Author of The Blackout Book and the online course Bloom Where You’re Planted
Electric cars may not be terribly useful in the midst of an energy crisis. While almost 6 million of these are on the road, drivers had better hope that the Tesla charging in their driveway isn’t the only vehicle they own. In another episode of “Wait, you can’t charge that right now,” Switzerland has drawn up proposals to restrict the use of electric cars for any nonessential travel this winter.
Let me be absolutely clear for the “independent fact-checkers” who love to put words in my mouth. I’m not saying that Switzerland is “banning electric cars.” They’re not. The proposal is specifically about reducing the need to charge them during times when the grid is overburdened.
But if the only car you have is electric, this could certainly pose a hardship.
The details of the proposal
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you know that power in Europe is at a premium and the world in general is facing a full-on energy crisis. Heck, some folks in the UK are getting hit with bills that exceed $10,000 per month. A lady I know who lives there told me that her smart meter read that they’re using the equivalent of $58.78 in power a day, and they’re only heating their living room and using lights. And it isn’t even full-on winter yet.
Anyway, this has propelled Switzerland to plan ahead for when things get even colder. The UK Telegraph reports that the plan has two tiers that they’re calling “emergency” and “crisis.” There are three levels of restrictions in the emergency tier and two in the crisis tier. You’re going to get Covid Lockdown vibes when you read this – even the Telegraph compared the two. (Conversion of temperatures is mine.)
The lowest level will see public buildings heated to no more than 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees F), with people asked to limit their washing machines to a maximum of 40 degrees Celsius. (104 degrees F)
Under the next level, temperatures will be lowered to 19 degrees Celsius (66 degrees F) and streaming services asked to lower the resolution of videos from HD quality to standard.
If the situation worsens, shops will be asked to close two hours early and electric vehicles limited to essential journeys.
Crisis measures could see hot water disabled in public bathrooms and the use of electric leaf blowers barred.
Next, escalators will be stopped and outdoor Christmas lighting turned off.
Cryptocurrency mining would then be banned if supplies keep dropping, along with swimming pools closed and lights in sports stadiums turned off.
If the most extreme shortages hit, sports matches, concerts and theatre performances will be cancelled, and all leisure businesses forced to close. (source)
Don’t be silly. Climate lockdowns are a right-wing conspiracy theory. Aren’t they?
This isn’t the first time this has happened.
Last Labor Day weekend, in California, electric car drivers were asked to limit the charging of their electric vehicles as the grid struggled to meet power demands during a blistering, triple-digit heat wave. Ironically, this request came a mere week after the state announced that they planned to ban the sale of non-electric vehicles by 2035.
Proponents of ending the reliance on fossil fuel say that this demonstrates the need for more electric cars instead of the flaws in moving to an electric transportation system. And they also say that folks are overreacting to the request:
A spokeswoman for the governor, Erin Mellon, said that the request to avoid charging electrical vehicles has been misrepresented by critics of California’s efforts to curb emissions.
“We’re not saying don’t charge them,” she said. “We’re just saying don’t charge them between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.”
Experts acknowledge that moving to more electric vehicles in the coming years will present a challenge, and part of that challenge is building a grid that is up to the task. But they said it was laughable to call a few hours of voluntary charging limits a sign of failure.
“Nobody charges during those times anyway,” said Elaine Borseth, the president of the Electric Vehicle Association, an advocacy group. “It costs more.” (source)
If nobody charges then, why did they feel the need to request that nobody charge then?
What are the costs involved with electric vehicles?
And in these days of excruciatingly high electricity prices, it could be incredibly expensive to keep your Tesla revved up and ready to go. However, if you calculate in the price you’d be paying for gas (also excruciatingly high), it might not be that bad.
A recent article broke down the costs of charging different models:
It would cost about $15.29 for a Model X to fully charge. Given the 2022 Model X has a range of 348 miles, the cost per mile would be slightly higher around $0.053, or $5.27 per 100 miles driven.
If you purchase the 2022 standard Model 3, you can expect to pay about $10.94 to fully charge the battery. That brings the cost per mile to about $0.04, or $4.02 per 100 miles.
Completely charging the 2022 Performance model would cost $14.39. That’s about $0.046 per mile.
Tesla’s newest EV model – the Model Y – has two versions, both of which come with a 75 kWh battery. The cost to fully charge the Long Range Model Y comes out to $13.16. That’s about $0.04 per mile or $3.98 per 100 miles.
Keep in mind that there are variables such as the type of charger, the car you’re charging, and local electricity prices.
