Tag: electric vehicles

Auto Giants Scrambling to Slash Costs as Massive Bet on EVs, Self-Driving Fizzles

ADN America
Auto Factory

Major automobile companies are attempting to cut costs associated with electric vehicle (EV) lines and autonomous cars after spending heavily on both, according to CNBC.

Companies such as General Motors (GM), Stellantis and Ford are taking drastic measures aimed at reducing costs, such as enacting layoffs and making production cuts, according to CNBC. Automakers have invested billions of dollars into self-driving cars and EVs, with many now facing prolonged returns on their investments and slow EV adoption, CNBC reported.

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Trump’s Day One: A Look at His Opening Moves in the White House

Just the News

President-elect Donald Trump made a multitude of “day one” promises throughout the campaign to begin work on an array of issues, setting himself up for an extremely busy first day back in office.

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‘Cannot Continue’: Major Automaker Hits the Gas on Cost Cuts amid Tepid EV Demand, Increased Chinese Competition

Daily Caller News Foundation
Volkswagen

Volkswagen (VW) said Wednesday that it needs to cut costs amid slackening consumer demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and weaker car sales in China.

VW’s profits fell 64% in the third quarter of 2024, driving the company’s share price to its lowest level since October 2010. Now, the world’s largest automaker by sales is looking to lower its expenses, with VW’s top labor leader announcing earlier this week that the company was aiming to shut at least three of its German factories, slash wages 10% and lay off thousands of employees.

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Major Automaker Abandons 2030 Electric Vehicle Target as Market Woes Continue

Daily Caller News Foundation
Volvo Electric SUV

Swedish automaker Volvo Cars said on Wednesday that it is scrapping its goal of going fully electric by 2030 as the electric vehicle (EV) market continues to struggle.

The company announced it now aims for between 90 percent and 100 percent of its cars to be fully electric or plug-in hybrids by the end of the decade, with the remainder being “mild,” non-plug-in hybrids, a company press release stated. Volvo’s backpedaling comes amid lower-than-expected consumer demand for EVs and a recent industry shift away from electrification.

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Ford Ditching Plans for Electric Vehicle SUV as Market Struggles Continue

Daily Caller News Foundation
Ford EV plant

Ford said Wednesday that it is canceling its plans to build a three-row electric SUV as the wider U.S. electric vehicle (EV) market continues to struggle.

The company announced that it expects to take up to $1.9 billion in write downs and other special charges related to its decision after losing billions of dollars on its EV product line in 2023. In addition to canceling its three-row electric SUV, Ford is also pushing back its plans to roll out an electric pickup truck model until 2027, a one-year setback.

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Commentary: Two Years On, the IRA Is Exactly What Its Critics Said It Would Become

Daily Caller News Foundation
Joe Biden

In a recent interview, World Energy Council Secretary General Angela Wilkinson told me that one of the main impediments to the energy transition today is a lack of what she calls “systems thinking.”

“Energy transitions are a change in the organization of society,” she pointed out. “They’re not a simple case of swapping out one technology for another and everything else stays the same. Yet, we have this very simplistic narrative that we can take the oil system, we can put renewables in, it’s going to happen immediately, and nothing else will change. It’s like saying we’re going to take your thighbone out, but we’d like you to run a marathon.”

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Commentary: Electrification Without the Infrastructure

RealClearWire
Electrical Grids

As state and federal policies mandate the electrification of virtually all end uses to reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuels. For example, 18 states have adopted California’s Advanced Clear Car II rules requiring increasing percentages of new vehicle sales to be EVs, reaching 100% for the 2035 model year. In 2019, New York City enacted Local Law 97, which requires all residential buildings larger than 25,000 square feet to convert to electricity by 2035. Other states, such as New Jersey seek to convert all residential heating to electricity.

Together, mandates for electric vehicles (EVs) and electrification of space and water heat will likely double electricity consumption and peak demand. Coupled with policies that mandate supplying the nation’s electricity with zero-emissions resources, notably intermittent wind and solar power, not only will electricity prices continue to increase but the ability to meet consumers’ increased demand will become more problematic.

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Chinese-Owned EV Company Showered Dems with Campaign Contributions

Minnesota Sun Staff
BYD Car

The U.S. subsidiary of a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer and its top executive have given hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash to Democrats in recent years.

