Canadian and
American media, and the public, continue to be mesmerized by Elon Musk’s all
electric vehicle company, Tesla, and its products.
It is the Apple of the car world: with a
dramatic Steve Job’s like founder, has gained iconic status, and its loyal followers
do not flinch at paying luxury prices: the 2019 Canadian base models start at $100,000 for Model S, $115,000 for Model X, and $45,600 for Model 3.
This is before provincial and federal taxes and other fees.
NOTE:
Model S’s top of the line 100 kWh battery model has a listed range maximum of
539 km.[i] Base Model S60 is max. 335 km.[ii] The 600 lb heavier Model X with 100 kWh batteries
has a maximum range of 475 km.
And as far as
most North Americans are aware, the only competition is GM’s subcompact Bolt (383 km), Japan’s Nissan
subcompact Leaf (max range 242 km) , and the about to arrive Jaguar I-Pace
SUV (max range 386 km), the 2019 Canadian Utility Car of the Year (AJAC) winner.
The I-Pace will start at over $90,000 Canadian.
Lesser known
vehicles now available in Canada are Ford Focus EV (range max. 185 km), SmartForTwo
(max range 155km), BMW i3 (max range 200 km), Hyundai IONIQ (max range 200 km),
Kia Soul EV (max range 179 k), and Volkswagen e-Golf (max range 200 km)[iii].
So only 12
models in all!
But in Europe (and Asia) there are far, far
more choices as numerous manufacturers are producing all electric vehicles. Aside
from Tesla models, Jaguar I-Pace, Nissan
Leaf and GM Bolt, currently Europeans can also buy from luxury to moderate
prices: BMW i3, BMW 330e, BMW 225xe, Porsche Panamara PHEV, Volkswagen e-Golf, Volkswagen
Golf GTE, Volkswagen Passat GTE, Mercedes
Benz 350 e, Audi A3 e-tron, Volvo XC90 T8, Renault Kangoo ZE, Hyundai Ioniq EV,
Kia Soul EV, Kia Niro PHEV, Fiat 500e, Honda Clarity EV, SmartForTwo Electric
Drive, Ford Focus electric, Renault Zoe, Mitsubushi Outlander P-HEV, and Mini Countryman
PHEV.[iv]
Even lowball
priced Skoda is expected to have 5 models on the road by 2020.[v]
What does
this list show?
1. All European car makers have jumped
into electric vehicles as gasoline is far, far more expensive there than in
North America. And to stay alive, and as penance for their ‘dirty diesel secret’
and chicanery -- which has become front page and courtroom news, German car manufacturers are leading the way. The very economical
(but polluting) diesel car market is dead. To clean up its image and sell cars, German car makers are pro-electric.
2.
Asia car makers are also into all electric cars – except for Toyota, the world
leader. (See more below.)
Inconvenient Truth #1
We in North America have very limited all electric
and even hybrid choices because our own manufacturers: GM, Ford, Fiat Chrysler, and all European and
Asian manufacturers do not see a viable market here in North America.
On April 16, 2018, a U.S. gallon
of gas cost $7.82 in Norway, $6.97 in
France, $6.57 in Britain, $6.43 in Germany.[vi]
But in the
U.S.A. it was on average $2.87[vii]: or
2 1/4 time less than the cheapest rate in Europe!
Only if governments (and tax payers) agree to jump through hoops with various generous rebates,
elimination of sales taxes, license fees, free parking exemptions, etc. – and ban
all new gas powered car sales by 2025 – all
of which apply to Europe’s leader in e-cars, Norway[viii],
will there be any real market for all electric cars in North America. Based on price alone.
Inconvenient Truth
#2
Electric
cars have such massive ‘range anxiety’ issues that they are not practical for
countries such as Canada and U.S.A. were people often travel huge distances in
open country for vacations, family reunions, events, trips o an airport and even to go to work.
