Buttigieg Says Americans Should Buy Electric Cars So They ‘Never Have To Worry About Gas Prices Agai

I drive a turbo diesel so I can tow my 5th wheel. I take long trips and there is no electric vehicle that can replace my Ram 2500.

For daily commuting, I can buy an electric car for about the same money I spend on diesel. The problem is that California imposes high registration fees (Taxes disguised as fees) so it costs less to drive the truck.

Tax incentives would create a demand for electric cars, but those are bad words to greedy politicians. If only cars could be powered by hot air.

 

Hydrogen, the same fuel that we use to propel us into space, would be the optimal solution as it's clean, it has zero emissions and would not take much to retool combustible engines which is the only way the poor will be able to do this. It'll be decades before there is a market that the poor will be able to afford!

 

Doesn’t it? Or just not enough power at peak times?
Charging cars overnight should be ok.

There are definitely some hurdles that remain with electric cars, but they are going to become more and more prevalent as those hurdles are overcome.

 

When l last lived in CA the registration fees for my Tacoma were $365 a year. From there I moved to El Paso where the registration fee was $58 for two years. CA dings you on the book value of the vehicle, TX dings you for the weight of the vehicle which is the way it should be.

 

One of the hurdles are the batteries. My last two jobs required that I know a lot about certain types of batteries, but not the kind found in electric cars, so I don’t know if what I’m about to say applies.

As we all know, batteries have a life and they also have a memory. What I mean by memory is if you frequently charge a battery when it’s still 50% full it will develop a memory and run out of juice when I hits 50%. That’s why we always deep cycled our batteries, meaning we ran them down to almost nothing before recharging them. Batteries also don’t store energy well when subjected to heat. So it’s possible a fully charged battery sitting in the south’s high summer temps will start to discharge just sitting there doing nothing. Finally, every time a battery is charged the battery loses a little life, by that I mean every battery has a finite number of times it can be recharged.

I don’t know if Tesla overcame the above obstacles, but if he did that would go a long ways in making EVs more practical, especially when the AVERAGE consumer cost of one of those batteries is $6300.

the next challenge is the time it takes to charge a battery and will fast charging shorten battery life?

 

The Department of Energy has a handy calculator for comparing costs of alternative vehicles. I encourage everyone to check it out.

https://afdc.energy.gov/calc/

Based on my situation, it doesn't make sense for me to purchase an electric vehicle until the cost comes down considerably (or gas reaches $10/gal).

Buttigieg's rather tone-deaf comment ignores financial realities that many families face. Electric vehicles are simply out of reach for the average American, so they're not a valid solution for rising gas prices.

 

Oh, I agree. The prices alone are why I would still purchase gas vehicles before an electric one.

 

From what I can tell, and I could certainly be wrong, our current electrical infrastructure can't support everyone going to electric. I don't object to the goal, but I don't think our infrastructure yet supports it.

 

Thanks for posting the Neo Feudalism book cover. It was a reminder, as I bought this book (probably because it was recommended here on PF) and never read it.

 

Until we again realize that this will also be an environmental boondoggle. Our problem is everything, including our highfalutin cars we like to buy, are disposable. We are a society of waste. We need to buy the shell and when there is an upgrade, you go in and get the upgrade added to your existing ride. No different than a F-16 that has been in service since 1976 but gets upgrade regularly.

 

• At the United Nations Climate Change Conference, six automakers and 30 countries signed a pledge to end sales of gas and diesel-powered cars worldwide by 2040.
• The agreement also includes phasing out sales of those vehicles by 2035 in “leading markets.”
• Ford, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Jaguar Land Rover, and Chinese automaker BYD all signed, as did two dozen fleet operators including Uber.

Six Major Automakers Agree to End Gas Car Sales Globally by 2040 (caranddriver.com)

Automakers are moving away. 30 countries are moving away.

 

Average electric care uses 30 kwhr per 100 miles. An average user would mean that charging you car every day based upon average usage would be about the same of using AC in your home for 4 hours per day.

 

Does the average person really drive 100 miles/day?

Between my husband and I, we drive about 200 miles/week.

 

You are correct. Gas prices started their climb in Mar 2020 and again in Nov 2020. Not October as the other poster suggested. Good catch.
Thank goodness the economy opened, but for those pesky gas prices.
Maybe this new variant will stop all world economies again? So gas prices can drop again.

 

Mine is about $900.00. I also pay registration for my wifes car, I still have 2 sons in school, so I pay theirs, the 5th wheel, 2 street motorcycles, and 4 off road vehicles.

I should be getting frequent flier miles from my DMV!

 

That seems like a very tight timeframe. We don't truly have proof of concept, yet. I mean, we know the cars work and we know we can have recharging stations, but what we do not yet know, is how this will work for people who live in the rural areas, who need trucks and drive many miles to get to the grocery store. My sister lives in rural America. She has a local grocery store, but she's over an hour from big box stores/supplies. People who live in the south part of the Florida Keys have a three hour drive to big box stores. They are supposed to spend the night before going home the next day?

Too many issues to resolve, first.

 

People vote for them.
Been that way in USA for couple hundred years

 

A tight time frame indeed.
I am sure most issues are mapped out. However executing them will take a big collaboration effort.

 

Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts on the environment.
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/outcomedocuments/agenda21

...
Hmm. Can you point to that urbanization goal?

 

The 65hr charge time is hilarious. Like a ten year old laptop which has been dropped a few too many times.

 

65 ?

 

Where does the money go?

 

That's why I halfed it. AC's generally draw 4 kwhrs

 

When they have us all packed into their urban prisons, it will be impossible for us to avoid spending money - all day every day. That's the goal. If they allow us any space, we can create independence. That makes us way too difficult to manage, and doesn't pay them anywhere near as well.

 

It sure as hell doesn't go towards our roads! Some of the dirt trails I ride are in better condition than our paved roads!