuel efficiency and emissions standards to save consumers money, cut pollution, boost public health, advance environmental justice, and tackle the climate crisis,” the White House said.

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Tennessee Officials to Help Install Electric Vehicle Chargers at State Parks, but Won’t Cite Demand

Chris Butler

Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) officials announced Wednesday they have entered a partnership to install charging stations for Electric Vehicles (EVs) at all 56 state parks. But, when asked, TDEC officials would not discuss how or whether the demand for these charging stations exceeds any possible costs to the state or anyone else.

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Governor Ralph Northam Signs Major New Clean Car Standards Bill

Eric Burk

Governor Ralph Northam announced newly-signed legislation Friday that will require approximately eight percent of model year 2025 vehicles sold in Virginia to be zero-emissions vehicles. HB 1965, introduced by Delegate Lamont Bagby (D-Henrico), adds Virginia to the list of states following California’s vehicle emissions standards, which are stricter than the federal standards Virginia currently follows.

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Commentary: Electric Vehicles and Their Drawbacks, Chapter II

RealClearWire

There is a growing push in the U.S. and throughout much of the developed world to convert transportation from a primary reliance on fossil fuels to an almost-exclusive use of renewable energy (wind and solar). With this goal come promises of unlimited clean and free energy, the creation of millions of green jobs, and the benefit of helping save the planet from an imminent climate catastrophe.

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Analysis: Electric Vehicles and Their Drawbacks

RealClearWire

Electric-powered cars are now the rage. Tesla’s market capitalization is seven times larger than that of General Motors and fourteen times larger than Ford’s, though it builds a fraction of the vehicles that those companies do. Many politicians are even considering banning gasoline-powered cars within a few years in favor of electric vehicles (EVs), all in the name of saving the planet. 

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Despite Lamar Alexander’s Push, Electric Vehicles Reportedly Emit More Carbon Dioxide Than Diesel Counterparts

Chris Butler

  Certain electric vehicles emit 11 percent to 28 percent more carbon dioxide than their diesel counterparts, even though various U.S. politicians, including U.S. Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, want taxpayer subsidies for such cars. According to a recent article on the Institute for Energy Research’s website, a study out of Germany found that electric vehicles in that country emit more carbon dioxide. The study considered the production of batteries as well as the German electricity mix in making this determination. But it’s not just electric cars in Germany. “A study in 2017 by researchers at the University of Michigan found that the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by electric cars varied wildly by country,” according to the Institute for Energy Research’s website. “The study found that an electric car recharged by a coal-fired plant produces as much carbon dioxide as a gasoline-powered car that gets 29 miles per gallon, which is a slightly higher efficiency than the 25.2 miles per gallon that is the average of all the cars, SUVs, vans, and light trucks sold in the United States over the past year. If the electricity comes from a natural gas plant, recharging a plug-in electric vehicle is akin to…

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Sedans Take Back Seat to SUVs, Trucks at 2019 Chicago Auto Show

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by Kane Farabaugh   It’s billed as North America’s largest and longest-running auto show, now in its 111th year. The 2019 Chicago Auto Show offers a lineup of nearly 1,000 vehicles occupying nearly 1 million-square-feet of space at the McCormick Place Convention Center. A special preview for members of the media at the annual show is a chance for manufacturers to show off their latest and greatest products about to enter the market. What is notable about this year’s event is what some manufacturers aren’t showing off — new sedans. Customers want trucks, SUVs “Over 10 years, there has been a consistent movement of customers in the United States and around the world, but even more so in the United States, moving away from sedans and more traditional passenger sedans into more utility vehicles,” said Joe Hinrichs, president of Ford Motor Co.’s Global Operations. “Nearly 7 out of 10 vehicles sold today are trucks or SUVs in the U.S. market. They like the ride high, the seating height, the utility of the vehicle. And now, we can give them the fuel efficiency that they used to get out of sedans. So, that’s where customers are going.” All reasons Ford is going…

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Volkswagen to Funnel $800 Million into Chattanooga Plant to Build Electric Vehicles as President Trump Pressures German Companies to Invest in America

Jason M. Reynolds

Volkswagen will spend $800 million to expand its Chattanooga factory to become the German company’s North American hub for manufacturing electric vehicles, and the Scenic City may want to thank President Donald Trump. VW CEO Dr. Herbert Diess made the announcement at a presentation at the Detroit Auto Show Monday, TechCrunch said. The expansion is expected to create 1,000 jobs at the Chattanooga plant. The German company is moving away from diesel following the 2015 emissions cheating scandal. VW Group plans to spend nearly $50 billion in the next five years toward the development and production of electric vehicles and digital services, TechCrunch said. VW’s news means another feather in Tennessee’s cap for a growing automotive industry. In response to VW’s announcement, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said in a statement, “This follows General Motors’ announcement yesterday that it will produce its new Cadillac XT6 crossover in Spring Hill. The Middle Tennessee location is the product of an over $2 billion investment since 2010. It is the largest GM facility in North America at 7.1 million square feet and has brought 3,400 jobs to the area. “Volkswagen and General Motors’ decisions are further proof that Tennessee workers and our business friendly climate…

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GM’s Mass Layoff Includes Eliminating a Hybrid Car Obama Once Championed

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by Chris White   General Motor’s decision to restructure and layoff thousands of employees Monday includes eliminating a hybrid vehicle former President Barack Obama once called the car of the future for the Detroit company. GM said Monday that it will cut roughly 14,000 people in North America and will idle factories in Michigan, Ohio, Maryland and Canada. The layoffs come as the company focuses on manufacturing electric vehicles over gas-powered sedans. Politicians and ordinary citizens are blasting the decision. “It’s all about greed. It’s all about putting more in their pockets,” one employee said, according to CBS. “The bad thing is to get this news on the day after we come back from Thanksgiving,” another employee noted. “GM owes the community answers on how the rest of the supply chain will be impacted & what consequences its disastrous decision will have” Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, wrote in a tweet following the announcement. The bulk of the cuts include 8,000 salaried jobs, making it the largest cutbacks since GM went bankrupt and was bailed out by taxpayers during the 2008 financial crisis. One victim of the move is the Chevrolet Volt, a hybrid car Obama once championed. “I got to get…

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Phil Bredesen Picked Winners and Losers on Taxpayer-Funded Electric Cars

Chris Butler
Phil Bredesen

Eight years ago, then-Tennessee Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen said that during the coming decade we’d see a surge of electric vehicles on the state’s roads and highways. So certain of it, he handed out $2.5 million in government money to encourage people to buy EVs. But we’re not talking about all EVs. Nope, we’re only talking about the Nissan Leaf, manufactured in Smyrna. People who bought the Chevy Volt or any other brand of EV did not qualify. At the time, a Franklin-based businessman who sold electric cars complained he got shortchanged as well. That businessman, Josh Womack, said Bredesen, in this instance, picked winners and losers. Now that the decade is nearly out, evidence indicates Bredesen, now the state’s U.S. Senate Democratic candidate, was no visionary. In 2018 the Daily Caller reported EVs aren’t popular and only people with six-figure incomes generally have them. No one at Bredesen’s campaign returned The Tennessee Star’s request for comment Monday. As the Tennessee Watchdog reported in the fall of 2010, just as he was leaving the governor’s office, Bredesen announced a rebate to the first 1,000 Tennessee residents who bought the Leaf. Specifically, that was a $2,500 rebate to the first 1,000…

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