By Jo Nova
Doubts are spreading about the “prospects of electric cars”
Sales of electric vehicles in Germany slumped 37% in July, compared to sales one year ago.
It’s not that people don’t want a new car, they just prefer a fossil fueled one. Sales of normal cars rose 7% in the same period.
Electric Car Sales Plummet 37% in Germany as Slump Deepens
By Wilfried Eckl-Dorna, Bloomberg
“The ramp-up of e-mobility is proving to be unsustainable so far,” Constantin Gall, a consultant at EY, said of the German sales results. “The market has lost all momentum and many customers doubt the prospects of electric cars.”
The slowdown leaves the auto industry exposed after investing billions in the ramp-up of the technology. VW, Europe’s biggest automaker, said last week it has cut capacity at high-cost plants in Germany and also might change the timing of its ramp-up in battery production.
EV’s made up 20% of new car sales in Germany this time last year, but that market share has now shrunk to 13%. This is not the way a raging new lifesaving technology takes over the planet.
In Sweden EV sales are down 15%, and in Switzerland they’re down by 19%. In Australia sales have fallen by about 17% in the last six months. Australians bought about 100,000 cars in July but only 6,700 of them were pure EVs, down from 8,000 earlier this year.
Reading these very bitter tea-leaves, Volkswagen has decided to delay the new electric Golf by a year and a half, and keep its old fossil fueled Golf around until 2035. It will now only go out of production when combustion engines are banned in the EU (if that actually happens).
This would be but a minor market statistic were it not for the grandiose expectations of Western governments and the billions of dollars taken from the workers in order to help the rich get an electric toy and “better weather”.
Buy an Electric Car and “Breathe Easier”.
That is, until it catches fire. Lol.
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Fido starts a raging house fire after the lithium ion battery pack he’s using as a chew-toy explodes
A camera inside a house caught this bad (but fortunate) dog in the act of burning down his owner’s house, and now fire officials are using this video as a cautionary tale against the “dangers of lithium-ion batteries” and rechargeable electronics:
According to an online report, the fire was “destructive” and caused “significant damage” to the home but miraculously, no one was hurt, and the three pets seen in the video all got out of the home through a doggie door; firefighters also took the opportunity to remind people of this:
Lithium-ion batteries can explode and spark fires when damaged or even if they are just overheated. Fire officials say it’s important to only use approved chargers for them and keep them out of reach of children and pets.
You know what we should do?
We should take these batteries that can spontaneously explode if damaged or overheated, which are so temperamental that they should be kept away from pets and children, and we should install them in cars, and planes, and tanks, and emergency service vehicles, and transport trucks, and trains, and in storage facilities at solar “farms” in the blistering Arizona desert, and out on the salty sea alongside the off-shore wind turbines—and, simultaneously, we should force everyone to surrender their gas-powered vehicles, and regulate coal and natural gas out of existence, all in the name of progressivism and protecting the environment.
And, check this out:
Olivia Murray@americaliv1
Lithium-ion batteries are such a toxic nightmare, you can’t even throw them away without putting the waste workers at risk.
Quote Damian @Damian 7 Aug Replying to @CollinRugg
As a commercial trashman STOP THROWING THEM IN THE GARBAGE ALSO. This is from a battery exploding when I was packing a load.
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And be careful replacing lithium battery packs. It seems there are battery packs without the necessary electronics to detect cell failure and shut down the battery. Which means if one cell fails, they never finish charging and eventually overheat and catch fire. So a replacement non original battery might work fine, but cause a fire. A neighbour’s house was destroyed by a stick Dyson vacuum charger on the wall. I am now of the opinion that it likely had a cheap Chinese replacment battery.
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All that was required was to invent a synthetic fuel with minimum emissions that was similar in price to petrol or diesel.
This is possible.
So several trillion dollars later the world’s economy is on the brink.
Greed rules.
If anyone comes up with this fuel they will not be rewarded. A quick death is certain.
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Batteries are the entire problem. Nothing has changed in twenty years. You cannot change chemistry and the energy density is 1/10th of liquid fuel.
