Tag: electric vehicles

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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