Batteries –
the heart of an electric car – cannot over-rule the laws of physics:
A. Recharging takes a loonnnggg time even with lithium
batteries.
A 240 volt ‘super charger’ requires a minimum
30 minutes for a partial boost; not the 5 minutes a gasoline full tank fill
up takes.
Otherwise,
the vehicle must be plugged in all day at work or overnight at home.
B. The ‘all day’ plug in option is very costly
and not always viable:
Image the infrastructure and cost if every workplace had to
have electric feed lines and sockets for
every employee, manager and boss’s vehicle.
What of large, wide open parking lots and shopping malls?
And mass overnight
recharging is also not viable as it would almost instantly FRY THE GRID if every car in the U.S. were electric. There are 272,000,000 on the
road as of 2018[ix].
In Canada, as
of 2017, there were just over 24,600,000
registered vehicles (including commercial)[x]--
which is just under one vehicle for every adult (male and female) over age 19
(total ADULTS = 28,500,000[xi]).
Inconvenient Truth #3
Winter hates
batteries! As anyone who has driven in Canada or northern
U.S. knows, even 12 volt car batteries that only need to work for seconds often
fail in winter and a boost or tow truck is needed.
Put simply,
cold weakens the chemical reactions in all batteries and so too with even
lithium batteried cars.
A recent test
drive by G&M’s driving expert, Mark Richardson, (February 22, D8) highlights
the problem.
The new 2019
GM Bolt comes with a lithium 60 kWh battery system using 288 cells[xii].
Day one of Richardson’s
test drive was in just -10* C (which is MILD for Canadian winters) yet the car lost
over 40% of its range. Due to the cold and running the heater, and with
only one person on board (= minimal weight), it only got 203 km instead of the
official range max. of 383 km.
When GM was
contacted, the representative said the normal winter battery power loss should only be
20-25%!
On another
day, Richardson tried a super fast 480 volts recharger which claims
will give 145 km of distance on a 30 minute charge.
But in the
real world, at -18*C, this super-super fast charger took TWO HOURS for a
recharge guaranteed for “50 km to 150 km”.
In comparison, a gas engined, comparable size
subcompact, such as Toyota’s Yaris, would
have taken only 5 minutes to get a range of 400 miles[xiii]
or 650 km!
Inconvenient Truth #4
Electric
cars are NOT the future.
The world’s largest
vehicle manufacturer, Toyota, has refused to enter the all- electric market. Its
ground breaking Prius is still popular but the company sees hydrogen
fuel cells as the real next big market – not electric cars (as explained
in an earlier blog).
Hydrogen
fuel cells take the same fill up time as gasoline and have equally huge
distance ranges. Hydrogen is the most abundant gas in the universe, and its
tailpipe exhaust is only water vapour.
Jeremy
Clarkson, the highly respected British auto expert and star of Top Gear and now The Grand Tour TV shows, recently stated in a G&M interview
(February 22, D2) that hydrogen is the future, and that electric cars will never
become dominant due to the limitations of electrical grids for overnight
recharging.
[i][i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Model_S
[ii]
Ibid.
[iii] https://www.auto123.com/en/news/top-10-electric-cars-canada-2018/64574/?page=1
[iv]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_electric_vehicles_in_Europe
[v] https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/skoda-confirms-five-electrified-models-next-two-years
[vi] https://www.statista.com/statistics/221368/gas-prices-around-the-world/
[viii]
https://insideevs.com/electric-cars-norway-new-car-sales-2018/
[ix] https://www.statista.com/statistics/859950/vehicles-in-operation-by-quarter-united-states/
[x] https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=2310006701
[xi] https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1710000501
[xii]https://www.google.ca/search?q=GM+Bolt+specifications&rlz=1C1CHBF_enCA690CA690&oq=GM+Bolt+specifications&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l2.6499j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
[xiii]
https://www.baierltoyota.com/blog/2018-toyota-yaris-engine-specs-and-gas-mileage/
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