Public charging is becoming a social problem. People who want fully charged batteries are called ‘hogs’ because it takes just as long to get from 80% to 100% as to get to 80%. This doubles wait times and queue lengths. Soon rechargers will only allow 80% to prevent conflict and half wait times. This means that the range of electric cars is going down 20% to prevent riots.
So real travel distances are going down. And as was seen in Chicago last year, low batteries cannot be recharged in cold weather, -20C. Which is common in Northern Latitudes. There needs to be enough resident charge to heat the battery or you are stuck with an unchargeable battery.
Soon electric cars will start to be banned from ferries, car parks, buildings because of the risks not only to other cars but to entire structures like the carpark at Luton airport.
The fun is over. And like solar panels and windmills, the mere existence of electric cars is driving up electricity prices for everyone. So much for free energy. It is costing a fortune.
Imagine if petrol cars took hours to fill, how would society function?
The solution is to lock everyone up and force them to ride bicycles or sit at home in the dark and cold because they can’t afford free electricity?
The second electric car revolution is going the way of steam engined cars. Electric cars were tried before. And windmills were abandoned.
A driver is called a chauffeur because he had to warm up the steam engine for his passengers. (chauffer to heat) And he sat outside in the cold. Greens are driving society backwards, but that’s the idea of the communists posing as caring Greens who want to wreck the joint and take over. Progressives are nothing of the sort, more regressives.
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Regenerative braking is used to argue that the extra 600kg battery weight does not lead to huge energy losses in acceleration or hilly areas.
Regenerative braking is overrated.
Cars going up and down hills only have a 70% regenerative recovery, but a 30% loss is of much more energy. At double the weight of a petrol car a 60% loss of energy, dramatically dropping the range in either hard driving or mountainous roads.
Similarly with towing energy losses, partly as the towed load is not highly aerodynamic and has normal brakes which are a non regenerative losses so it’s goodbye regenerative braking for say the Tesla Cybertruck towing. This can have a range as little as 60 miles/100km when towing.
And if you looks at the covered (aerodynamic) cover of a Telsa Cybertruck, you could not fit a bicycle in it.
I would also be surprised if regenerative losses did not increase dramatically under heavy loads.
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Long range vehicles used to have a second tank. Even the original volkswagen. Most trucks. However given that the Tesla Cyber truck battery is 721kg (1600lb) a second battery is not possible for both size and weight reasons. There is virtually no storage anyway. It’s not a truck. And cannot tow anything very far.
It is becoming clear that the market segment for electric cars is as an expensive second fun car for the inner city. No one else. And that’s a rapidly saturating market and in many countries that market does not exist. Expect sales to hit a wall. And it stops being fun.
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TdeF,
I have seen a grand total of 2 EVs with a towbar . That says it all for me…
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They are more likely to need one at the front.
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An EV with a tow bar is a sort of physical oxymoron. 🤣
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I think that is very clever!
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Perfect for the family bicycles mount.
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I doubt the towing capacity of the family bicycle.
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“Batteries are the entire problem. Nothing has changed in twenty years.”
Nothing has changed in 100 years, batteries were the problem back then as now.
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There has been a vast improvement in weight for small applications. The low density of lithium is amazing at 0.5, half that of water. It means the weight of lithium in a battery is very low. But the cost of creating a structure with thousands of small cells produces a huge overhead for connections and strength. And kills off the weight advantage.
What surprises me is that large heavy lead acid batteries persist in petrol and diesel cars. I have one car with 2 big lead acid batteries.
Despite the fact that the car industry plays down massive vehicle weight, the rapid growth in size and weight of all cars is a serious concern environmentally and for road wear and safety. Electric cars are the greatest environmental offenders, something which everyone ignores. You would not want to be in a collision with a 3 1/2ton electric 4WD. School run cars are now behemoths.
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What surprises me is that large heavy lead acid batteries persist …
Well, they do work as advertised. They do need replaced at about 5 to 7 years. Folks ought to know the rating and replace before it conks-out.
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I replaced one after 17 years! It was used for the computers on the BMW 850 V12, the first digital car with CANBUS. The RACV denied it had two batteries, but it was just on the other side.
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What next? Solar panels on EV roofs? And a windmill in your garden.
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I have absolutely no doubt that many politicians, senior public serpents and other ignorant and scientifically and engineeringly illiterate people believe that’s viable.
