BARBER: More bad news for EVs

Despite massive government subsidies and heavy multi-sector marketing, EVs are piling up in storage as consumers reject purchases. GM has delayed EV truck production.Ford is reducing the EV Mustang Mach-E production and significantly delaying investments.Volkswagen has reduced production of EVs and Hyundai is further developing their hydrogen cars. And, a word to the wise, it was reported in Climate Depot (January 5 2024) that in Skellefteá, Sweden the city’s EV busses wouldn’t start when the temperature reached -34C.In Germany, one of the most aggressive countries in conversion to EVs, a survey conducted in 2021 found the following issues were concerns for auto buyers thinking of EVs. Low range of vehicles. Insufficient charging stations.Questionable environmental benefits. These findings were supported by a separate study which added costs to the list. Germany was also further down the road in renewable energy production, but this was undergirded by the Nord Stream gas pipelines. When these were sabotaged, the renewables were insufficient. Although Germany was purchasing electricity from France's nuclear generators, they had to reopen their mothballed coal production facilities. The extremely high levels of pollution in the production of EVs and the lithium batteries they require, along with the pollution made at the end of the EVs life cycle when compounded with coal-fired electricity production changes the relation between benefits and costs. Even without the coal-driven power, people are rethinking this push by governments..Little information can be found on the negative impact to our form of government when politicians and bureaucrats decide to interfere in multiple markets simultaneously. We learned with COVID-19 the experts can make massive mistakes. Caution is needed if the people allow the luxury beliefs of those who will not bear the burden of the policies they enact, to go unchecked.There is plenty to learn from the problems faced by other countries in the mad dash to carbon neutral. This is not an unworthy goal, but far more thought needs to go into this process and a slower pace is indicated. The inconvenience — and the suffering, even of the average person seems of little concern.The parliamentary form of government, as practiced in Canada, has generally held there is a wisdom in the masses. That gives the House of Commons significant power within the governmental structure. We need to respect that wisdom again. Dr. A.W. Barber is the former Director of Asian Studies at the University of Calgary. For several years, he lived and travelled in Asian countries, including Hong Kong, Taiwan and the People's Republic of China and India.

BARBER: More bad news for EVs

Related Stories