Jay Weber Show transcript 1-17-24 7:10am
About three dozen listeners sent me this story about Tesla’s and other EV’s dying and becoming useless traffic-blockers in this cold snap.
Yes, we talked about it, but only briefly during one of the newscasts. if you weren’t listening in that moment, you missed it.
I saw it in the NY Post-but the story, itself, got much wider play later in the day.
and this is another instance in which- fans of electric cars are going to accuse me of beating up on them unfairly-but dude-
I didn’t sabotage the cars and I’m not making up the story. this is how Tesla’s ‘are performing’ in the subzero temperatures we are seeing in the upper Midwest right now.
I’d also note that-this isn’t even cold yet!!-when it comes to some of the subzero temperatures we routinely see in any given winter.
Look, kitten. people listening in other, warmer states: 7 to 10 below -is not. is not- as extreme as it gets here. just over the last several winters, we have had mornings that got down to 23 or 25 below. we had one winter in which we hit 40 or 50 below. I remember it well-because I had to worry every moment of every day-wondering if my car would start once the show was over.
I remember because it killed all sorts of ornamental trees and ‘Wisconsin hardy’ plants in my yard that the planting maps tell you are ‘good to 30 below’.
well- they couldn’t survive 45 below. I had to dig them all out the next summer.
we’ve seen three or four nights of ten below temperatures. this isn’t even extreme yet! -for the upper Midwest- and the EVs are dying.
don’t tell me these cars are ready for the average garage or the normal ‘extremes’ that we routinely have in America when it comes to the weather.
and don’t blame climate change: the upper Midwest has been seeing extreme lows like this since we were all kids-and well before that. and you know what? we’ve gone from having to plug in the engine blocks of gas-powered cars to keep them from freezing-and trying to start them with ether bombs and mechanic’s tricks....to pretty much having to do ‘nothing’ ...and still have them start.
this is how far research and development has come when it comes to the internal combustion engine and car technology-overall. ‘Gas powered’ has a 100-year head start on this battery powered crappola. EVs are going to have all sorts of shortcomings, growing pains, and glitches. and -the- major hurdle is going to be with the battery technology in extremes: we are using the heat of the internal combustion engine to the passengers alive-and warm- in a normal car. how much battery power is zapped from the lithium-ion battery to run an add-on ‘heater’ in the EVs?
it's that sort of stuff that’s got to be worked out-and may never-be worked out in our lifetimes.
don’t email me in disgust. talk to the tesla owners who were so PO’d in Chicago Monday they were damning Tesla and Elon musk to hell over their dead cars.
The stories featured all sorts of people cursing their cars and vowing to go back to gas-powered.
On top of everything else related to terrible battery ‘drop off’ and some not holding a charge at all, Tesla also said yesterday that the extreme cold may cause the latch on the charge port to freeze- so you can’t get it open to plug in.
Oh-and the exterior mirrors tend to freeze up and won’t fold or unfold.
Oh-and the door handles might not work properly.
I don’t know what to tell you EV fans. I was one of the people suggesting that you-don’t buy them.
I haven’t even gotten into the thick new ‘stack of stuff’ that i have on EVs. for example: it’s turning out that they are-not- cheaper to own in terms of maintenance and breakdown.
this is another fib that the people pushing them on us have been telling: oh, but there are fewer moving parts. there’s less to go wrong. there’s no oil change needed. you’ll be spending less on maintenance.
wrong. that hasn’t been-at all-the experience so far and may never be. right now-because they are new technology and there’s no ‘bold, clear’ supply lines formed for the parts in case of breakdown.
So, there’s one reason there are fewer parts: because many of the traditional parts have been welded together in larger clumps or components- so if one of them does break-you have to replace the entire portion of the engine or vehicle, instead of swapping out a small part.
get it?
In a normal car, if the fan motor goes, you take out some bolts and swap out the fan motor. in some EVs, apparently, a bunch of parts are welded together as a single unit- probably to simplify production- but- if that fan motor goes, okay geez, it’s actually welded to the front portion of the motor, so we got to drop the engine and replace that entire ‘front engine’. that’s going to cost you.
and I’m making up that example, but this is basically what the story is saying.
the batteries require special storage due to their elevated danger and flammability. the bodies, themselves, and their parts -and labor costs- cost more because. Quote....EVs tend to use more exotic materials than traditional steel.
These EVs-are not-turning out to be cheaper to maintain or fix. those who say they are lying to you.
there’s a new analysis that’s been done by the University of Michigan’s ‘center for sustainable systems’...so, those involved are virtually certain to be lefties- and- and they find that a small, compact car, sort of EVs might, might end up being cheaper to own than their gas-powered counterpart-but that’s it.
They’ve been doing all sorts of computations and looking at the new -real world-studies as they come in
Good God. That’s an awful lot of things that got to be in place-
That’s an awful lot of conditions that are put on the question of: is an EV going to save me money?
Their answer is: yes, but only if it’s a tiny compact car with a battery that can only go about 200 miles on a charge. and only if you live in a city with high gas prices where you are only taking short trips. and only in a moderate climate-no extreme temps either way. and only if you get a direct govt subsidy to buy it-no tax write off- govt cash-now-to buy this thing-and only if you have a home charging station where you can afford to charge at non-peak electric prices.
For heaven’s sake: if you aren’t a Chinese grandmother living in Beijing and only driving a few blocks to your knitting circle-an EV isn’t cheaper for you.
well-
scratch that: Chinese grandma wouldn’t get the Joe Biden govt discount.
So-if you aren’t a u-s grandma living in Boston and only taking your tiny EV to your knitting club a mile or two from home-this car isn’t saving you money.
and even then-
you know what the final qualifier was? ‘And high annual mileage’.
this car only makes sense if you really rack up the mileage to defer the costs of the gasoline that it would take to get you places.
and so-you must buy a small car with limited range-and then drive it around everywhere to rack up high mileage to break even?
come on.
The ‘EVs’ are cheaper claim. Is as much of a lie as ...EVs are better for the environment claim.
No, they aren’t. All of the terrible carbon that needs to be expended in order to build them offsets any ‘good’ to the environment...and they’re still full of plastics and materials made from oil...and they’re harder to recycle after a short-8-year battery life-which is apparently the average to be expected.
how are EVs better?
how do they make sense?
Sit and ponder that, won’t you, as you sit at the tesla charging station, trying to keep warm, as you try to get your 70-thousand dollar miracle to keep a charge.
photo credit: Fox Business News