Stella Li, a top executive for BYD Americas, and the company itself have given tens of thousands of dollars in campaign cash to Democratic candidates and organizations in California and beyond over the past decade, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of federal and state political spending records. Based in China, BYD is the biggest EV producer in the world, and Congress moved in January to ban the Pentagon from buying its batteries due to security risks, according to Bloomberg News.

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American Auto Giant Pivots Plans to Build Electric Vehicles at Major Plant to Produce Heavy-Duty Pickups Instead

Minnesota Sun Staff
Ford EV plant

Ford is reversing course on plans to manufacture electric vehicles (EVs) at a major plant and instead will produce gas-powered, heavy-duty pickup trucks at the facility, Reuters reported Thursday.

The company initially planned to build three-row electric SUVs at its facility in Oakville, Canada, between 2025 and 2027, but the plant will now add capacity to produce 100,000 F-Series Super Duty trucks at the plant, according to Reuters. Ford said that it is still committed to producing those EVs on that timeline, though it is unclear which of its plants will handle that production.

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Biden Admin Cuts Another Huge Check for Automakers to Go Electric as Electric Vehicle Market Struggles

Minnesota Sun Staff
Tesla being assembled in factory

The Biden administration announced Thursday that it is spending billions of dollars more to help automakers mass-produce electric vehicles (EVs).

The Department of Energy (DOE) is spending $1.7 billion to help manufacturers convert closed or struggling manufacturing facilities to produce EVs or EV components in eight states, including swing states like Pennsylvania and Georgia, as the American EV market struggles. The funding complements $12 billion the DOE unveiled in August 2023 to help major manufacturers retrofit plants for EV production, and the agency projects that the cash announced Thursday will allow for the retention of 15,000 union workers while creating nearly 3,000 jobs.

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Batteries Needed for Green Transition Are ‘Unrecognized’ Source of Pollution, Study Finds

Minnesota Sun Staff
EV Battery

The lithium-ion batteries that are essential to the green energy transition are an “unrecognized and potentially growing” source of chemical pollution, according to a new study published in Nature.

The study sought to fill in knowledge gaps about whether or not chemicals used in lithium-ion battery components can pose environmental hazards, a key question given that Western policymakers are relying on the technology to help replace fossil fuel-fired infrastructure and meet long-term emissions reductions targets. After conducting “a cradle-to-grave evaluation” on the subject and collecting dozens of samples in the U.S. and Europe, the study’s authors “[confirmed] the clean energy sector as an unrecognized and potentially growing source” of chemical pollution, and that the growing prominence of lithium-ion batteries around the world makes pollution from their waste “an issue of global concern.”

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Three Out of Four Electric Vehicle Charging Developers Say They Can’t Get Enough Electricity For Their Stations

Just the News
EV Charging station

Green Energy Failure: Supply chain issues, financing, fleet-adequate solutions, engineering costs, and inadequate software among roadblocks cited in the survey.

Businesses building electric vehicle charging stations say that finding enough electricity is a major — perhaps fatal — problem.

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26 States Sue Biden Admin over Rule Pushing Electric Vehicles on Americans

Minnesota Sun Staff
Electric vehicle being charged

A 26-state coalition is suing the Biden administration over a new rule that increases the average fuel economy of passenger cars and light trucks.

The states filed a legal challenge in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals against the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to block the agency’s new fuel economy requirements for passenger cars and light trucks, which the agency finalized on June 7. Provided it withstands legal challenges, the rule will require auto manufacturers to adhere to an industry-wide fleet average of approximately 50.4 miles per gallon for passenger cars and light trucks by 2031 – a move that, critics say, would force car companies to drastically increase the share of their fleets that are electric vehicles (EVs), and, in turn, would negatively impact consumer pocketbooks and American energy independence.

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Wyoming Sues Biden Administration over Fossil Fuel Ban

Just the News
Rep. Harriet Hageman

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been chipping away at the oil, gas and coal industries ever since President Joe Biden took office. Wyoming is an energy state that produces half the nation’s coal, as well as part of its oil and gas output. Since the federal government owns nearly half the state’s land, virtually all oil, gas and coal operations in the Cowboy State are heavily impacted by every rule the BLM throws at fossil fuels.

