I'll just put this here. A new Rivian owner thinking about going to a Tacoma.

Might as well mention the child labor used to mine the cobalt for the lithium batteries.

I read or heard something about that recently. Of course the roads aren't maintained properly near me anyway, but still.

 

The cars and bikes kill people then do good ? Like a penance or something ?

 

they would need to tax them every year at registration. (EV tax) Taxing through the power bill would be reckless since not everyone would have an EV.

 

Taxing through registration needs to be based on mileage (aka road usage) such that those that are using the roads pay more road tax since that is the closest equivalent to how it is being addressed on ICE vehicles.

 

I could see how they would eventually track vehicles as they drive and charge a fee to an account held by the driver/vehicle owner in the form of a monthly bill.
Might not seem likely now, but change is consistent.

 

EV folks live in a weird delusion lol

 

There are states that are going to implement an additional EV registration fee. One of those states is home to a Tesla factory.

 

MBZ EQS still burning after being recovered from an auto carrier ship that caught fire a month earlier.

 

Also…

https://www.electrive.com/2023/08/14/it-wasnt-an-ev-that-caused-the-fremantle-highway-to-catch-fire/

https://insideevs.com/news/683115/evs-on-fremantle-highway-cargo-ship-good-condition-report/

 

The investigation hasn't been completed. The salvage company quoted in the inside EV isn't the same salvage company off loading the ship, it could be but I thought it was a different company performing the job.

I'd wait until the investigation is complete before making any determination. The MBZ in the video clearly had a super heated LI battery. You can see that as the battery pack is submerged in the container of water.

You can also see that the top of the passenger compartment is what has fire damage on the exterior of the vehicle. Suggesting that car burned from the outside and disrupted the battery pack.

There's also the possibility that car's battery caught fire because of the heat above and the battery pack over heated and ignighted the interior of the car, and was extinguished with the bulk of the fire. Only to reignite when it was being recovered.

The fact remains that is an auto carrying ship that was on fire that had both ICE and BE vehicles on board.

There is a good possibility that no lithium ion battery vehicles are what caused the fire. That does not make LI BEV any less hazardous as cargo.

Edit

The salvage company is Boskalis.

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/...-was-another-journalism-confusion-220250.html

I can't recall having ever reading about a Rivian vehicle catching fire.

 

That might work to replace the lost revenue from “local” cars, but it doesn’t replace the revenue lost from out of state vehicles. Plus, as a “flat tax”, some could argue it is regressive (but given EV’s are currently pretty much in the “luxury” class, I doubt we’ll hear any complaints).

My guess is we’ll see an increase in toll roads. States will simply put unmanned portals at every border and highway on and off ramp.

I doubt many states will eliminate the gas tax, so ICE drivers will be double taxed to further encourage compliance with the EV vehicle agenda. (This is just me being cynical, and if I were to go further down the rabbit hole, I’d bring up that China owns 80% of the world’s cobalt mines - a mineral needed for li batteries- so I’d be asking who is pushing this EV agenda?)

 

It's always funny to me that people harp on and on about how EV's actually aren't as environmentally friendly as some people will claim them to be. Who gives a shit if it's the exact same environmental impact as an ICE if your getting 700HP+ and 67 MPGe like the F150 Lightning, Rivian, Silverado EV etc. The difference in performance and efficiency is astronomical compared to ICE counterparts.

Imagine spending ~$55k on a 270 HP / 25 MPG ICE vehicle instead of a 700 HP / 65 MPG EV. No wonder supply still can't meet demand on EV's and ford has doubled production three times on the lightning now.

"When Ford first unveiled the F150 Lightning, it planned to build 40,000 of them each year. After seeing massive demand, Ford then announced it will increase production starting in 2022 and expects to reach 150,000-plus units per year by 2023; within 24 months, Ford will have the global capacity to produce 600,000 battery electric vehicles annually"

 

Who is pushing this EV agenda? International money. There's already plenty of toll roads and more of them being built, of course that will push more traffic on to local roads and cause more enviro activism.

 

Yeah but everthing is controlled by a screen, and that EV Silverado is hideous. Then there's the added expense for nothing in return. I st ill can't get over the image driving a Cyber Truck would project on other motorists.

 

I just passed a Rivian on a flatbed wrecker on the hwy. It made me wonder if it was broke down or just out of charge. We were in the middle of no where, and I told my gf…and this is why we don’t have EV.

 

lol yeah the Cybertruck looks wild. Aren't a lot of vehicles these days controlling everything with screens instead of buttons to save money on production costs? I prefer real buttons. The added expense is justifiable IMO for the massive increase in power and efficiency. I don't know a single ICE CAR that makes 700+HP while getting over 50 MPG, meanwhile there are multiple EV TRUCKS that do. That's not even mentioning EV cars like the Model S that get 100+ MPGE with 600-1000 HP.

I don't see how 70+ MPGe and 600HP+ is "nothing in return". That's supercar performance with Prius fuel economy.

 

I really doubt the environmental impact of an EV is the same as an ICE vehicle when you consider the supply chain. https://e360.yale.edu/features/siddharth-kara-cobalt-mining-labor-congo

So, if the US blocks domestic mining for EV minerals (https://www.reuters.com/legal/litig...-blow-antofagastas-copper-project-2023-01-26/ ) and China owns 80% of the mines feeding the EV supply chain, the reality is as EV’s rise in popularity, China is maximizing revenue.

The question I have is, is there some entity behind the scenes who is concurrently pushing both the EV agenda and the no domestic mining agenda? Maybe something like this: https://time.com/6310040/chinese-influence-operation-meta/#

If we had domestic mineral mining (with fair wages and modern safety measures in place) combined with an upgrade to our energy grid (with the construction of modern nuclear power plants) I’d be fully on board the EV train.

As it currents sits, I believe the lesser of two evils it to continue making the Saudi’s rich versus making China rich(er).

 

Assuming environmental impact of an EV is equal to ICE and assuming price points equal, you would choose the ~270HP/25MPG ICE over the ~650HP/70MPGe vehicle because "muh China"?

 

In addition to HP and MPG, performance can also be measured in range and time to refuel.

I sometimes wondered if the whole EV versus ICE initiative is nothing more than a power grab by the tech industry from big oil. It serves no real purpose other than a transfer of wealth from old to new money, with all us plebes willing to pay the bill.

 

If there was an EV, I'm not touching anything with LI batteries. That has real exterior door hsndles, crank windows physical controls and enough power to propel it's mass that's all I need. The model S does look cool, but I rather drive a 2dr pick up truck.