Thoughts on Electric Vehicles…
(I have lots of other stuff to write, but lately I’ve got to get these ideas off my chest so I can focus on fiction. Like real fiction. Not the made-up world we’re currently living in.)
I’m going to put aside the save the planet stuff. Why? EVs aren’t even about that. Like it or not, EVs are the vehicle of the future.
It’s a car you plug in to an outlet to fill the tank. One that doesn’t need gasoline, motor oil, transmission fluid, spark plugs, hoses, alternators, exhaust systems, fuel pumps, radiators. The list is long. The benefits, enormous.
They are in many ways less complex. Fewer parts. Easier to manufacture (though not cheaper). And maintenance costs are minimal by comparison. You aren’t forever changing fluids. They use regenerative braking which saves on brake pads. There is no emissions system to maintain. No build up of petroleum by-products.
Biden ran on a platform saying EVs would transform US transportation and help green the planet. I don’t mention this to debate the “greenness” of EVs. I mention it because it is part of a pattern.
As soon as China, who was also funding their own EV initiative, started to eat our lunch, suddenly the planet wasn’t all that important.
Biden quickly slapped heavy tariffs on Chinese EVs, effectively slowing adoption of this “planet saving” tech. He then walked back promises to reduce emissions and told the US auto industry that building hybrids instead was okay.
He wasn’t the first democrat even to torpedo EVs.
Back in ’08, Obama decided GM was too big to fail. They, and many other car manufacturers, had decided to become banks. They essentially turned their backs on their core business, automobiles, in favor of financial speculation. It bit them in the ass.
Instead of free markets kicking them to the curb for the idiotic mistake, Obama gave them a boatload of cash.
Years prior, GM had launched its own pilot EV. They quickly mothballed the program and terminated the leases. Many speculate this is because they foresaw the damage it would do to their traditional business model and the parts industry. (Remember, fewer parts, factories with fewer workers, etc..) They claimed lack of demand.
Not long after GM had their EV-1s crushed, Tesla launched selling millions of EVs into that “lack of demand.”
Today, we’re seeing the same scenario play out on a global scale.
Biden decided to fire an economic shot across China’s bow, declaring the US would become a dominant force in the EV market. China took that action and, frankly crushed us.
They’ve developed a massive market for the product and are cranking out inexpensive EVs. They’ll likely be the first to unlock the next battery evolution which will cement these vehicles as the only choice for transportation.
Back in the USA? We’re once again retreating from future technology.
For years we’ve been farming out battery building and components to China because of cheap labor and materials. Our corporations didn’t have a problem with it while they could be the ones exploiting it. However, now THEY are prepared for the next automotive revolution because of it.
WE have stopped innovating. We stopped decades ago. And while Trump tries to freeze all progress somewhere 60 years in the past as his solution, Biden does little better, bowing to legacy industries that NEED to change but who have refused.
This is how the end of America looks. Not some Civil War. Not some nuclear exchange. It is a long, drawn out death of a thousand cuts where entrenched monopolies, both commercial and political, slowly drag us into a death spiral as they do their best to avoid any and all competition.
