Electric Elite

Guest Post by The Zman

Most everyone has looked down at the fuel gauge and suddenly realized the tank is very close to empty. Maybe it is the idiot light going on as you pass the sign that reads “last stop for food or fuel for X miles.” The worst one is when this happens in a rural area or at night. The prospect of being stranded on the side of the road for a very long time quickly crowds out other thoughts. It is a terrible feeling. Almost all of us are conditioned to make sure this never happens.

Running out of gas used to be a common thing in America. In the early days of the automobile, care did not have a gas gauge and gas stations did not always have gas, so it was a common scene. The first “gas gauge” was a marked stick the driver would stick into the tank. Until very recent, gas stations used this method to test how much water was in their tanks. Eventually, more sophisticated solutions were invented and then manufacturers install them at the factory.

Running out of gas is not very common these days. For starters, we have gas stations everywhere people live. They are about 120-thousand gas stations in America. If you live in an urban or suburban area, finding a gas station is not a challenge. The cars are also vastly more efficient today than the old days. Even sports cars get over 20 miles per gallon, so when the light comes on, you have about 40 miles to find gas. It is why it is very rare to see someone walking down the road with a gas can.

This old concern will become a feature of life shortly. Every car maker is determined to abandon the internal combustion engine for electric in the next decade. All of them have a five year plan to ditch the IC engine. Even the sports car makers are planning to drop the old engine and use electric motors. The roar of the engine will soon be replaced by the high pitched hum of the motor. Whether we wanted or not, the electric car will be forced onto American roads over the next decade.

The problem is that electric cars need to be charged. Right now, there are about five thousand fast chargers in America. The term “fast charger” is a little bit of inside humor the EV people enjoy. It takes about forty minutes to charge a car on a fast charger, so the word fast here is sarcasm. There are more slow chargers available, but slow should be interpreted as glacial. Those slow chargers take hours to charge. They are only useful as at-home options or at office parks.

Replacing the gas stations with fast chargers is no easy task. There is the cost, obviously, even if one assumes they could be profitable. That is not an assumption you can make at this point. The economics of EV charging stations are wildly different than those of a normal gas station. You do not need a lot of space for cars pulling into the pumps, fueling up in five minutes and then pulling away. You need vast spaces for cars pulling in and parking for an hour as they charge up the batteries.

Then there is the power grid. The current estimates say the cost to upgrade the power grid for electric cars is between four and ten trillion dollars. That is not money to be spent all at once, but it is real money. In modern America, most streets look like the surface of the moon and our bridges are literally collapsing. Like all aging empires, America is struggling to keep the plates spinning. How realistic is it to think we can upgrade the power grid over the next decade for electric cars?

Like the automobile makers, the nation’s utility companies have five and ten year plans for upgrading their part of the power grid. One cannot help but appreciate the Gosplan nature of this project. Like the car maker’s five year plans, the utility company plans always has a line in there for free money from the Federal Reserve. Unlike the car makers, the electric companies have not secured their free money. Slipping tax breaks into the code is a lot easier than printing trillions of dollars.

As with the Soviets, the central planners in America just assume whatever they dream can become a reality. The Soviets were sure they could find the right math to replace the role of prices in the market. Once they conquered that problem, the system would literally run itself. American central planners are sure they can find the right moral language to make their dreams pop into existence. If electric cars become who we are then all of the problems will solve themselves.

The electric car fetish is a good example of how markets are an illusion, at least in the broad sense the Austrian school economists argued. There never was a market for electric cars and there is not one now, at least in the organic sense. Instead, the market has been manufactured by government policy. Massive subsidies to the production side and subsidies to the demand side have created the market. Take those away and Elon Musk is back selling monorails to midsized cities.

It is also a good example of how elites have the dominant role in society. As with other things like immigration and the Covid panic, your opinion is never solicited, and it is never wanted. These are decisions made by a small cluster of policy makers at secret retreats and over cocktails at parties you will never attend. The American elite has decided the electric car is the future, so that is that. The fact that it could turn out to be another disaster like Covid is not a worry.

The argument against central planning has always been a simple one. It is impossible for the planners to account for all of the variables. Even the most basic of human systems is maddeningly complex. The truth of this is never a deterrent to the elites, especially those who are sure they are on the right side of history. The comically insane outcomes from the Soviet system never deterred the planners. The metric system did not teach American elites a lesson either.

Finally, the electric car fetish is a good example of what happens when an elite class enters into decline. They become rapacious and impractical. On the one hand, they seek to enrich themselves as quickly as possible, because no one in the elite feels a loyalty to the elite class or the society over which they rule. Everything becomes a smash and grab. On the other hand, they have become so insulated from the society over which they rule, they can no longer see their own folly.

