Electric cars never really made any sense. They are cloaked in the sanctimony of the green movement, because they don’t use nasty fossil fuels like gasoline. Instead, they use electricity, which is sent out through power lines from big power plants, which generate this electricity—how? Oh yes, by burning fossil fuels like oil, coal, and natural gas. This is known as the “long tailpipe,” which goes from the car charging up in your garage all the way back to the smokestack of a coal-fired power plant. And don’t forget, electric cars also have giant batteries made from nasty toxic metals like lithium and cobalt, the manufacture of which frontloads carbon dioxide emissions.
So the electric car was always more an exercise in green paternalism—it is the future, as selected for us by our betters—than a serious attempt to solve any real or imagined problem.
A new controversy over the Tesla electric luxury sedan reveals that the electric car fails an even more basic technological standard.
The New York Times started the controversy when its reviewer, John Broder, set off to test the Tesla S by driving it from Washington, DC, to Boston, only to encounter persistent problems with the range of the car and its ability to make it from one Tesla charging station to another without running out of juice. He ends us having to drive with the heat off on a cold day to conserve power—some luxury car!—until his battery conks out and the Tesla has to be towed. In short, the review was a PR disaster for Tesla.
But that’s not the end of the story. The folks at Tesla, flunking Public Relations 101, decided that they would respond to this bad review by drawing a lot of attention to it. Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed the review was a fraud based on data taken from the car’s internal logs. Tesla had an unhappy experience with a segment on the British automobile program “Top Gear” that they claimed was misleading. (I am shocked, shocked to discover that Jeremy Clarkson could play fast and loose with the facts.) Ever since, Tesla switches on a monitor whenever they loan one of their cars out to the press. So they claim theTimes reviewer purposely drove the car in a way that ran down the battery and then deliberately lied about the results.
Read more at Real Clear Politics. By Robert Tracinski.
Photo credit: shannonkringen (Creative Commons)
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OK, I admit, the car WAS driven in a manner that uses more than the bare minimum amount of power.
I could save on gas by never using my radio, turning off the blower in the heating system, avoiding traffic lights, and driving exactly the 'optimum' speed for maximum fuel efficiency. Of course it took 15 minutes this Friday for the cars defroster to heat the windshield enough to keep it from icing back up AFTER I scraped it clear. That alone would probably cut the range by a trip to work and back, assuming the temperature didn't degrade the battery output enough that I couldn't drive that far.
Short version: The CAR is supposed to handle MY driving, not the other way around.
Simple politics/economics = most Democrat portfolios contain heavy investment in "green" energy production like lignite burning electricity production, while Republican portfolios are loaded to the oil and gas investments. Wait! Bush family has huge investments in Alcoa and TXU, dirty lignite fired generators, as well as Haliburton (oil and gas)… so why is it GREEN energy when the "other" side is making millions off of lignite-produced electricity? Damn, I think we been fooled again!
The Global warming hype is like the greatest magic trick ever foisted on the citizens of this once-great nation. Nothing up my sleeve…
I won't buy the hype until Al Gore and our entire administration drive what they preach and finance with
deceitful and punitive taxes on hard working population.
This article states the obvious, doesn't it? I have been saying this over and over that the lack of logic and common sense the left uses just doesn't seem to faze them. Yes, you need electricity to "charge" your car and where does electricity come from? Usually it is generated using fossil fuels. A "regular" car uses fossil fuels in its engine. So, no matter what, autos, trucks, buses, etc. will use fossil fuels! Not only that, these little electric cars don't look safe to me – especially for freeway driving which I presume the left wants commuters to use. Just stupid, isn't it?
I've been saying this for a long time – who in their right mind doesn't understandhow we get electricity?
Use of electricity in place of fuels will somehow help to save the environment. It is because using electricity to run vehicles reduce the smoke and it helps to reduce the air pollution. Air pollution is one of the major cause of environmental pollution. So the charged vehicles really very very important to save our ecosystem.
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Really I am very excited to have electric car in the market. Electric car it wil be helpful more and more to the people suffering from diseases due to bad fuel smell. Electric cars never really made any sense. They are cloaked in the sanctimony of the green movement, because they don’t use nasty fossil fuels like gasoline. Instead, they use electricity, which is sent out through power lines from big power plants, which generate this electricity. This type of car helps the people to make a healthy environment of pollution free. Electric car has many models that are really looking smarty car types and also people likes to ride this car because it is prestigious also. If people will not adopt this new technology then the existence of electric car may be in a question mark.