Autoworkers and Electric Car, a Stumbling Block?

From automobilismo.com.it 

 From Lumitex.com

If you look at the above set of pictures and charts, you can see that the motors in electric cars get more bang for the buck than gasoline/diesel engines. The cost to operate the electric car is not just reflected in energy efficiency and the ability to substitute alternative energy for fossil fuels but in the simplicity of design. While the electric car diagram above looks more complex, reality is quite different. The key expense difference is one humongously expensive and very complex engineered component in fossil fuel vehicles: the transmission. The linear torque of an electric motor, which rises as more direct power is applied, is a sharp contrast change the way the same basic torque is applied as a car with a gasoline engine accelerates; the need to step power up and down via a transmission.

The weakness in electric cars is the batteries: the number of needed, that they do not have an infinite useful life (at least 10 years of average life expectancy is required), that they are expensive (a big repair factor if the vehicle is in an accident, where all batteries may have to be replaced), they currently use rare earths (like lithium) and other costly materials (like cobalt) which can be recycled (but not yet in a cost-effective way) and that they are heavy. This impacts both range and recharging time, where gasoline powered vehicles still reign supreme.

But an electric car uses a very simple motor without needing a transmission. And: no fuel injection/pump, no gasoline filters, no spark plugs, no fuel lines or fuel tank, no tune-ups. The basic electric motor has been around for two centuries… albeit not as the primary driver of cars and trucks. The modern electric motors are not markedly different from what was an improved version during the early industrial revolution. But while there was some early experimentation with electric cars, fossil fuel-power won out.

Thus, while gasoline-powered cars have been around for well over a century, mass use of electric cars is relatively new. The technology for such ubiquitous popular use of electric cars has had a much shorter time in development. Already, we can see how a new focus on improving electric vehicles is catching up. For example, rising and affordable technologies are likely to double battery efficiency in the immediate future.

Still, there are still insufficient publicly available charging stations which our recent infrastructure legislation is targeting as a national priority… unless it is reversed and eliminated as House Republicans attempt to require as one of the many conditions to raising the deficit debt ceiling. Further, the lack of range is the single biggest barrier to mass adoption of electric cars. While many states are following California’s plan to ban the sale of gasoline vehicles in the coming years, other states (oil and gas producers) are making the process more difficult. Fewer charging stations equals fewer electric cares equals less containment of greenhouse gasses.

Oh, and there is one more factor, which is particularly relevant in the swing state of Michigan: “The powerful United Auto Workers is holding off on endorsing President Joe Biden's reelection bid, citing concerns over his policies that would encourage a transition to electric vehicles, according to a memo from the union. The UAW has more than 400,000 members, and Biden has touted its support in the past. Last year he called American autoworkers ‘the most skilled autoworkers in the world.’ The group's membership is mostly concentrated in Michigan, a presidential battleground state. Biden has endorsed policies meant to significantly transition the nation's vehicles from gasoline to electric, including rules from the EPA that would ensure two-thirds of new cars sold in the US are electric by 2032. But autoworkers are expressing concern the transition could hurt them because electric vehicles are easier to assemble.” CNN News RSS Feed, May 4th.

But without a global shift from fossil fuels to electric alternatives – more efficient and capable of being provided without reliance on fossil fuels – if you think the climate change-caused fires, floods, coastal erosion, horrific heat waves, powerful storms and droughts have been bad of late, you ain’t seen nuffin’ yet. Autoworkers and their children face the same rising devastation. Misery threatens to increase every year unless we decide otherwise.

I’m Peter Dekom, and unless you believe that the world is about to end away, you better start championing a massive reprioritization to address and contain climate change.