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“What next? Solar panels on EV roofs? And a windmill in your garden.”
Why not a windmill on your EV to capitalise on the “forward speed wind”?
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The prototypes for solar panels on cars exist for the Darwin to Adelaide Solar Challenge https://worldsolarchallenge.org/
Snazzy vehicles they are too!
Of course the “cars” can only progress during daylight hours.
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Mr. Robber: Appropos to your name, the State will start forcing those who install chargers at home to let the public access them. Just a partial seizure, they’ll say.
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Folks have had solar on motor homes and campers for many years. Seems a helpful thing. Sitting for hours and/or days in a unit with lots of devices is a battery demand.
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The point of a camper is camping. Solar panels, delivering a couple of hundred Watts, can be useful when camping (as you say).
The point of a car is driving. Even if you’re not in a hurry, 20,000 Watts is the sort of power you need in order to get moving. Solar panels might get you 1% of that. That’s a failure.
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Those small windmills on a Yacht work a treat when the Yacht is sailing Even when moored and can charge lots of stuff.
The big ones on land not so well and can only charge the Consumer (lots and lots).
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Oh, then it’s time to do what marketeers always do.
Re-imagine the product
Next it will be “green” hydrogen and “green” ammonia vehicles for the poseurs and virtue signalers.
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EV fires are bad enough.
The dangers of hydrogen (explosive) and ammonia (toxic) will be so much worse.
The fact that these are being promoted as transport fuels proves that the Elites in charge either have no clue, or don’t care, but more likely both.
Like wind, solar and Big Battery plantations, the only real purpose of hydrogen and ammonia transport fuels is to harvest subsidies, especially in the Stupid Country. Yesterday I posted some links for Australian subsidy schemes for these nasty fuels.
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Yes. Here’s looking forward to the release of the Audi Hindenberg.
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EVs are a toxic disaster and Mark Mills has told us the truth about them years ago.
Take away the slave labour in Africa and China etc and these toxic disasters wouldn’t exist and ditto toxic unreliable W & S.
So will the stupid EU and crazy Harris etc want to subsidise the EV prices again and again until they run their economies further into the ground?
Russia, China, Iran and Nth Korea etc will be pleased and wait until the OECD countries’ military power inevitably starts to fade.
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“until the OECD countries’ military power inevitably starts to fade.”
We are past the start part. We cannot even manufacture adequet muntitions for Ukraine. (What a globalist tragedy that war is)
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Mark Mills told us years ago that the crazy Dems Green New Deal was just more magical thinking.
This short 8 minute video is very accurate and yet crazy Harris still believes in AOC’s lunacy and supported by other left wing loonies like Bernie Sanders.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaL9r-Kn5bc
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Again here’s Mark Mills latest 2024, 5 minute video on our energy requirements now and for our immediate future and EVs and other stupid so called renewables ideas are a sick joke.
https://www.prageru.com/video/how-much-energy-will-the-world-need
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You have to feel a little sorry for these companies, don’t you? They have to be responsible corporate citizens and obey rules and legislation formulated by the bureaucracy and politicians. Sometimes they are literally blackmailed into enacting dumb policies. It was evident during COVID and would appear to be rampant in climate change policies. Might be time they grew some gonads and pushed back a little.
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Sorry, not sorry. Just schadenfreude.
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I don’t feel sorry for some companies, like Harley-Davidson for example. Unless that company dumps their neo-Marxist CEO and his woke ideology, HD is going to get the Bud Lite treatment. It’s only a matter of time.
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I have just written to my local councils, Burnie and Ulverstone and The ABC about the dangers of parking EVs in enclosed public parking facilities. I suggested to Our ABC that they could set their national news hounds on the scent of what is a real news item. recent EV battery-caused conflagrations have sent ships to the bottom, turned buildings into rubble and caused insurance rates to skyrocket. I don’t expect to see any results from any of the above-mentioned moribund institutions but you never know. In the case of Burnie, they have just installed two EV charging stations on the ground floor adjacent to the main pedestrian access of their multi-story car park. In the event of a battery fire not only will State Fire services find it impossible to deploy but it will severely impede the egress of parkers especially those that may have been affected by toxic fire fumes.
