What does it really take to get your home ready for your electric car?

Jay Weber Show transcript 2-23-22 8:10am

I did a segment earlier on how the Biden administration is willing to invest massive new tax dollars into mining for lithium, cobalt and other ‘rare earths’ out in California so that we can build car batteries and new green technologies out of them...

And yet, resorted to a rather dishonest spin as they announced it, yesterday.   

Not even one of the four or five stories I ran across about this yesterday-

 not even one - 

Used the word ‘mining’ to describe what must occur here, if we are going to start producing these rare earths ourselves, here in America.

It was another reminder of just how fraudulent and foolish this radical push for green energy is.

And I wonder if they checked with the eco-zealots, because what this means is- Biden is going to allow for more mining in America, when he has blocked all new oil and gas drilling in America’s lands and waters?

Everything about this move to ‘go green’ seems to be a fudge or a lie: wind turbines and solar panels are better for the environment-

No, they’re not. Their plastics need to be made from oil, and their components from mined metals. They require these ‘rare earths and rare elements that are mined and separated out using noxious processes. 

Then they blight the land that they are erected on and gobble up prairies and landscapes, only to kill half a million songbirds and tens of thousands of birds of prey every year.

How is this better than drilling? How is this superior to focusing on better and better ways to burn oil and gas cleanly?

It isn’t. It’s all a big lie.

But nearly everything about this conversion to ‘cheap, efficient, clean energy is a lie.

Clean energy isn’t nearly as cheap, efficient, or reliable as oil, coal, natural gas, or nuclear. And it’s not even close.

And the eco-zealots know it. So, they push nonsense and lies. 

One of the latest ones: hey, just buy an electric car. It’ll be easy to shift people over to electrics.

Wrong.

Aside from the questions related to reliability and distance that we’ve often talked about, there’s the little added fact that you’re probably going to have to re-wire your house if you want to charge this new car that you just bought.

The Wall St Journal had an informative article about what you need to do in preparation for owning an electric car-

And for the record- the Wall St Journal editors -are not- against so-called clean energy. They haven’t been on some jihad to trash electric vehicles.

They simply found this a question that merited an article. And it does.

So, if you don’t want to pay to install a charging station or at least a 240 outlet- you could plug in your car at night. Has it charging for 8 hours...and still only be able to go 30 to 50 miles on that overnight charge? After it was plugged in-all-night.

So, there is no way that just using a regular outlet is a way to charge your car. It’s foolish to think so.

That means...you need level 2 charging, which runs off a 240-volt outlet.

And even then-doing the math- you could have this car charging for two or three hours, and still only be able to drive 30 to 80 miles on the charge. It’s the mileage that most people might need in a day- sure- most people don’t drive 30 to 80 miles in a single day, so they could go to work, run their errands, and get back home- a two- or three-hour charge doesn’t mean you are going to be left stranded-

But does mean that...this car has been on the charger for 3 hours? And it’s still only partially charged?

Come on. That’s not workable, or reasonable, for a lot of people.  It means that-if you do forget- to plug in the car virtually every night- you will be screwed. It will-leave you stranded.

And i don’t want to have to remember to plug in my car every night, or every time I pull into my garage.

Do you?

 and this is- if-you upgrade to a larger outlet.

And no- the super-fast chargers aren’t for home use. We will get to that.

So add between one-and-four thousand dollars to the cost of your new electric car, so you can upgrade your house’s electrical system in order to charge it.

I don’t see a single leftist or democrat talking about those hidden costs.

No, no. An electric car is going to be so much cheaper for you.

No, it’s not.

Then there’s the question of how much it’s going to cost to charge.  On that question- at today’s electric rates- it probably is cheaper than gas-

However- this huge move to have all our electricity generated by wind and solar is going to be a super-expensive proposition-and electric rates are going to have to ‘necessarily skyrocket’ as Obama would put it.

And so- based on today’s electric rates? The daily cost of providing the energy to power your car might be cheaper- but it won’t remain so.

So- the only positive that I see, after all this extra expense and jerking around on the front end...and plugging in your car every night. And having to wait for hours and hours instead of just doing a five-minute fill-up...etc.

The only upside to all that hassle, and front-line expense and daily hassle....is spending less to power the vehicle using electricity than gas.

And the weekly savings-for now-could be significant.  It could mean paying ten dollars to power your car for the week instead of spending 40. Okay.

But you have all those initial expenses to recoup and the higher price of the car-

And frankly? It’s still not worth it to me.

Nor will it be to most people.

Look-we pay more than we’d need to-in order to eliminate hassle-all the time. On virtually everything. 

Why do you have a maid? Because you’ve decided it’s worth paying her 100 bucks a week to clean your house-so you don’t have to.

Why do you hire a window washer? Or a painter? Or a lawn cutter?

Because you’d rather pay hundreds-to thousands of dollars- than do it, yourself.

So, when it comes to eliminating all the hassles of an electric car? Yeah. I’m willing to pay three times more for the gas. And you know that savings won’t last: if these zealots are really going to force the country to ‘go green’ and rely on wind and solar only- or primarily-to provide our electricity?  

Then electric rates are going to skyrocket over the coming years and charging that car ten or twenty years from now isn’t going to be any cheaper than filling your take with gas would have been.

photo credit: Getty Images