While there are many disadvantages to electric vehicles, advocates for EVs will spin faster than tires to try and emphasize the positives.
Spending less on gasoline purchases is presumed to outweigh the limitations and demands of operating under battery power. There are also dubious environmental benefit claims and progressive virtue signaling aspects linked to EV usage.
The desire to hype EV’s potentials led one “climate action advocate” to blog about how great it was to charge their EV from a normal exterior electrical outlet, even though it took all night to receive minimal increases for the battery power.
The activist was scientist Kathleen Goforth. She is described as an EV ambassador for Acterra, a San Francisco environmentalist non-profit. Goforth wrote about a recent EV road trip in Acterra’s blog, which is literally called “The Spin.”
In the post, Goforth writes about taking her Tesla Model Y around rural California. “We had been gone nine days and traveled nearly 1000 fossil fuel-free miles.”
Goforth and her husband traveled to the Carrizo Plain National Monument, a remote area in San Luis Obispo County. The region did not have services like food, gas stations or EV charging stations.
Goforth used internet resources in advance to design a route with charging stations along the way to and from the destination.
The California Valley Lodge was the only motel near the Carrizo Plain, within 20 miles. The owner of the motel also owned a closed gas station that still had electrical power, where he let the couple charge their Tesla.
“It was only a standard 120V outlet, so we would be trickle charging, not supercharging, but that was sufficient to more than replace, overnight, whatever energy we used on our daily excursions around the Monument. I loved the poetic justice of recharging our EV at a defunct gas station!” Goforth wrote.
Goforth is very upbeat, but still, it sounds like a headache. According to the Department of Transportation, a Level 1 charger like they used could take 40 to 50 hours to charge an EV to 80 percent power.
Potential difficulties were glossed over. Goforth had the luxury of finding a cooperative property owner. They had limited daily driving needs, and plenty of time for recharging that even still just basically recouped their local trips. The average traveler trying to enjoy a vacation might not be so blessed with such easy time, distance and resource requirements, especially in the wide-open spaces of the west.
For all her glee at not using fossil fuels, Goforth ignored how much of our electricity is generated by using coal and natural gas.
Other major problems with EVs did not come up during the trip.
Fortunately, the Tesla did not hit a piece of road debris and catch fire, the way one did last year in Pennsylvania.
Once an EV starts burning, it is very difficult to extinguish the flames. The lithium batteries burn until their power is gone, and putting them out can take more than ten times the amount of water that a traditional vehicle fire would require.
It wasn’t cold, so Goforth did not have to choose between freezing or running the battery down quicker by using the heater in the car.
If the battery drains, EVs can become dysfunctional. A dead battery might mean the charging port can’t even be opened, or that the parking brake can’t be released so the car can be towed.
Challenges like these demonstrate why EVs are not ready to replace internal combustion engines at this time.
Despite the government’s concerted efforts, electric vehicles should not be pushed on the public. Not everyone lives in a huge city with tons of fast chargers or access to one at their homes.
No wonder Ford has lost $4.5 billion on their EV business. The EVs are not selling well.
People know EVs are not as useful and convenient as climate-action advocates claim they are.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