Jo I thought the picture may have been Mexicans et al attempting to broach the US Southern Border post DJT election.
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Pen, anything or anyone connected with the left don’t want to know or hear about anything counter to the green dream.
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You’re undoubtedly correct! But as the old song says “chip, chip they tell a little lie”. The mansion of love is now a crappy shack crumbling away to net zero!
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We know that EVs are a toxic disaster, but how practical and reliable are they as a replacement for ICE vehicles?
We forget that the EV makers tell us we shouldn’t charge above 80% and shouldn’t go below 20% of the battery’s charge and that wipes out another 40% of the distance you can travel.
How many EV buyers understand these severe limitations? Obviously these toxic EVs are also unsuitable for towing a boat or caravan or trailer and certainly turn your holidays into a very miserable experience.
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Some EVs deliver 700lb.ft of torque to the ground at 1mph.
I’ve always wondered how someone can slowly drive an EV around a busy grocery store parking lot without inadvertently launching the car through a wall?
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There was a cartoon about 2 years ago showing how to solve EV range problems – it had an EV towing a trailer mounted diesel generator blowing a cloud of diesel fumes connected by a cable to the charging port of the EV.
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When will we get an answer to the most obvious question about their so called renewables….. when and how do you charge the back up batteries?
If toxic, unreliable W & S only have capacity factors of 30% and 15%, then how do you have any time to charge the batteries during short and very long periods of low or no wind and on cloudy days?
Surely some person more intelligent than myself must have an answer, but so far I haven’t found one.
Has anyone got any ideas?
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If you look at Climate Change, and it’s alleged solution Renewable Energy, as a science and engineering issue, the result is the frustration you express.
Both are only political themes.
The primary purpose is to scare the the public in order to extract and transfer wealth from the tax base and to build systems of social control.
The problem is the tax base becomes taped out and the peasants begin to rebel.
Information control comes to the fore because the science and engineering debate becomes an obvious farce.
Just think of it as Zen.
Before Climate Change, chop wood and carry water.
After Climate Change, chop wood and carry water.
This is where we are.
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Honk R Smith here’s a link to a tiny hybrid generating system in the best wind areas off NW Tasmania called the roaring 40s.
After years of checking this system this is the first time I’ve seen it running with just W & S and a fully charged battery.
Usually the back up Diesel generator is the main generating source and the battery is not fully charged.
Here’s a link to the small King Island hybrid system’s dashboard.
https://www.hydro.com.au/clean-energy/hybrid-energy-solutions/success-stories/king-island
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I love that dashboard – but it is not clear how they control the 50 cycles per sec. This appears to be something the resistor and the flywheel achieve between them with the flywheel being used to prop it up if needed. I agree that if there is one area in Australia that this should work – its King Island due to the wind which rarely drops. The solar – not so much. About 5 years ago, I tried to look at the wind farm at Cape Grim on the North west Tassie coast – but the road was closed to the public – but in in information booth it indicated that the wind towers had been moved back 100metres from the cliff edge as the local wedgetail eagles were of concern. However, they totally missed the point that they were not Sea Eagles and therefore still had to fly through the turbines spinning blades to get to where they actually hunt. I also read that from the estimated population of 1000 or so Tasmanian Wedgetails (which are an endangered species) around 250plus were killed or injured over the 10 years or so up to 2020 (purely from reports by workers at Tasmanian wind farms (not proper surveys). This is far above the likely replacement rate for those birds. So what is happening at King Island? Does anyone know? or dont we care?
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That is interesting. HA, the sote says,
“You’re seeing in real time the dashboard for our King Island renewable energy solution. It is based on contributions from wind and solar and the enabling technologies that improve system security and reliability, such as battery, dynamic resister, flywheel and demand side management.”
They forgot to mention the diesel generator suppling most of the power, which is what it showed just now when I looked.
I think the resistor and the flywheel and some sort of feed in variable on the diesel generator allow the system to load follow, as it appears to varie with the constanly variable wind. I suspect the entire set up is very expensive,
The King Island situation sounds rather tragic.
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That is interesting. HA, the note next to the dash board says,
“You’re seeing in real time the dashboard for our King Island renewable energy solution. It is based on contributions from wind and solar and the enabling technologies that improve system security and reliability, such as battery, dynamic resister, flywheel and demand side management.”
