Goobermint, just doing what goobermints do.
The headline probably has you thinking about the high cost of the EV – so high that whatever you “save” by not buying gas ends up costing you a great deal. But that is only one of the ways EVs don’t save you money.
Another one is tires.
EV tires wear out faster because EVs are much heavier than other cars – because EVs are weighed down by 1,000-plus pounds of batteries. For example, a Tesla Model 3 – which is a compact-sized car about the same size as a Honda Civic – weighs close to 3,900 pounds (two tons) empty. The Civic weighs just shy of 2,900 pounds – a difference of…1,000 pounds.
That weight weighs down on the tires, which must absorb the load – which increases when the car goes around a curve or runs over a pothole. There is also the increased friction that comes from stopping that load, once set in motion. EV touters like to tout the fact – which is one – that EV brakes last longer because the EV uses regenerative braking to partially slow the car, rather than brake pads. Basically, the electric motors that propel the car are used to slow it – and convert inertia back to electricity, to help top off the batteries.
But the tires are still scrubbing against the asphalt.
But – wait! – if I buy an electric car, I will save money on oil and filter changes! Certainly. In the manner of “saving” on utility bills via the purchase of a $500,000 house with triple-pane Andersen casement windows in place of a $250,000 house with double-pane standard-type windows.
Then there is the biggest maintenance cost of all – the battery pack. Which will cost you more, because it’s so huge – in order to move the EV at highway speeds for any significant distance. This, in turn, results in it being so heavy – which increases the amount of power needed to move it plus the car it’s installed in, reducing efficiency.
You do get the power – and the acceleration – but it costs you. Especially if you use either as doing so discharges the battery, rapidly – which means needing to recharge it more regularly. The “faster” you do that, the greater the load/stress imposed upon the battery, costing you battery life. And when the time comes to replace the battery, that’ll cost you more than it costs to replace a non-electric car’s transmission or engine – and maybe both, together.
Plus the oil and filter changes.
Buy an EV if it floats your boat. But don’t kid yourself that doing so is “saving” anything – including the Earth.
If it floats your boat, you say? Better watch that loose talk there, buddy; that’s exactly the kind of subtle advocacy for individual self-determination that will surely get you Gulagged in the land of the “free” and the home of the “brave” nowadays.
Lot of hidden EV facts
Battery disposal cost
Battery cost
The power grid will not sustain the number of cars the greenies want
Where the heck is all that lithium going to come from
Remember that the number of cars the greenies want is just enough for the high party officials. Peasants will not be permitted to own vehicles. Peasants will not be permitted to use electricity, either. Only the (self-) Important People will get to do that.
Mostly good information. Shouldn’t confuse such things as sport tires with an EV though since any number of cars are equipped that way.
Battery, battery, battery. That is the whole key to the EV biz. The current generation are marvelous, but not good enough. As I have said before and will say again, cut the battery pack in half and get the range to 600 actual miles and you have something worthwhile. But not necessarily cost efficient Vs the ICE car.
And not an earth “saver”, short term* or long**. Just a part of the lefts green death program.
*Electricity comes from somewhere and it damn sure ain’t solar or wind. Batteries are nasty things to produce and dispose of. And plastic? That would be petroleum. Steel? Comes from the same dirty work as the steel in an ICE car.
**Nothing will save earth as it is slated for destruction in a fire of total annihilation and will likely take devastating hits prior to that.