America probably needs to spend five trillion over the next ten years to get the infrastructure back to first world standards. We need a Marshall plan for the roads, bridges, and utility systems. An aspiring elite would focus on that, rather than frivolous nonsense like electric cars. It would also be more scrupulous about who gets the money for the projects. That is not the future. Instead, it will be abandoned EV’s next to massive potholes and collapsing bridges.

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bigfoot
bigfoot

I’m thinking the financial collapse is just around the corner and EVs will be as tumbleweeds blowing in the wind along with the EEs.

Great article, Zman!

DRUD
DRUD

“Finally, the electric car fetish is a good example of what happens when an elite class enters into decline. They become rapacious and impractical. On the one hand, they seek to enrich themselves as quickly as possible, because no one in the elite feels a loyalty to the elite class or the society over which they rule. Everything becomes a smash and grab. On the other hand, they have become so insulated from the society over which they rule, they can no longer see their own folly.”

YES. This exactly. Plenty of both malice and incompetence (you know, being utterly unable to LEAD in any meaningful way), but not the Godlike power and unfailing predictive powers attributed to them by many around here.

The Oragutan

Great Article. I may be a little biased, but I believe infrastructure (real, tangible infrastructure, not the kind the Biden administration calls “infrastructure”) is one of the few places where public money is usually well spent. It creates the hard assets needed to allow the rest of society to get on with business, and yes it needs prioritization over just about any other kind of government spending.

Ken31
Ken31

I think the only 2 legitimate purposes of government are to punish predators (foreign and domestic) and build and maintain infrastructure. I think there is a moral AND pragmatic case against privatizing infrastructure (contrary to LOLBerTardians).

Unreconstructed
Unreconstructed

Three purposes of government: Deliver our mail, DEFEND our shores, and stay out of our business.

Brandon
Brandon

Exactly! If we are going to spend fake money, we might as well build real things.

Horseless Headsman
Horseless Headsman

True that! In our case, electric cars are like the behemoth RVs: both are artifacts of the topping out process of a societal cycle. Happy motoring (even the electric kind) is not a long-term proposition.

Crawfisher
Crawfisher

Why do we need cars at all? Everyone can order online everything they want and have it delivered while we all work from home or get paid not to work. What was the statement, you’ll own nothing and you will like it.
I keep ordering ammo when I can, we will soon see what 2030 will really be like. I am betting the Fed will lose control.

Tom MacGyver
Tom MacGyver

“The fact that it could turn out to be another disaster like Covid is not a worry.” Yeah; because the disaster never affects these people.

“Governor” Newsom in CA thinks electric cars are the future, when Edison can’t even keep the lights on during a hot summer day. On top of that, he’s giving away electricity to illegal aliens by taxing the crap out of legal residents and citizens. What could possibly go wrong here? Never mind the fact that California’s plan to do away with fossil fuels makes every resident’s driving, heating, cooking, and hot water reliant on yet another single point of failure… and control… Stupid is as stupid does…

Ken31
Ken31

It is a beautiful state. Shame about most of the population. Glad we left. Maybe if Americans ever form another nation out of the ashes of dystopian brown people, it will be a nice place to live again some day.

Auntie Kriest
Auntie Kriest

Auntie sees, in the not to distant future, a return to rickshaws for the Lumpen with palanquins plus sedan chairs for the reassembled elite*. (Horses and other beasts of burden – oxen, llamas, camels – will have been eaten rather than the ersatz meat products being proffered by busybodies and Greens to “save the planet”.)

*Evil Fuckers/B3RG*

falconflight
falconflight

The US Gov’t destroyed the gas efficient automobile. We’ve owned two VW TDI Jettas, both of which pushed to nearly 50 mpg. We also had a Geo Metro (Yes, a bucket of bolts) that ran at approximately 45 mpg. Diesel engine automobiles have been all but banned, and now require a special and expensive fluid additive to comply with EPA requirements. Fcking pigs they are. I even sometimes filled my Jetta with biofuel…cooking oil. Fcking pigs

Anonymous
Anonymous

Schoolmate had a mazda truck with a 4 cylinder mercedes diesel in 1984 that got over 50 miles a gallon on the highway. Only minus was slow acceleration.

lamont cranston
lamont cranston

Had a 2011 TDI Wagon, traded it in for a 2014, the latter given to my older grandson. It runs great at 290,000 miles.