They forgot to mention the diesel generator suppling most of the power, which is what it showed just now when I looked.
I think the resistor and the flywheel and some sort of feed in variable on the diesel generator allow the system to load follow, as it appears to varie with the constanly variable wind. I suspect the entire set up is very expensive,
The King Island situation sounds rather tragic.
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EV’s a fine around town, which is 99% of all trips from many urban users. And their cost is approaching parity with IC engined cars. Batteries continue to get cheaper, and Samsung has apparently got samples of a ’20 year life’ 500Wh/kg battery out with potential users – combination of high energy density and long cycle life has been elusive until perhaps now.
I think the answer is PHEVs with low cost IC range extenders with pared down emissions regulations (engines will seldom be used in urban environments where emissions matter). Without extreme emissions regs IC range extenders can be made 10-15% more efficient and a lot smaller and cheaper. Such cars would likely have lowest total cost of ownership, and wouldn’t sacrifice utility.
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Foyle,
I suggest you stop looking for *the answer*; there isn’t one. Go with what works for you. Let others choose for themselves.
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You’re looking for the answer to a problem that was solved decades ago.
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My first car could be started with a crank. I often had to crank start when the battery was too low in charge. Sometimes this was because the voltage regulator was not clicking in, in which case I could close the relay with a length of string which I pulled through the dash ventilator. That car was highly reliable because it was made of simple electrical and mechanical systems which any owner with a will could keep going in any circumstance. But then, men were men and women were women in those days. Now a car has no user servicable parts, even if you are allowed to look under the bonnet (hood) and for an EV, almost untouchable and to be handled with caution like a UXB. The real men and women nowadays are those manning the repair shops (car clinics and ER’s) who will save the life of your car when it goes phut or the on board computer has a kernel panic or a shorted IC. But then there’s the even realler blokes (usually) who man the ambulance service to winch your infarcted vehicle onto the flat-bed to be carted to the nearest clinic. Anyway, that’s my opinion. Must go. Gotta take yet another phone call from a Cuban auto repair shop. They need my expertise in helping keep those 1950’s and 60’s ‘old bombs’ maintained and in circulation. Maybe Minister for Climate Change & Energy Chris Bowen should go to Cuba for re-education about his EV obsession. Afterall, if German EV sales are plummetting, the same disaster will happen to the Australian market anytime soon.
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We are reaching a point where the target market, urban second cars, is saturated. And where the pros and cons of electric cars are well known.
From a sales point of view, what is happening right now then is an educated market looking at replacing the electric car. And deciding they want to
go back to petrol. That could become a landslide, reflecting the original growth of electric cars.
You also have a problem with leasing. Up to 80% of new cars are leased. But when you combine leasing with incredibly rapid depreciation you get the point where the asset backing of the car, the resale value of the car is far less than what is owed. This stops people ‘flipping’ cars without incurring big losses. That will devastate the new car market.
And when people filly hit their limit and flip the electric car at a great financial loss, they will under no circumstances gamble on another electric car.
There is a whole series of devastating videos by McMaster and his Porsche Taycan which halved in value in 12 months. And that was just ONE of the problems.
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Porsche is a special case as people leasing Porsches have often made money driving the latest and greatest sports car. These cars appreciate historically, perhaps the only cars which do. And it’s not true for the Taycan. To see the entire story of the McMaster Taycan.
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And there are now counter videos. McMaster is a Porsche fan and it all seems to document his journey from owning and loving a Porsche Boxster to his new Taycan. I was particularly interested when he lost valuable functions when his car was downgraded in service. His insight is that you never own an electric car. The manufacturer does.
This was raised by another commenter who found new factory options installed to limit range (15 minute cities) and more. Without his knowledge or permission. He asked who is going to control these options but you do not own the car when a service upgrade can start limiting your use and even where you drive. The problem with modern cars is that the manufacturer/government knows everything about you, where you are, where you go and potentially what you say in your car, all transmissions. People have the same concerns about Google Home Assistant and Siri.
It’s the joke. A man was afraid to speak to his wife in front of Siri. She asked why. He said he was scared someone was listening. His wife laughed. He laughed. Siri Laughed.