You’ll also be out a pretty penny to buy the electric vehicle and to maintain it. The average electric car costs about $65k, whereas the average combustion engine car costs $32K. (source) May the odds be ever in your favor, Hunger Games-style, if you ever need to replace the battery on your EV. That can cost an eye-watering $4,000-20,000 depending on what you drive. Sure, you don’t need to replace a battery until about 200,000 miles on an EV, but what if you just bought one used to try and save the planet second-hand? Imagine getting handed a bill for twenty grand to keep driving that huge paperweight in your driveway.
If you can afford them and your drives are short enough, you can save cash on gasoline, and over a period of many years, you may end up saving money in the overall balance on an electric vehicle. But, most of us cannot drop the kind of cash required.
A hybrid vehicle, for those who want to venture into the land of green driving, might be a better option. It can be fueled with either gasoline or electricity, it costs around $38k to buy a new one, and the battery “only” costs $2,000-8,000.
Let’s be real: the average Joe and Josephine can barely afford groceries. They’re not going to be able to afford the upfront costs of an electric vehicle.
Are electric vehicles all bad?
I don’t think the idea of electric vehicles is a terrible one but it definitely should not be mandated. I wouldn’t want to drive a vehicle that might flat-out die if I was stuck in a traffic jam like the I-95 gridlock nor one that the use of which could be limited by the government. What’s more, I can’t afford an EV nor can I swing the expense of repairing one.
I think we’re starting to see the beginning of a series of events tagged with the heading of, “wHy do yOu hATe thE pLanET?” that could make life a whole lot smaller. I don’t think that climate lockdowns are nearly as far-fetched as proponents of environmental policies want us to believe.
Don’t get me wrong – I care about the environment. I care about the garbage patch in the middle of the ocean and about the wastefulness of our society. I believe there are a lot of things that can be done to be environmentally friendly that we can do, like limiting single-use plastic and drinking our own filtered water from our own containers, or bringing our own cloth bags to the store. These things don’t have a life-altering impact like the expense and potential restrictions on one’s mode of transportation.
And furthermore, I just don’t believe in making laws just to make laws. If the powers that be want to move people over to “greener” decisions, then they need to make those decisions more personally and financially beneficial. After all, if it’s that great, you wouldn’t have to force people to do it, right?
What do you think?
Do you think Switzerland’s potential limits on electric car use are something that will spread? Do you feel we’re witnessing the beginning of impending draconian climate-change lockdowns? What are your thoughts on electric vehicles?
Let’s discuss this in the comments.
About Daisy
Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, adventure-seeking, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites. 1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty; 2) The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived; and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. Her work is widely republished across alternative media and she has appeared in many interviews.
Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.
Wow! Maybe a few woketards will get three more brain cells! They actually believe that “electric” cars save on fossil fuels. In reality, most power comes from coal (the only dirty fossil fuel as carbon dioxide is the source of life, but coal is oil in a highly porous rock that contains mercury).
Worse, there is a loss of efficiency as energy is transformed from one form to another, so it takes more fuel to make electricity first than to burn it in the car directly.
I’ll never drive one. Can’t be around (much less sitting on) electricity that long. My husband worked at a company that dealt in the solar and battery field. They quickly got out of it within a few years because they came to the realization that it was a cluster of future losses due to hazards and disposal to name a few. This was a multi billion dollar company who realized it was not ‘sustainable ‘. It’s just not a feasible future for us. Get a clue people.
Daisy, as always, you are spot on.
This is a glimpse into what the WEF, go Green yahoos are pushing for.
Of course, they will not be all huddled up in their mega-mansions that are kept at a warm 72 degrees. Their EVs will be charged by a fossil fuel generator that is just hidden in the back.
This is also a glimpse into what our over taxed, antiquated, in dire need of not only regular maintenance but modernization grid looks like.
And all that wind and solar that is getting added, without modernization is not making things better.
ROFL!
A big duh here. What on earth do folks pushing these EV’s think is going to happen? Especially when they want to eliminate dependable energy producing options! They (EV’s) make no sense at all for the majority of folks but it should be a choice or an option. Whichever term you prefer.
Folks are gonna end up with some “between and rock and a hard place” choices to make very soon. I sincerely hope that those pushing the EV’s while slamming those (like me) who want nothing to do with them have to make some of those choices themselves.
The pigeons will come home to roost. And folks can thank the WEF and the various arrogant elite who see themselves as gods.