Joe Blow
Joe Blow

I had an ’82 Toyota Tercel that did over 40 MPG.

falconflight
falconflight

93 Geo Metro, 98 VW TDI and 03 VW TDI

Warren
Warren

5 Trillion needed to bring our infrastructure back to first world status.
Or about the same amount of money that Dr. Fauchi cost the country by hiding the fact that Hydrochloriquine and Ivermectin were successful remedies against the China Virus.

Gen. Chaos
Gen. Chaos

Good time to buy a horse or trail bicycle. (sarcasm, maybe, maybe not….)

Captain_Obviuos
Captain_Obviuos

Or a fast walking cane.

Yahsure
Yahsure

Build the infrastructure necessary for electric cars first. then if that works, maybe phase out fossil fuels. Or instead of making taxpayers subsidize these cars, let the market decide and if electric cars are so great they will naturally take over the market.
Not mentioned is all the people towing RVs,s and boats and all the motorhomes that people enjoy. I guess under a totalitarian Government these things are decadent things from the past? One of my future plans was to travel and visit lakes and go boating and camping. I’ve been fixing up my pickup for this and now?
Think of the businesses involved that use fossil fuels and what our senile idiot administration’s plans are.

Warren
Warren

I used to keep a small tool box in my old 82 CJ7, pretty much every time it needed work, I could do it myself.
Fuel filter was a ten minute job, water pump was about half an hour job, only because I would wait till the gasket sealer dried. Once I dropped the drive shaft because the U joint went, I locked the front hubs, tied up the shaft with a bungee cord and drove using the front drive to pep boys for a new U joint, that took a couple of hours to fix, another time I had a spark plug pop out I pulled into cvs and did a hour of shopping till the engine cooled off, then I went out and screwed the plug back in and was on my way. when the electric brain went bad I pulled out the Washer fluid tank and switched it out in half hour total,
I sold it when I moved back north, and I know for a fact it is still on the road.
As easy as the Jeep was to work on, my 64 Le Mans was even easier,
Today my vehicle “fleet” consists of a 92 Volvo and a 06 Buick, and folks tell me to go modern, get a newer car.
Nope, not gonna do it, I can barely work on the Volvo, and the Buick not at all, I spent my late teen years working in my grand dad’s old garage, and if it has a carburetor I can fix it, but in spite of that they are old enough that they aren’t connected to the internet and can’t be tracked or shut down remotely, or driven remotely

psbindy
psbindy

Warren says: “…they are old enough that they aren’t connected to the internet and can’t be tracked or shut down remotely, or driven remotely”

Light aircraft engines are turned off with a fuel cut-off. Pull the knob, the fuel stops going to the engine, and it stops.

If I had a new computerized auto that could be hacked, (all of them) I would install a fuel cut-off upstream from the fuel injection distributer. Any funny electronic take-over stuff from the NSA and I could stop the engine from accelerating until a sudden stop. Might need to break a window to exit the vehicle, what with the windows and doors being locked and all, but the car would be stopped.

Brian Reilly
Brian Reilly

Facts are that we (paroles and deploreables) are just about done with auto mobility of any sort for a while. At least you that is the plan that our betters have for us. Everybody has a plan, you see, until they get punched in the nose.

Way past time to start landing punches. Don’t forget the auto execs and cheerleading media as well as the politicians and bureaucrats. Punch all of them. Use a sap, even.

overthecliff
overthecliff

Visits from Captain Midnight.

Two if by sea. Three if by aliens.
Two if by sea. Three if by aliens.

“The metric system did not teach American elites a lesson either.”
Great line.

WTF
WTF

There’s very little that I like about Europe but the Metric system is worlds better than the antiquated US measurement system. If you disagree with me I have some questions for you, do you understand or have ever used it? Do you have something against simplicity? I understand the conversion frustration but I’m not talking about that. I’m merely saying that it is a much simpler system to use. Before you go off on me for my comments, I used the metric system in a commercial cabinet shop because it was so much easier to key in the measurements in production and almost all hardware was metric anyway. No one ever realized the minuscule difference in cabinet size either. I’m currently using the US system on my milling machine simply because the blueprints are in that system but I sure miss the simplicity of the metric system.

falconflight
falconflight

Personally I care more about the tradition of our measurement system than efficiencies. It is a cultural anchor.

Cow Kitty
Cow Kitty

Charging electric vehicles and the electricity supply is not the only challenge to switching over to electric. Another big challenge is meeting the demand for all those new batteries. Lithium, cobalt, nickle and neodymium (for electric motor magnets) are in increasingly high demand for electric vehicles and other so called “green” technologies. I don’t think the current supply will be able to keep up with the proposed demand. These materials present new environmental challenges as well. Not to mention the whole recycling thing for spent batteries. There will have to be a new Pimp My Ride – EV edition. Let’s watch Mad Mike change out that 900 pound battery pack on a Chevy Bolt … has any one seen Mike lately ..