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To start with, the entire global population that lives in an apartment, a townhome, a rental home of any kind, will not want today’s EV because they cannot charge it at home. (Fighting for 60cent per kilowatt chargers while waiting in line to charge and then taking another 40 minutes to charge, makes EV ownership without home charging a nightmare. Landlords will not allow the fire risk, nor apartment managers, etc…
So a very large section of the population is already not in the market. Add in all the other factors mentioned, and the EV market may reach saturation very quickly.
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Not to mention the globalists push to have everyone living in cramped apartment buildings.
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So far I’ve only been able to find this info about the King Island Hybrid generator. The Diesel still provides about 35% (?) of the energy and sometimes can be turned off for about 1.5 hours overnight.
So why can’t they just use a big battery for such a small system?
Population about 1800 and little industry, so why do they need the Diesel generator?
Here’s their quote and the link.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/king-island-achieves-100-renewables-wind-solar-storage-98209/
“The overall project aims to cut the use of diesel consumption on King Island by more than 65 per cent over a one year period, but it will allow diesel generators to be switched off when not required. So far it has achieved zero diesel operation for periods of up to 1.5 hours overnight when customer demand is lowest, and in daylight hours under high wind conditions”.
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Thankfully, none were EVs…
Enjoying a pleasant lunch-break parked by the beach with the van’s motor & heater running (36 years and still waiting for the ‘dangerous warmth’ to arrive) when an argument erupted between a chopper rider (male) and a BMW car driver (female).
Don’t know if it was a domestic or a deal gone wrong, but she suddenly reversed foot-to-the-floor and ploughed into two parked vehicles (luckily empty) shunting them sideways with glass, plastic, and parts of panels flying everywhere. More yelling ensued as the woman got out, looked at the three crumpled vehicles, retrieved a bag from inside hers and stomped off.
Other onlookers had been on their phones as soon as the outburst commenced (calling the police, not taking photos, as they were oldies walking their pooches). After half-an-hour and still no police (there’s a station 5 min away) I decided to carry on with my day, glad for my 4×4 diesel as I had to ‘detour’ somewhat around the crash scene (the only exit was blocked by the three, now munted, vehicles).
Thankfully, none were EVs.
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Charming.
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>…now munted…
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Exactly, Skepticynic, that’s what I meant 😲
Munted, similar to dunger, is an old school NZ colloquialism which resurfaced after the Christchurch earthquake(s) broke and ruined the city, as well as knocking the residents sideways as if they were drunk.
All those other cadaver details (ew!) are a little too gross to contemplate, but you never know, maybe the 2 drivers had previously been involved in such shenanigans. It’s a mad, mad world after all.
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See also “mint”, used in NZ to describe something in good nick
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Australia’s sales are apparently way up….. now do the count minus the ones bought by local, state and federal govs!
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No publicity stories about VicPol Highway Patrol EVs announced and presented in police markings and lights a few years ago.
QldPol were honest and pointed out that EVs were not suitable for very large local area commands and highway patrolling.
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Money talks, bullshit drives an EV. If the sums added up for me and many others who might otherwise consider buying an EV, we’d buy one, but they don’t so we don’t.
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To be fair they can be fascinating gadgets. Amazing acceleration. Lots of fun stuff. Practical or value for money or reliable? No.
And while no car is an investment, they are what used to said about yachts. You are better up standing in a cold shower cutting up hundred dollar bills.
As McMaster calculated in one year his Porsche Taycan dropped 60,000 pound, and as I remember $120,000 for about 12,000 km so the cost was $10 per km. $1 per 100 metres.
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Yep, they have “dog” mode which keeps the car cool for pooch while you shop. Plus at Xmas, the blinkers play Jingle Bells when you use them. They look fantastic and all those cool features are probably what are selling most of them. So, really no different to any other car. Great, just don’t mandate the damn things and make sure they pay road usage fees like the rest of us.
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I cannot agree with that !
I wish i had bought a couple of those E Type jags that were unwantedback in the 80s !
Ditto for many other “classic” cars …60s Minis, Sunbeam Tiger , etc etc
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Funny ( understandable ) how I never heard anything about it on the German Satellite TV News. and what happens in Germanski, happens else where in due course.
Simple Reply: GOOD !
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