Electric Vehicles Aren’t the Answer

I’ve been doing a lot of research on electric cars, now being pushed by the government to mitigate carbon discharge. As I see it, it’s a technology not ready for prime time.

Initially, you pay several thousand dollars extra to own one, pay higher car insurance, and face a limited mileage range.

Charge stations? If you can find one, a long wait, not only to recharge, but maybe just to access.

As for the environment, I think EV’s make things worse: Let me count the ways:

Ok, EV’s don’t emit carbon when they’re moving. But not so in their manufacture. It takes a lot of fossil fuel to make them and even when you’re charging them, there’s the fossil fuel powering that electric grid.

I’ll be more specific: Before you even drive off the lot, your EV has emitted 10-20 tons of carbon in its manufacture.

How ironic! A technology hyped as a breakthrough in reducing climate change acceleration actually contributes to its continuance.

Your EV battery was likely mined in a third world country, exploiting laborers paid a minuscule wage, using heavy machinery powered by fossil fuels. Then comes the shipping of materials—trucks, ships, planes. Still more trucks on arrival to get to the manufacturing plant!

Battery plants are sprouting up in GA, KS, KY, NC, OH and TN. But these plants consume acreage, much of it forest and farmland, impacting biodiversity loss or causing degradation. Inevitably, more housing development for an influx of new workers, more roads, more traffic, more strip malls and, yes, more CO2 emission.

Mind you, this isn’t happening just in the USA. American entrepreneur Elon Musk’s new gigafactory in Germany is now open for business, designed to produce Teslas and batteries in mind-boggling numbers. Presently employing 3,000 workers, that number will swell to 12,000 workers at full production. Built in the heart of a dense forest, it comes at an enormous cost to the environment, particularly for wildlife with 365 acres/160 hectares already cleared and a water conservation area confronted by potential industrial waste contamination.

This epitomizes the slip-shod attention state and local governments often give to environment impact studies, fast-tracking as in the German scenario what salivates public approval and political longevity.

But there’s a sweet spot in all of this with the incipient promise of transportation powered by hydrogen. It’s decades away for full implementation, but it’s already begun with Toyota’s 2023 Mirai that generates power by combining hydrogen with oxygen from the outside air.

You never have to charge the car. That means you don’t have to fret about accessing a charging station in that long distance trip and time lost in lengthy recharging.

It takes five minutes to fill your tank at a local gas station offering hydrogen.

They also have better driving ranges, generally around 300-400 miles to a tank of hydrogen.

Hydrogen cars are lighter and faster.

If I were an investor, I’d place my bet on hydrogen powered transportation as a viable solution to the carbon discharging menace that EV technology cannot resolve.

For sure, it’s currently prohibitively expensive, with 98% of hydrogen produced through steam methane reforming technology with its obvious carbon dioxide consequence.

But scientists are working on cutting costs and achieving versatility, not just cars, but trains and planes. As I write, news comes of the first hydrogen train in North America—Canada’s French Alstom train running from Montmorency Falls in Quebec City to Baie-Saint-Paul. Experimental, it features two railcars, carrying up to 120 passengers and uses 50 kilograms of hydrogen daily, replacing 500 liters of diesel fuel that would have otherwise been used for the two-hour route.

Imagine a train that emits only water vapor!

And hats off to Toyota again for resisting the EV wave. Its hydrogen fueled Mirai XL gets 71 mpg and sells at a starting $49,500 (within the average price ballpark for a new car). Fully fueled with hydrogen, it has a 402 mile driving range.

But like EV vehicles, it’s not ready for prime time either, a fill-up costing you $80.00 for your 5.5 kg tank.

Unfortunately, US government involvement hasn’t been there, unlike Canada and Europe.

As for ourselves, our RAV lease is up in another year and we intend to purchase it, since it’s been so reliable and has low miles. If we were opting for a new car purchase, we’d choose a hybrid plug-in as the most sensible option until the non-polluting hydrogen car becomes more cost efficient.

Long term, I’m optimistic.

–rj