Love is now electric

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Car manufacturers are rushing head over heels to get on the electric car bandwagon. President Joe Biden tells us that “the future of the auto industry is electric.” The catchphrase for 2023 Subaru electric vehicles (EV) is “Love is now electric.”

California recently required all new vehicles sold within its borders to be electric by 2035. Governor Gavin Newsom made this announcement a couple months after asking Californians NOT to charge their EVs during a heat wave last summer.

If you are willing to wait, you can order an electric truck. The demand is so high that when you go on Ford’s website to learn about the 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning, you get this message: “Due to high demand, the current model year is no longer available for retail order. Contact your dealer for more information.”

It seems like everyone wants an EV. They are fast, sleek and exciting. They are amazing. They will save the planet. Or will they?

Personally, I would only consider one as a second car. I would use it for quick errands and short trips where gas mileage is worse in my Dodge Caravan. That way, I wouldn’t worry about running out of power.

There is no way I would want an EV as my primary vehicle. Can you imagine a road trip and getting stuck on I-70 behind a traffic accident for an hour? How fast would your battery last running the air conditioner? Worse, how long would your car’s battery keep you warm sitting in a traffic jam during a polar vortex?

Like any gasoline-powered car, temperature affects the range of an EV.

But that’s not the only downfall of EVs. They are not all that “green.”

To make one battery used in an EV, companies have to mine 500,000 pounds of minerals and rock. This mining is done mainly outside the United States in countries that use forced labor, like China, or, according to Amnesty International, child labor. For details, read the book Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives.

Cobalt is one of the main minerals in every lithium-ion rechargeable battery — not just for EVs. Guess what country has control over the cobalt supply chain? If you said China, you are correct. I’m sure that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is thrilled with Biden’s push for EVs.

But I digress.

Volkswagon published a study that says you have to own an EV for at least 60,000 miles before you save any carbon dioxide from reaching the environment.

An article on CarsOfElectric.com says that “on average, an electric car battery will last between 70,000 and 150,000 miles before it needs to be replaced.” The website explains that battery life depends on how you drive. “If you drive in stop-and-go traffic, your battery will wear down faster than if you stick to the highway.”

Next, EV owners must consider where the electricity comes from that charges their batteries. In Missouri, 74.4 percent of our electricity comes from coal-fired plants, natural gas and petroleum 8.9 percent, nuclear 5.5 percent, biomass 0.2 percent, and solar, wind and hydroelectric make up 11 percent.

According to Physicist Mark Mills of the Manhattan Institute, “you would have to drive an electric car 100,000 miles to reduce emissions by just 20 or 30 percent, which is not nothing, but it’s not zero.”

Buying an EV may make you feel good, but it will not save the planet.

I cannot see local farmers and contractors putting down a deposit to order an electric pickup truck. With a bit of research, I found a YouTube video demonstrating a Ford F-150 Lightning towing a 6,000 lb. trailer. Without the trailer, the Lightning’s computer — on the video — said it can travel 282 miles on a full charge.

Once the driver added the trailer information into the computer, the estimated mileage was reduced to 160. After 85.9 miles, the driver had to stop at a recharging station with just 9 percent battery remaining. Conclusion: The trailer in this experiment cut the travel distance by two-thirds. Not very good unless you just want to pull a trailer from Owensville to, Belle, Vienna, Linn and then back.

Love may be electric, but I will stick with my old-fashioned internal combustion engine for now — or maybe a Hybrid. That’s the best of both technologies.