Although the Biden administration is waging war on fossil fuels, Wyoming is fighting back. The state, along with Utah, filed a lawsuit against the agency last Tuesday over its restoration lease program, and Rep. Harriett Hageman, R-Wyo., is rolling out legislation to fight back against the BLM’s proposed ban on federal coal leases.

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Increasing Copper Production for Green Energy Is Impossible, Study Says

Just the News
David Hammond mineral economist

Proponents of the transition to so-called green energy argue that the technology to eliminate the use of fossil fuels already exists and it’s just a matter of scaling it up to meet demand. That sounds simple enough.

Putting aside the impact to energy costs and other challenges of this proposed transition, analyses of what is technically and financially possible in developing the resources needed for this plan show that the energy transition in the timescales that proponents demand is not just difficult. It’s impossible.

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Biden Says Americans Can Buy Any Car Despite His Administration Forcing EVs to Be Huge Share of Sales by 2032

Minnesota Sun Staff
President Joe Biden driving a car

President Joe Biden suggested Tuesday it is false that his administration is restricting consumer choice in the automobile market, but his administration recently finalized a rule that will force electric vehicles (EVs) to make up a much larger share of overall auto sales over the next decade.

Biden made the remark during a Tuesday speech about his administration’s decision to significantly bolster tariffs against Chinese products including steel, semiconductor chips and EV batteries. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule in March that requires manufacturers to make EVs constitute between 35 percent and 56 percent of new cars sold in 2032, according to CNN.

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Biden Jacks Up Tariffs on Chinese Electric Vehicles, Critical Minerals

Minnesota Sun Staff
BYD Chinese electric car

The Biden administration on Tuesday formally announced significant increases in tariffs targeting imports of electric vehicles (EVs) and other green energy technology from China.

The strengthened tariffs are designed to make it harder for cheaper Chinese green products, like electric vehicles, to flood the U.S. market and displace American companies, the White House said in its official announcement. Beyond EVs and critical minerals, the administration is also increasing tariffs on Chinese steel, computer chips, EV batteries and certain solar components.

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Electric Vehicle Market Share Plummets in First Quarter as Consumers Sour

Minnesota Sun Staff
Tesla Showroom

Growth in sales for electric vehicles (EV) slowed in the first quarter of the year as consumers remained wary of the product even though growth in sales of new vehicles remained strong, leading to a drop in EV market share, according to The Associated Press.

Sales for new vehicles grew 5 percent in the first three months of the year, but EV sales grew only 2.7 percent as more consumers chose traditional vehicles due to cost and product concerns, according to the AP. The average sales price declined 3.6 percent year-over-year to $44,186 in March as dealers looked to offload built-up inventory.

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‘Entirely Unachievable:’ Biden EPA Locks In Stringent Emissions Rule for Heavy-Duty Vehicles to Fight Climate Change

Minnesota Sun Staff
Joe Biden

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized aggressive emissions standards Friday for heavy-duty vehicles that will effectively require huge increases in the numbers of electric or zero-emission buses and trucks sold over the next decade.

The agency is projecting that the heavy-duty vehicle emissions standards for model years 2027 to 2032 could result in zero-emission or electric vehicles (EVs) making up 25 percent of new long-haul trucks sold and 40 percent of all new medium-sized truck sales by 2032, according to The New York Times. The EPA’s final emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles complements the agency’s recent release of the final tailpipe emissions standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles that has been characterized as an “EV mandate.”

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Biden EPA Locks in Stringent Emissions Rule for Heavy-Duty Vehicles to Fight Climate Change

Minnesota Sun Staff
Garbage Truck

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized aggressive emissions standards Friday for heavy-duty vehicles that will effectively require huge increases in the numbers of electric or zero-emission buses and trucks sold over the next decade.

The agency is projecting that the heavy-duty vehicle emissions standards for model years 2027 to 2032 could result in zero-emission or electric vehicles (EVs) making up 25% of new long-haul trucks sold and 40% of all new medium-sized truck sales by 2032, according to The New York Times. The EPA’s final emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles complements the agency’s recent release of the final tailpipe emissions standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles that has been characterized as an “EV mandate.”

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Commentary: Biden EPA’s Latter-Day Prohibition Targets Auto Industry

Minnesota Sun Staff
Tesla Factory

Not since Prohibition has the federal government sought to ban a product as popular as the internal combustion engine.

