Leftists like to rant about the alleged “negative externalities” of the free market, but never seem to be concerned when central planning results in the same thing.
EV batteries are larger and heavier than those in regular cars and are made up of several hundred individual lithium-ion cells, all of which need dismantling. They contain hazardous materials, and have an inconvenient tendency to explode if disassembled incorrectly.
“Currently, globally, it’s very hard to get detailed figures for what percentage of lithium-ion batteries are recycled, but the value everyone quotes is about 5%,” says Dr Anderson. “In some parts of the world it’s considerably less.”
Oh boy..
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EVs are fine depending on what you ask of them.. A single house garage and driveway with 3 cars?.. Well well, who gets to plug in at night and who gets kicked to the charging station curb?..
The economy of scale.. A couple of hours a week is 8 hours a month and 96 hours a year.. Sitting at a charging station.. They gypsy fleet of EV vehicles adding almost 3 weeks of work (40 hour week) to the 48 I already put in..
It almost erases my 4 weeks holidays.. I think I will pass..
Battery tech will never be safe for cars, with their high-vibration and impact risks.
The higher the energy density, the higher the risk of fire and explosion, so even if they do make batteries that can charge as fast as a tank of gas fills up, and gets as much range as gas, they’ll be rolling bombs.
The reason gas/diesel cars aren’t rolling bombs is because you need to pull the oxidizer from the air, but in a battery, well, its the equivalent of having fuel and oxidizer pre-mixed.
Putting them in cars, trucks or planes is insane.
Fire returns to California, courtesy of lithium batteries.
https://ijr.com/massive-green-battery-plant-catches-on-fire-again-weeks-after-major-toxic-blaze/