I never really understood the point of an electric car. They use the very same fuels that liberal greeniacs complain about using, just via power plants. They require components that are actually destructive to the environment via mining (and using child labor on top of that). If “climate change” was a real issue to them (the liberal greeniacs), they would be using bicycles and rickshaws.
Lithium ion batteries for EV’s are heavy which works against the principles of physics and therefore results in an inefficient vehicle.
EV batteries have a high carbon footprint equivalent to about 8 years of normal driving in an internal combustion engine vehicle.
At least 50% of the electricity is lost in charging and discharging an EV battery.
There are precious resources and human rights issues associated with the mining and manufacture of lithium ion batteries.
The life expectancy of the EV battery is about 5 years and in some cases the replacement cost of the battery is about half the price of a new EV.
There are major issues associated with the ‘safe’ waste disposal of end of life lithium ion batteries.
Lithium ion batteries are classed by the National Fire Protection Association of America as a high hazard risk.
It takes at least 5 times more water to extinguish an EV fire and even then the lithium ion battery can reignite.
The charging of EV’s puts a huge strain on the electricity grid system especially during peak hours.
Because of the range anxiety most people when they get home from work during the peak electricity demand hours will plug in their car adding to the peak demand so as to have their car available for evening chores/activities.
It takes 3kWh of primary fossil fuel to produce 1kWh of electricity coming out of the plug (especially so when the wind fails to blow and the sun fails to shine).
Most electricity is generally fossil fuel generated.
Renewable energy generated electricity is intermittent, unreliable and unstable and can lead to an unstable grid frequency.
Lithium ion batteries are susceptible when exposed to an unstable grid frequency.
Renewable energy technology has a relatively short life span and it is expensive to decommission and to safely dispose of end of life renewable technologies.
EV’s have generally been heavily subsidised including the cost of the electricity to charge the lithium ion batteries.
In some countries due to the energy crisis the EV subsidies are gradually being removed to the point where the cost of electricity is the same as the cost of fossil fuel.
There is plenty of evidence that oil isn’t a “fossil fuel” but is produced below bedrock by the earth itself. Depleted oil wells refill overtime in some areas. Another indicator is that if ancient life turned into oil, why are their bones above bedrock?
We talked about getting a Hybrid vehicle last year until we did the research and saw the cost. It’s all a neat Idea to have 2 kinds of power sources in one vehicle until you get in an accident and your Lithium Ion battery blows up or catches fire. So we decided to keep the truck for a few more years because it’s paid off and my Jeep will be a classic next year. I figure we can use the money we have saved to buy some horses and a good wagon if need be. If not I guess I will strap on my “bionic” leg and pull my loved ones to town on a rickshaw.
LOL, just remember, without fossil fuels EV cannot run or be made.
There is a Tesla running around with the tag: COAL PWRD
There is also a video on youtube of a lady pulling into a gas station in a Tesla and trying to figure out where to put the gas in.
The closest I’ll ever get to an electric car is my mini electric scooter for riding around the campgrounds. Fits behind the seat.
Now that’s cool, have you seen those bikes folks have now? I believe they are electric. I see old folks in my town using them to get around. They hardly need to peddle. I can run faster with my bionic leg.
We know by now that climate change is a scam created to control people and charge more taxes. The climate is manipulated by Chemical trails (geo engineering). governments are spraying metals into our skies to cause harm to people, their crops, grass, air quality, and cause severe weather patterns. This is old news at this stage. These “climate change” governments need to be imprisoned for treason and lies. Just like the fake covid amd dangerous injections they brought out….
You know why the greenies aren’t worried about the power grid? They expect enough people to die that the existing grid can support the remaining living. I wonder why that many people will die. Of course only 1 in 10 households will even be allowed cars of any type then.
You could cover the US with Solar Panels and Wind Towers from coast to coast, and it still wouldn’t generate the electrical load the country requires. That’s not even taking into consideration our aging grid.
Quite frankly, we’re nowhere close to being ready for this transition. One of the biggest problems is that the technology isn’t anywhere close to what is required, and we’re decades, not years, decades from being at that point. Lithium batteries are not efficient enough, and under a weight load, their efficiency drops way below where it needs to be, and they haven’t figured out how to address that issue.
Mining Lithium, makes Coal Mining look clean by comparison. Want to talk about Environmental Impact? Lithium Mining leaves a toxic mess they still don’t know how to clean up, or for how long it poisons the ground from which its mined. Some estimates are in centuries.
Europe shot itself in the foot, all because they listened to Pippi Ragestocking (Grouchy Greta).
Joe McSniffy wants to follow the same asinine path.
All it’s really doing is making a few people filthy rich at our expense.