This week, the Environmental Protection Agency released its final emissions standards rule, requiring that 70% of new vehicle sales be pure battery-powered electric or hybrids by 2032.

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Poll Shows Seven States Oppose Electric Vehicle Mandates

The Center Square

Polling from the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, the leading trade association of fuel, shows seven states oppose gas car bans.

Polling from the presidential and senate battleground states of Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, shows most registered and likely general election voters oppose government efforts to ban new gas cars and impose electric vehicle mandates.

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Top U.S. Automaker Reports $1.7 Billion Loss on Electric Vehicles in Fourth Quarter

Minnesota Sun Staff
Marry Barra

General Motors reported a $1.7 billion loss on Tuesday in its fourth quarter earnings call in the production and sale of its electric vehicle line, despite having positive net income growth in the quarter.

The automaker’s net income for the fourth quarter rose 5.2% year-over-year to $2.1 billion despite a reduction in revenue over that time frame of 0.3%, according to GM’s fourth quarter earnings report. The losses on EVs accompany a $1.1 billion total loss from a six-week-long strike by the United Auto Workers that partially halted operations, with the union gaining a new work contract that could raise labor costs in the coming year, according to the company’s investor earnings call.

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Number of EVs Eligible for Tax Credits Plummet as U.S. Seeks to Shrink Reliance on China’s Supply Chain

Minnesota Sun Staff
EV VW

The number of electric vehicles (EV) that qualify for tax credits fell from 43 to 19 on Monday following new rules about the number of components in the vehicle that can be made by China and other foreign entities, according to Reuters.

On Dec. 1, 2023, the Treasury Department released guidance for which EVs are eligible for its $7,500 tax credit, requiring vehicles to have at least 60% of battery components and 50% of total critical minerals used not be from a foreign entity of concern like China starting in 2024. Vehicles that are impacted by the changes include the Volkswagen ID.4, Tesla Model 3 Rear Wheel Drive, BMW X5 xDrive 50e, Audi Q5 PHEV 55, Cadillac Lyriq and Ford E-Transit, losing eligibility for the credit, according to Reuters.

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Electric Vehicle Start-Ups Are Running Out Funds

Minnesota Sun Staff
Rivian Truck

The trendy electric vehicle (EV) market could be in trouble as at least 18 EV and battery start-ups that went public in the last few years are running out of funds to operate, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal.

The trouble in the industry follows rising costs and manufacturing issues as the companies fail to compete with top EV maker Tesla and traditional automakers, with the median stock of the 43 companies reviewed dropping 80% from its peak, losing tens of billions in collective value since the companies relatively recent inception, according to the WSJ. Of those 43 EV start-ups reviewed, five have already gone bankrupt or been acquired, including Lordstown Motors, Proterra and Electric Last Mile Solutions.

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House Passes Bill Hitting Back Against Biden’s EV Agenda

Minnesota Sun Staff

The House passed a bill Wednesday that would neutralize one of the key policies underlying the Biden administration’s electric vehicle (EV) push.

The Choice in Automobile Retail Sales (CARS) Act passed by a bipartisan vote in the legislature’s lower chamber, and it will now head to the Senate. The bill would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from imposing new vehicle emissions rules that either mandate the use of a specific technology or reduce the availability of new cars based on the type of engine.

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4,000 Auto Dealers Say Electric Vehicles Are ‘Stacking Up’ on Lots

The Center Square

About 4,000 auto dealers from all 50 states have signed a letter to President Joe Biden saying electric vehicles are “stacking up on our lots” as the demand for electric cars has “stalled.”

“BEVs [battery electric vehicles] are stacking up on our lots,” the auto dealers stated in the letter. “Last year, there was a lot of hope and hype about EVs. Early adopters formed an initial line and were ready to buy these vehicles as soon as we had them to sell. But that enthusiasm has stalled. Today, the supply of unsold BEVs is surging, as they are not selling nearly as fast as they are arriving at our dealerships – even with deep price cuts, manufacturer incentives, and generous government incentives.”

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Commentary: Making Climate Change a Republican Issue in 2024

Minnesota Sun Staff

Out of sheer perversity, I follow stories in the Washington Post related to weather. It matters not what the weather brings, the cause is global warming (or climate change depending on the temperature of the disaster). Having a flood? Global warming. Got a heavy snow or ice storm? Climate change. They haven’t yet figured out how to blame earthquakes on global warming, but the mainstream media will probably find a cause and effect relationship somehow.

