Will More Charging Stations Create Bigger Demand For Electric Cars?

Well,  Barack Obama would probably say yes.  That's why his administration just announced $4.5 billion in loan guarantees for states and private companies to build charging stations along 25,000 miles of 48 electric vehicle corridors in 35 states.  The goal is that no owner of an electric vehicle (EV) should have to go more than 50 miles to find a charging station.  And, there will be lots of signs to guide them on their way.

President Obama claims that the lack of adequate charging stations caused him to miss his goal by more than 50% to have 1 million EV's on our roads by 2015.  Really?  Thus, like the thinking of many climate change alarmists, the only reason people aren't buying electric cars is that there isn't enough charging stations.

Here's the reality.  A ten minute pit stop for a conventional gasoline powered vehicle can buy you up to 400 miles of travel before having to stop again.  Even with the quickest electric charging capability available, a 20 minute pit stop at a fast charge station will only give you another 50, maybe 60 miles before you need to spend another 20 minutes at the next station.  How, convenient is that?

Also, think about this.  When someone spends 20 minutes charging their car, it is unavailable to anyone else.  How would you like to waste 20 minutes waiting for someone getting their charge, and then wait the same amount of time to complete your own.   Then, less than an hour later, you may have to go through the whole procedure again. Of course, this assumes the car in front of you has quick charging capability.  Otherwise, you may be waiting hours for a station to open up.

In my opinion, the President missed his goal of 1 million cars on the road -- not because of the lack of charging facilities -- but because electric vehicles are simply too impractical.

References:

White House, 35 states to boost electric vehicle charging stations: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/03/white-house-35-states-to-boost-electric-vehicle-charging-stations.html

25,000 Miles Of U.S. Highways Designated As Electric Vehicle Charging Corridors: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/11/03/25000-miles-of-u-s-highways-designated-as-electric-vehicle-charging-corridors/

Quick Charging of Electric Cars: http://www.plugincars.com/electric-car-quick-charging-guide.html

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Have U.S. Sales Of Electric Cars Peaked?

In the years 2010 and 2011, Americans only bought a total of 17,425 electric vehicles (EV's).  The following year, 3 times that amount were sold; putting another 52,607 on the road.  In 2013, that number was almost doubled to 97,507.  But in 2014, Americans only bought 25,542 more EV's than they did the year before; bringing the total sales for that year to 123,049.  Even so, that number represented 38% of all worldwide sales of EV's.  

However, 2015 is a completely different story.  In the first 10 months of this year, only 92,347 cars were sold.  Compared to the same period in 2014, this represents a decline of 8,018 vehicles  sold; year-to-date.   Also, America's 38% of all sales in 2014 fell to just 25% of the worldwide sales in 2015.  So, obviously, the slowdown is isolated to this country.

While a one-year decline doesn't make a trend, it could be the beginning of one.  That reality is reinforced by the fact that the growth in American EV sales has been slowing each year.  Certainly, as an all-around vehicle, electric cars are pretty impractical with limited range. Couple that with the knowledge that you have to find a place to charge them whenever you run their batteries down. Another reason may be that the price of gas has fallen from $3.76 a gallon in May of 2014 to the lowest price since 2006 at $2.39 in October of this year.

It will be interesting to see if the decline of sales continues.  Also, when it comes to saving the planet, putting less than 400,000 cars on the road since 2010 is hardly a "green" winner in a country that has more than 254 million passenger cars.  Additionally, the tax payers are on the hook for nearly $3 billion federal dollars since 2010 from handing out $7,500 subsidies to just 383,000 buyers of EV's; mostly a bunch of wealthy environmentalists.  $3 billion dollars is a hollow effort to save the planet.  Further, when people decide to trade-in their old EV's, they find that they take a big financial hit  since there is little demand for used ones.  There's no rebate and the fact that someone might have to replace a very expensive lithium ion battery is quite a turnoff.

References:

Monthly Plug-In Sales Scorecard: http://insideevs.com/monthly-plug-in-sales-scorecard/

Electric Vehicle Incentives: http://www.teslamotors.com/support/incentives

U.S. Retail Gasoline Prices: http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=emm_epm0_pte_nus_dpg&f=m

Passenger vehicles in the United States: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_vehicles_in_the_United_States

Resale Prices Tumble on Electric Cars: http://www.wsj.com/articles/resale-prices-tumble-on-electric-cars-1424977378


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The Electric Car And Its Renewable Source Of Energy Joke

From the environmental left, all we ever hear is that we need to dump our dependence on finite energy resources like oil, coal, and natural gas.  To them, renewable electrical energy from wind and solar is the key to our future. Further, they envision a world of electric cars that would take advantage of all that wind and solar produced electricity.

But, there's a big flaw in their thinking, and, that flaw is the survivability of the lithium ion battery that is used to power the electric car.  You see, lithium is not renewable. It is finite; and, millions of more times more finite than the fuels that it was intended to replace.

Today, lithium is used to make batteries for everything portable.  Because of this, the current demand is growing at 25% per year while production is only increasing by about 4-to-5% per year.  This imbalance will eventually mean a shortage in lithium.  Some experts say this could happen as early as 2015.  The same experts say there's only enough high quality lithium product to produce 1.5 million electric cars like the Chevy Volt.  Because demand has been so high and production much slower, the price of lithium has tripled since 2000.  If by 2015, demand does outstrip production, expect prices to soar; and, when that happens, a replacement battery for your 2010 or later Volt could  zoom to $15,000 or more.  Of course, this high cost will just cause a used Volt's resale value to literally collapse. Then, too, a new Chevy Volt might cost $50,000 or more in just three years.

The only thing saving lithium from shortages is the fact that electric cars aren't selling as fast as expected.  Therefore, the doomsday of 2015 might have been pushed out to years later.

You see, the electric car isn't quite as renewably powered  as the environmental left would lead you to believe.

References:

IPad Boom Strains Lithium Supplies After Prices Triple: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-19/ipad-boom-strains-lithium-supplies-after-prices-triple.html

Electric Cars and Lithium Reserves: Only Enough For 1.5 Million Volts: http://gm-volt.com/2008/11/01/electric-cars-and-lithium-reserves-only-enough-for-15-million-chevy-volts/