Category: Alternative Subsidy

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

And dealerships know it.

Continuing the U.S. decline of the brand, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that approximately half of all Buick dealership in the U.S. have opted to take a buyout from GM, as opposed to spending millions in retooling, restructuring and retraining their staff to accommodate the EV influx.

Most of the EV’s shoved onto the dealer lots sit idle without customers to purchase them.

Y2Kyoto: State Of Anorexia Envirosa

Via Hot Air;

A major power grid operator that oversees electricity supplies across the mid-Atlantic repeated its warning that the looming shutdown of a coal-fired power plant in Baltimore will threaten the region’s grid reliability and may have devastating impacts on consumers.

In a follow-up letter obtained by FOX Business this week, PJM Interconnection warned the shutdown of the Brandon Shores coal power plant is slated to occur before replacement power sources can come online, resulting in “degraded grid reliability” for more than 1 million state consumers, including the entire city of Baltimore.

Now pay close attention, because this is where the math comes in.

PJM is preparing for significant impacts to the grid from additional demand that includes up to 7,500 MW of new data centers to be sited in Virginia and Maryland. This is combined with widespread effects from the deactivation of more than 11,000 MW of generation across the PJM footprint.

Read the whole thing.

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

The stupid rich people market runs dry. (sorry, forgot the link!)

As inventories of electric cars grow faster than sales, car dealers are feeling increasingly discouraged by their prospects, according to a quarterly survey from Cox Automotive, the parent company of Kelley Blue Book. A dealer sentiment index derived from the survey shows sales expectations haven’t been lower since at least 2021, when Cox first started asking about EVs. […]

“We thought we could build a million of them and sell them,” Paul LaRochelle, vice president at Sheehy Auto Stores, a chain of dealerships in the Washington D.C. area, told the Journal.

But his dealerships have a six- to 12-month supply of electric vehicles, and only a month’s worth of gasoline-powered cars and trucks.

Oh no! Canada faces declining EV interest, report shows, despite push to boost sales

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

In whole, or in part.

An Arizona car owner says he was shocked when he heard how much it would cost to replace a battery in his hybrid vehicle.

Lucas Turner told KPHO that he recently took his 2014 Infiniti hybrid to a dealership for a check engine light.

He said he knew something was wrong but wasn’t expecting it to be this bad.

“They told me that I need a new hybrid battery and it’s going to cost $18,000 for the battery and another $2,000 to have it installed,” Turner said.

Polling for Dollars

It shouldn’t surprise anyone who financed this opinion poll. The questions are absolutely geared to reinforce the prevailing narrative. It’s not much different from “elections” in the Soviet Union in which the communist party candidate would get 98% of the votes.

92% of Canadians agree they feel confident in the food safety and animal welfare standards used in dairy, chicken, turkey and egg farming in Canada because of supply management. 94% of Canadians also prefer their dairy, eggs, chicken, and turkey products to be produced locally and in Canada under supply management.

Y2Kyoto: Reality Bites

Anas Alhajji: As COP28 is being held in Dubai with the oil industry participating in such events for the first time, the oil industry wasted no time making its case. We decided to repost this article for everyone to read.

EOA’S MAIN TAKEAWAYS

1. Data indicates that future demand for oil and gas is UNDERESTIMATED, while demand destruction is HYPED.

2. Global energy demand is increasing, making decarbonization more difficult to achieve, and the process of replacing fossil fuels slower.

3. Despite massive spending on renewables in the last two decades, fossil fuels remain the dominant source of energy in the world, even in Europe.

4. Coal remains the dominant source of electricity in India and China.

5. Oil is rarely used in power generation in the OECD, China, and India. Doubling or tripling solar and wind energy sources will have a very limited impact on oil demand. However, the failure of renewable energy, and consequent power shortages, will have a significant impact on oil demand.

6. As LNG prices reached a record high in 2022, oil use in power generation increased. The level of substitution among various energy sources last year was unprecedented.

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

“Sticker shock”

… has taken on a whole new meaning when new electric vehicle owners get their first repair bill following a simple fender bender. The Wall Street Journal reports that a San Francisco resident got in a minor accident with his electric truck. He thought that repairs would be “a couple-thousand-dollar bill from the repair shop and to be without his truck for a couple of weeks.”
Advertisement

Instead, the first-time EV owner was shocked to get a $22,000 bill for repairs that took 2 1/2 months.

The Biden administration has a goal to have 50% of all new cars on the road in 2030 be electric vehicles. That’s about 48 million cars and trucks. Owners are going to need chargers on the road, mechanics to service them, and parts to repair their vehicles.

@SullyCNBC: It’s one reason – along with low resale – that Europe’s biggest car rental company just dumped em

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

The CBC, always the last to know.

Electric vehicles have proved far less reliable, on average, than gasoline-powered cars, trucks and SUVs, according to the latest survey by Consumer Reports, which found that EVs from the 2021 through 2023 model years encountered nearly 80 per cent more problems than did vehicles propelled by internal combustion engines.

Consumer Reports said EV owners most frequently reported troubles with battery and charging systems as well as flaws in how the vehicles’ body panels and interior parts fit together. The magazine and website noted that EV manufacturers are still learning to construct completely new power systems, and it suggested that as they do, the overall reliability of electric vehicles should improve.