Anonymous
Anonymous

Plus, the fast-charging option cuts into the life expectancy of the battery.

James R. Chaillet, Jr.
James R. Chaillet, Jr.

What about all those unfortunate people who live in apartments with no parking or free for all parking and those other unfortunate folk who have to park on the street. Will there be a market for really long extension cords? Just a couple more reasons that the government’s push to electrify personal transportation is going to fail. ( though I wouldn’t put it past some liberal to propose that everyone is entitled to his/her own fast charger.)

Mushroom Cloud
Mushroom Cloud

They can ride the bus🤷🏼‍♀️

Cricket
Cricket

These elites may want to look into the rare earth minerals required to produce the batteries used in electric vehicles. China has bought up as many of the mines that have them throughout the world as they can, and dementia Joe just forbid mining of them in the US. There’s not enough lithium on the planet to replace every ICE car with these pathetic 250 KM or less range electric cars. This means either their plans for a carbon-free society are fantasy much like the paperless society, or they intend to ensure that there aren’t nearly that many cars on the road nor people around to drive them, between ‘vaccines’, corporate technocracy caused food shortages and excommunication from society by vaccine passports.

It is apparent why they went after VW for ‘dieselgate’ so hard. They needed to remove the option of cheap to run, long range and reliable diesel vehicles from the hands of general public so they could bring in ridiculous fuel economy standards that put an end to ICE vehicles and foist electric vehicles on everyone, which limit mobility, increase ownership costs, and will force many to abandon car ownership and move into shoebox appartments in cities, while Gates, Soros and their ilk take all world and its spoils for themselves.

falconflight
falconflight

“It is apparent why they went after VW for ‘dieselgate’ so hard.”

That’s it. And now Europe has bowed to the American Econazis.

Dobbsfan
Dobbsfan

Nailed it!

Anonymous
Anonymous

spot on with the ‘dieselgate’, diesels had by then been well proven to be a brilliant solution (and for example in europe almost half of all cars sold were diesels by that point!) and they had to kill them.
but consider this, all the hemming and hawing about ‘its not possible to build or support that mayne electric vehicles’ , should give a clue: the ruling class does not intend for us little people to have cars at all, so why should they care whether it’s convenient or not to charge an electric car or be limited in range? not only not their problem, it’s part of the plan.

None Ya Biz
None Ya Biz

Their plan is to remove 95% of the population of the world. At that point EVs for everyone becomes feasible. No need to upgrade the grid either!

Hannaford
Hannaford

You’d think california would be example, enuf. They cant make their grid function, but still plan to overload it with electric cars drawing even more power

Mary Christine

Nobody will have cars, EV or otherwise because we will be stuck in our pack and stack pod, have everything delivered to us, including our insect meals.

That’s if we all survive the next plandemic or whatever FF they have planned.

falconflight
falconflight

yeah but mass transit. /s

Anonymous
Anonymous

“There never was a market for electric cars and there is not one now” Not a very thoughtful article from a guy who lives in Mogadishu on the Chesapeake. Hey Z, check out this one minute video. I bet that lady’s husband wishes he would have bought her a Tesla. https://youtu.be/UiAFJwv68tQ

starfcker
starfcker

I don’t know why I’m anonymous. In this case, Anonymous was me

lamont cranston
lamont cranston

I’m 68 and have spent my whole career since my 1976 Pachyderm MBA in petroleum marketing and environmental compliance for the petro marketer community.

EVs are helpful but whoo the hell will bring produce and meat to market? Gimme a break.

Anonymous
Anonymous

who said you peons have any right to fresh produce and meat? line up once a week for your bag of soylent green.

Cow Kitty
Cow Kitty

No doubt it will be the Workhorse sporting the Horsefly that will plop it down right to your front door if necessary

https://workhorse.com/horsefly.html

Guest
Guest

Last year when we moved our (alleged) little electric coop inserted ads for electric cars, then last winter switched to notices how we may not have power sometimes ‘because’.

Just last week a customer was scheduled to come over one day and called to say they had to turn around because they didn’t have enough charge in their electric car and there was no charging station close enough. Perhaps they’re not a good idea in MT yet. We sort of thought they were making an excuse, but maybe not.

When it gets to 40 below zero regular cars barely work.

Anonymous
Anonymous

California is going to burden the taxpayers to bail out failing marijuana businesses. Why? Because the marijuana businesses didn’t take into account the extra time and money it costs to comply with California pot regulations. So, naturally, the taxpayer has to pay for governmental failure. Talk about flushing money down the toilet. No wonder people are bailing out of that dump

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