As I have documented throughout this blog, EVs are not what they are made out to be. Here is an interesting article from Real Clear Energy, written by Geoffrey Pohanka, a third-generation car dealer. It basically debunks the cost efficiency of EVs, and dumps on the amount of time it takes to recharge an EV. The cumulative time is hundreds of hours per year.
Fast chargers will bring the battery only to an 80% total charge due to the limitations of lithium batteries. Charging above 80% will damage the battery. Since I arrived at the charging station with ten percent capacity remaining, I received an additional 70% charge, which gave me about 190 miles total range. It required one hour and ten minutes. The cost was $21.07, or 43 cents per kW. The cost would be about 34 cents per kW if I joined Electrify America for four dollars per month. Filling my gasoline vehicle for the same range would cost less – about $13. Charging an EV at a fast charger costs more per mile of range than filling up a gasoline-powered vehicle.
EVs are impractical for a long trip. I can’t imagine pulling over for a one hour recharge every 300km. My car is good for about 1,000km on a full tank. Refilling takes a few minutes. For the distance I can drive on one tank, an EV would require three recharges at an hour each. No thanks.
The other drawback to EVs is their higher cost. The MSRP of the 2021 Hyundai Kona Ultimate I have been charging is $46,985. The same model powered by gasoline has an MSRP of $31,370, or over $15,000 less. I have read that one reason for the price differential is that to manufacture a 1,000-pound battery requires the processing of 50,000 pounds of ore, and one must move 500,000 pounds of overburden to get the ore. The lithium, cobalt, copper, and rare-earth minerals required to manufacture the battery largely come from overseas. Eighty percent of battery manufacturing takes place in China, so this is likely to have an impact on our trade imbalance and energy independence.
EVs are clearly not the panacea they are being made out to be. They are expensive, will require considerable time to maintain, and are in fact environmentally unfriendly by the time time they are bought. But this is all part of the climate alarmist hokum. You can certainly expect the EV drum to keep beating. Just pay attention to the fine print. You are not buying what you are being sold.