As the stupid rich people market nears saturation

The growth of electric vehicle sales has slowed sharply since last year. In June 2022, EV sales were growing about 90 per cent year over year. By June of this year the 12-month growth rate had slowed to about 50 per cent, and automakers have become increasingly fearful that the pace will weaken further.

Going Bwoke

Investments in trendy ‘ESG’ assets collapsed by $5 trillion in just two years…

In its biannual assessment, the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance (GSIA) said on Wednesday that investors had $30.3 trillion in sustainable assets in 2022, down from $35.3 trillion in 2020.

In the US, where Republicans have railed against ESG funds, which push for environmental, social, and governance benefits, such assets plunged from more than $17 trillion to just $8.4 trillion over the same period.
[…]

A recent Bloomberg survey showed that investors expect the downturn to continue into 2024, with the negative sentiment extending to Tesla and other electric carmakers.

‘Sustainable bonds make for bad investments when they actually meet the radical left’s definition of sustainable, and when they don’t, Wall Street greenwashes them to justify the higher fees they charge for selling them,’ added Hild.

‘It’s a scam on investors either way.’

Related: Yesterday, America First Legal (AFL), together with co-counsel Boyden Gray PLLC and Lawson Huck Gonzalez PLLC, filed an amended complaint in its lawsuit against Target Corporation and its Board of Directors. The lawsuit is brought on behalf of a group of shareholders for Target’s misleading representations about its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) mandates that betrayed Target’s customers and shareholders and caused investors to lose billions of dollars.

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

Ford Scales Back Michigan Battery Plant Investments

Expect to see media outlets bashing Ford for scaling back EV investments in the near term. You’ll also probably notice the stock market reacting unfavorably to the news for a time. In fact we saw the brand’s valuation slip a bit almost immediately after the two announcements were made. But Ford actually seems to be making the correct choice for itself here, even if Wall Street is blind to the fact. The automaker’s electric vehicle division is projected to lose $4.5 billion by the end of 2023 and wastes an estimated $36,000 on every EV it currently sells.

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

Why the public isn’t buying electric cars

I also suggest you consult the experts on this matter: automotive journalists. A quick scan of car publications might give the impression that journalists unanimously adore EVs – that battery power is the best thing to happen to cars since heated seats – and that the only question left is which of these wonderful machines you should buy.

But beneath the glowing reviews and breathless prose that mark the launch of every new EV SUV, a different picture can be glimpsed. And it’s one that can be unveiled by asking any car journalist a simple question: do they have an EV themselves?

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Bricks

Edmonton Journal;

Three-quarters of the city’s 60-bus electric fleet is in the garage with poor immediate prospects for parts to fix them.

Proterra, the American company the city purchased the electric buses from between 2019-2022, is in Chapter 11 filing for bankruptcy protection. Edmonton’s on a list of creditors, seeking $1.3 million and fulfillment of service and warranties. […]

While the website touts mileage up to 340 km on a charge, on Edmonton streets the stylish bus is a sluggish employee. It has a range of up to 117 km, which gets it on the streets from 5 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. before it has to hit the charger, and then gets back out from 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Tax Bonanza

What productive business wouldn’t like a 35% tax credit for each employee they hire? Oh, wait, that’s a perk reserved for truly unproductive businesses. It’s the modern day equivalent of subsidies for the buggy whip industry, primarily designed to pay off Justin’s water carriers.

The government’s fall economic statement announced an increase to the Canadian Journalism Tax Credit, a refundable tax credit allowing qualifying news outlets to claim up to 35 per cent of up to $85,000 in salary for a qualified employee.

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

CNBC: Ford to scale back plans for $3.5 billion Michigan battery plant as EV demand disappoints, labor costs rise

Ford said Tuesday that it is cutting production capacity by roughly 43% to 20 gigawatt hours per year and reducing expected employment from 2,500 jobs to 1,700 jobs. The company declined to disclose how much less it would invest in the plant. Based on the reduced capacity, it would still be about a $2 billion investment.

The decision adds to a recent retreat from EVs by automakers globally. Demand for the vehicles is lower than expected due to higher costs and challenges with supply chains and battery technologies, among other issues.

Reductions at the Marshall, Michigan plant are part of Ford’s plans announced last month to cut or delay about $12 billion in previously announced EV investments. The company will also postpone construction of another electric vehicle battery plant in Kentucky.

We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

“… a $43.6 billion extravaganza of corporate welfare and environmental virtue signaling”

The federal and Quebec governments have pledged up to $4.6 billion in production subsidies for Northvolt. This decision, made with the kind of cavalier attitude toward public funds that’s become a hallmark of Trudeau’s governance, assumes a best-case scenario break-even timeline of 9 years. However, the PBO, injecting a dose of reality, estimates an 11-year break-even timeline based on Northvolt’s projected production schedule. That’s over a decade of waiting and hoping for a return on investment.

But wait, there’s more. Volkswagen is receiving a $13.2 billion production subsidy, with a projected 15-year break-even timeline. Stellantis-LGES tops the charts with a $15.0 billion subsidy and a jaw-dropping 23-year break-even timeline. These aren’t just optimistic projections; they’re a leap of faith with taxpayer money.

[…]

Volkswagen’s move to scale back EV production due to slowing demand is a clear signal that the EV market isn’t as robust as some would have us believe. This isn’t just a temporary glitch; it’s a symptom of a larger issue within the industry. For a leading automaker to take such a step indicates a significant mismatch between the hype around EVs and the actual market demand.

Navigation