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Luxury EV Manufacturer Loses $227,000 on Each Car It Sells

Minnesota Sun Staff

A manufacturer of luxury electric vehicles (EVs) lost more than $227,000 on each car it sold in the third quarter.

Lucid Motors, headquartered in California, sells four EV models, ranging in price from $74,900 to $249,000, according to its website. The company reported a net loss of $630.9 million in the third quarter, excluding its overhead costs, which comes out to a loss of more than $227,000 on each car it sold, according to its financial filings and The Wall Street Journal’s calculations.

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Commentary: The Existential Crisis of the Big Three Automakers

Minnesota Sun Staff

The “Big Three” — Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis — have had a tough go of things lately. The recently concluded strikes by their employees were perhaps the most visible indication that all is not roses in U.S. Autoland, but there is a larger problem. That problem is summarized by the following headline from the Wall Street Journal: “Automakers Have Big Hopes for EVs; Buyers Aren’t Cooperating.”

The financial results of weak EV sales have been devastating for the Big Three. Ford reported a third-quarter operating loss of $1.3 billion in its EV division. Since it sold 20,962 EVs in the third quarter, the per-unit loss on each of those vehicles is an eye-popping $62,016. Ouch!

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The Cost of Covering American Roads with EVs Is Raising Some Big Speed Bumps

Just the News

With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, the federal government boosted tax credits, hoping to help American consumers wary of the higher sticker prices for electric vehicles (EVs) to warm up to them. In a further push, in May of this year, the EPA proposed emissions standards on new vehicles that are designed to make 60% of all new vehicle sales to be electric powered by 2030.

The automotive industry responded eagerly to the push for EVs, pledging to transform large portions of their business over to electric lines. A Reuters analysis in October 2022 estimated that 37 global automakers were planning $1.2 trillion in investments in EVs, batteries and materials for the transition through 2030.

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Commentary: ‘EV’s for Everyone’ Mandates are Politically Risky and Practically Disastrous

RealClearWire

If we could imagine a time machine bringing to New York City, an American citizen from the 19th century, odds are the one thing that would seem the most amazing about our time would be the proliferation of the personal automobile. Big buildings, big cities, roads, nighttime illumination would all be imaginable, even if different looking and greater in scale. But the one thing radically different about modern daily life is the convenience and freedoms that come from a car.

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Commentary: Red China’s Electric Vehicle Invasion of America

Minnesota Sun Staff

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) electric vehicles (EVs) manufactured in Red China are now for sale in the U.S. They are Buick’s Envision and Sweden’s Polestar 2, with Lincoln Nautilus soon to follow. Many more Red Chinese EV brands are coming. Waiting in the wings to begin export to the U.S. are BYD Co., Li Auto, Xpeng Motors, Nio Inc., and Geely.

And, as the U.S. dismantles its combustion engine industry and all the ancillary industries to make way for EVs that Americans aren’t buying, American workers are losing jobs and suffering wage decreases. People working in repair shops, garages, gas stations, parts manufacturers, and distributors are just a few of those who will suffer.

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States Legislatures Adapt to Electric Vehicles

The Center Square

As President Joe Biden’s administration wants 50% of all new vehicle sales to be electric by 2030, some states are pushing bills to subsidize the industry. 

In an analysis of state legislatures by The Center Square staff, actions so far this year in multiple states offer recognition to the emergence of the industry – whether trying to make up tax revenue shortfalls or simply boosting the move away from gas and diesel automobiles.

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Commentary: Zero Basis Exists for the Claim That Electric Vehicles Have ‘Zero Emissions’

RealClearWire

As California, New York, and other states move to phase out the sale of gasoline-powered cars, public officials routinely echo the Biden administration’s claim that electric vehicles are a “zero emissions” solution that can significantly mitigate the effects of climate change. 

Car and energy experts, however, say there is no such thing as a zero-emissions vehicle: For now and the foreseeable future, the energy required to manufacture and power electric cars will leave a sizable carbon footprint. In some cases hybrids can be cleaner alternatives in states that depend on coal to generate electricity, and some suggest that it may be too rash to write off all internal combustion vehicles just yet. 

