What Will You Do When Your Favorite Carmaker Goes All-Electric?

 

The EU has instituted onerous fuel-economy and carbon-emissions rules, causing many European automakers to declare that soon they will be building only electric cars.  The EU determined that cars propelled by batteries emit no carbon that could be destroying Planet Earth; so they are prompting carmakers to quit making gasoline and diesel-powered cars.  These changes are imminent, with Volvo (now owned by a Communist Chinese company) having announced last year that by 2030 they will only be producing electric cars.  Just last week, Daimler, which makes Mercedes Benz cars, also announced that it will go all-electric by the end of the decade.  Jaguar has announced that it will be all-electric by 2025.

So, what if you have aspired to own a Jaguar or Mercedes. Will you buy that electric car and risk being on foot if the power goes out? What if you will never be able to trade in that gas-powered Volvo for the newest model? Are you looking forward to the government essentially owning your car? Most electricity is provided by government-sanctioned utilities, so you will have few options for fueling up if all you are allowed to own and drive will be some kind of electric car. General Motors and Ford have also announced that they will be moving to building mostly electric cars. California and Washington have already passed laws against gasoline-powered cars.

Note, however, one of the big holdouts. Toyota has announced that they will not be building an all-electric fleet.

Nearly every week, I read a new article describing how this or that automaker has declared that they will be only building electric cars in the future. Not one of those articles has yet addressed what I think of as the most important question. What if the people don’t want electric cars? What if all those buyers and drivers out there are not one bit interested in driving a car which they have to constantly worry about running out of charge?

What will you do?

Published in Economics
This post was promoted to the Main Feed by a Ricochet Editor at the recommendation of Ricochet members. Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

There are 185 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):

    I was telling my wife about this post and comments and a thought occurred to me. Although many people on the left prefer that we drive electric vehicles over gasoline or diesel vehicles, what they really want is for us to walk, ride bike, or if we really need more speed — ride those big, beautiful government-subsidized trains. Does anything make a progressive’s heart beat faster than the idea of other people riding trains?

    Let’s say we are 30 years down the road and we’re all driving electric cars and trucks. Will we still be able to buy electricity for charging our vehicles at the standard rates? Or will it occur to the Democrats of the future that there should be one price per kilowatt hour for running your washing machine and other household necessities and a higher rate for charging your vehicle, to discourage people from using their own private transportation? It wouldn’t be hard for building codes to mandate that there be a separate electrical meter for the automotive charger.

    Yes, come to think of it, how many Kw does it take to charge a vehicle? Most electric companies have a scaled rate, low for the first so many Kw used, then more for all Kw after that.

    There is also “demand” metering, which costs you more per KW/hr when you’re “demanding” more at once, such as for running heavy loads such as air conditioning, it can also increase rates at “peak hours” etc.  But even if everyone in the People’s Republic of California only charged their electric cars at night, they still don’t have the total capacity and distribution capacity.

    • #181
  2. DonG (2+2=5. Say it!) Coolidge
    DonG (2+2=5. Say it!)
    @DonG

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):
    Let’s say we are 30 years down the road and we’re all driving electric cars and trucks.  Will we still be able to buy electricity for charging our vehicles at the standard rates?  Or will it occur to the Democrats of the future that there should be one price per kilowatt hour for running your washing machine and other household necessities and a higher rate for charging your vehicle, to discourage people from using their own private transportation?   It wouldn’t be hard for building codes to mandate that there be a separate electrical meter for the automotive charger.

    The new “infrastructure” bill has electricity subsidies for folks and per-mile vehicle tax.

    • #182
  3. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):

    I was telling my wife about this post and comments and a thought occurred to me. Although many people on the left prefer that we drive electric vehicles over gasoline or diesel vehicles, what they really want is for us to walk, ride bike, or if we really need more speed — ride those big, beautiful government-subsidized trains. Does anything make a progressive’s heart beat faster than the idea of other people riding trains?

    Let’s say we are 30 years down the road and we’re all driving electric cars and trucks. Will we still be able to buy electricity for charging our vehicles at the standard rates? Or will it occur to the Democrats of the future that there should be one price per kilowatt hour for running your washing machine and other household necessities and a higher rate for charging your vehicle, to discourage people from using their own private transportation? It wouldn’t be hard for building codes to mandate that there be a separate electrical meter for the automotive charger.

    And that can be remotely turned off from DC, or Beijing…

    • #183
  4. Randy Weivoda Moderator
    Randy Weivoda
    @RandyWeivoda

    DonG (2+2=5. Say it!) (View Comment):

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):
    Let’s say we are 30 years down the road and we’re all driving electric cars and trucks. Will we still be able to buy electricity for charging our vehicles at the standard rates? Or will it occur to the Democrats of the future that there should be one price per kilowatt hour for running your washing machine and other household necessities and a higher rate for charging your vehicle, to discourage people from using their own private transportation? It wouldn’t be hard for building codes to mandate that there be a separate electrical meter for the automotive charger.

    The new “infrastructure” bill has electricity subsidies for folks and per-mile vehicle tax.

    Yup, they want to subsidize it now.  My question is, once they have killed off the internal combustion engine, then what will happen with electricity costs.

    • #184
  5. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):

    I was telling my wife about this post and comments and a thought occurred to me. Although many people on the left prefer that we drive electric vehicles over gasoline or diesel vehicles, what they really want is for us to walk, ride bike, or if we really need more speed — ride those big, beautiful government-subsidized trains. Does anything make a progressive’s heart beat faster than the idea of other people riding trains?

    Let’s say we are 30 years down the road and we’re all driving electric cars and trucks. Will we still be able to buy electricity for charging our vehicles at the standard rates? Or will it occur to the Democrats of the future that there should be one price per kilowatt hour for running your washing machine and other household necessities and a higher rate for charging your vehicle, to discourage people from using their own private transportation? It wouldn’t be hard for building codes to mandate that there be a separate electrical meter for the automotive charger.

    Honestly, I’m interested in getting a plug-in hybrid, and if I do get one I’d want a way to measure  the electricity for it so I can keep track of the cost of using the vehicle, just like I currently track gasoline expenses.

    • #185
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.