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Commentary: Gas Cars May Soon Be as Environmentally Friendly as Electric Vehicles

RealClearWire

A team of engineers from Michigan State University led by Associate Professor Annick Anctil projects that rising fuel efficiency standards for internal combustion engine (ICEV) vehicles in the U.S. could lower their greenhouse gas emissions to be close to those of electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030.

The analysis, published earlier this year in the Journal of Environmental Management, should give pause to EV-obsessed policymakers doling out lavish tax credits for purchasing EVs and banning the sale of new ICE vehicles. At least twelve states aim to phase out sales of new, gas-powered cars by 2035.

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Analysis: Electric Cars Are Not ‘Zero-Emission Vehicles’

Minnesota Sun Staff

While praising California’s decision to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035, Governor Gavin Newsom declared that this will require “100% of new car sales in California to be zero-emission vehicles” like “electric cars.” In reality, electric cars emit substantial amounts of pollutants and may be more harmful to the environment than conventional cars.

Toxic Pollution

The notion that electric vehicles are “zero-emission” is rooted in a deceptive narrative that ignores all pollutants which don’t come out of a tailpipe. Assessing the environmental impacts of energy technologies requires measuring all forms of pollution they emit over their entire lives, not a narrow slice of them. To do this, researchers perform “life cycle assessments” or LCAs. As explained by the Environmental Protection Agency, LCAs allow for:

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Commentary: Electric Vehicles Are a Tool of Tyranny

RealClearWire

First, don’t blame the vehicle. It is a tool that might be just what Los Angeles needs to cope with inversions. Electric vehicles are also very good as airport shuttles and for other locations where short, repetitive routes are the primary use. Some may even be fun to drive (except when they catch on fire).

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Commentary: Joe Biden Is Threatening Our Freedom of Movement

RealClearWire

The federal gov’t and silicon valley are looking to clamp down on your freedom of movement. Your ability to move about as you please does not fit with their goals for the future of our world. Automotive-related freedoms, including access to fuel, allow us to be free to move without the permission of silicon valley and the federal government. Automotive freedoms are not only hobby related; they are essential to preventing yet another step along the road to serfdom at the hands of woke corporations and federal bureaucrats.

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Commentary: Joe Biden’s Electric Car Plans Support the World’s Worst Humanitarian Abuses

RealClearWire
Joe Biden

In his State of the Union Address on Tuesday, President Joe Biden promoted electric vehicles (EVs), trumpeting his plans to establish “a national network of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations.” In so doing, Biden is unwittingly supporting the worst humanitarian abuses in the world. This is because of the way in which the materials used in manufacturing the batteries that power today’s EVs are obtained.

To obtain a reasonable amount of power per pound of battery weight, EV manufacturers generally use various forms of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, so named because the battery’s positive electrode, called the cathode, is largely made up of the highly reactive metal lithium (Li). To keep the cathode stable when a battery is not in use, the lithium is combined in a metal oxide matrix, with different manufacturers using different combinations of metals.

Most EV manufacturers combine lithium with nickel, cobalt and manganese to create a Li-Ni-Mn-Co oxide matrix to form the cathode. Tesla substitutes aluminum (Al) for the manganese, yielding a Li-Ni-Co-Al oxide matrix for the cathode on their batteries. Tesla maintains that their formulae is more cost-effective as less cobalt is required.

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Biden Plan Would Build EV Chargers on Interstate Highways Before Rural Areas

Minnesota Sun Staff

President Joe Biden’s ambitious $5 billion plan to construct an electric vehicle charging network across the country would prioritize the Interstate Highway System.

The federal government will distribute the funds to states over the course of five years under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program, according to a joint Department of Transportation and Energy Department announcement Thursday. In 2022, $615 million will be made available to states that submit plans for how the money will be used to construct chargers along the interstate highway network, the announcement said.

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Senators Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to End U.S. Reliance on Chinese Minerals

Admin
Mark Kelly and Tom Cotton

A Republican and Democratic senator introduced legislation Friday that aims to end U.S. reliance on rare-earth metals sourced from and produced in China.

The Restoring Essential Energy and Security Holdings Onshore for Rare Earths (REEShore) Act would prevent supply disruptions and bolster domestic production of the minerals, according to Sens. Tom Cotton and Mark Kelly, the bill’s sponsors. They said the legislation is important for American national security and development of advanced technologies.

“The Chinese Communist Party has a chokehold on global rare-earth element supplies, which are used in everything from batteries to fighter jets,” Cotton said in a statement. “Ending America’s dependence on the CCP for extraction and processing of these elements is critical to winning the strategic competition against China and protecting our national security.”

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Commentary: The Reckless Push for Electric Vehicles at the U.S. Postal Service

RealClearWire

As Democrats regroup and forge ahead with plans to implement components of the Build Back Better legislation killed by Senator Joe Manchin, calls for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to be given billions to electrify its vehicle fleet are likely to soon reach a fever pitch.  

USPS is a high-profile, well-regarded institution through which progressives want to unveil new programs. Progressives pulled out all the stops to provide USPS with electric vehicle funding in 2021 and will likely double down in 2022. 

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‘A Mad Scramble’: One Rare Mineral May Spell Doom for Electric Vehicle Market

Minnesota Sun Staff

Lithium — a mineral that is key for electric car batteries — continues to rise in price, jeopardizing the ongoing transition to renewable energy outlined by Western governments.

The cost of lithium has skyrocketed more than 250% over the last 12 months, hitting its highest level ever, according to an industry index from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. While the cost of manufacturing a lithium-ion battery for an electric vehicle (EV) has fallen sharply over the last decade, the decline has slowed in recent months due to rising lithium costs.

The average cost of an EV battery pack fell to $157 per kilowatt hour, a measure of energy capacity, in 2021, the Department of Energy said in October. That means a typical EV battery is between $6,000 and $7,000, a BloombergNEF analysis showed.

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‘Truly Historic’: Biden Environmental Protection Agency Introduces New Regulations to Force Electric Vehicle Transition

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Biden administration rolled out a series of new emissions regulations for passenger vehicles and light trucks that it said would “unlock” $190 billion in benefits for American consumers.

The regulations will be enforced beginning with 2023 car models and will be revised with more stringent standards in 2027, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced. The EPA said the new emissions standards would ultimately quicken the transition from traditional engine vehicles to zero-emission cars.

“This day is truly historic,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said during an event on Monday.

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Electric Vehicle Push Is Sparking Massive Deforestation, Environmental Damage

Admin

A major nickel mine in a Philippines rainforest has continued to expand, mowing down acres of trees as global demand for minerals essential for electric vehicle manufacturing surges.

The Rio Tuba mine in the region of Palawan supplies an important mineral for electric vehicle batteries in Tesla and Toyota cars, but the mine is nearing an expansion that would cause it to grow from four square miles to 14 square miles, according to an NBC News investigation. The growth of the mine would cause massive deforestation of the land which environmentalists warn could destroy the area’s ecosystem.

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Biden Bashed for Action That Could Ban Minnesota Mining Project

The Center Square

President Joe Biden’s administration wants to lead an electric vehicle (EV) revolution, but apparently doesn’t want domestic production of rare earth minerals vital to EVs.

The Biden administration announced a two-year study on a proposed Twin Metals copper-nickel mine in northeast Minnesota that could delay it for 20 years and stop one of the few planned copper-nickel mines in the nation while the U.S attempts to pivot to EVs from gasoline-powered internal combustion vehicles.

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Minnesota’s Clean Energy Sector Recovering from Pandemic

The Center Square

The COVID-19 pandemic hit the Midwest clean energy job market hard, with more than 17,000 workers at one point filing for unemployment.

But the industry appears to be rebounding, according to an analysis of employment data released by the nonpartisan business group E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs) and Clean Energy Trust.

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Commentary: America’s Automotive Future

Minnesota Sun Staff

Joe Biden, emulating trendsetting blue state governors like California’s Gavin Newsom and New York’s Andrew Cuomo, recently has declared that by 2030, new car sales must be 50 percent zero-emission electric vehicles.

The problem with this decree is that it violates the proverbial rule against the government picking winners and losers. It’s one thing for the government to subsidize energy research, or, for that matter, any pure research. Libertarian purists might object to that, but sometimes these public-private research partnerships can accelerate innovation and help keep American manufacturers competitive. It’s quite another thing, however, for the government to restrict what sort of technology powers our vehicles, because there’s no way we can predict how technology will evolve between now and 2030.

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