Late last year, when Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault announced the Liberals’ plan to eliminate the sale of cars with internal combustion engines by 2035, a number of people, myself included, rolled their eyes at the government’s interference in the free market. Little did we know how fast the free market would slap the electric vehicle mandate back to reality, while Canadian taxpayers continue to subsidize green fantasies.
Hertz, one of the four largest car rental companies in the world, is replacing its CEO after the company reversed its bet on electric vehicle (EV) rentals over increasing costs.
Stephen Scherr will step down as Hertz Global Holdings Inc.’s chief executive officer and member of the company’s Board of Directors effective March 31, the company announced Friday. Scherr led Hertz for just over two years after spending nearly three decades at Goldman Sachs.
Scherr’s resignation comes as the car rental company struggles with the higher repair costs and low demand for EV rentals.
h/t Mauser
There’s a famous story in American marketing circles about the pet food company that spent a fortune on a new dog food, but were horrified to find sales tanking. They’d done everything right! What could possibly have gone wrong? As the story goes, a high-priced consultant was brought in. His verdict? “The dogs don’t like it.”
Drivers in Ontario looking to switch gears to an electric vehicle may consider hitting the brakes on the idea following the release of a new report on the cost of ownership.
The University of British Columbia study(opens in a new tab) found that it’s actually cheaper to own an EV than an internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) in some parts of the country, and Ontario is far from the top of the list.
EV’s are costly anywhere, the study is a weak attempt at propaganda.
I’ve been writing about electric vehicles since 2011. EV cheerleading never stops. They’re inevitable! We’ll have 500,000 chargers coast to coast any minute now (the federal government has built approximately two)! By 2030, 50% — or more — of all vehicles on the road will be EVs! EVs will save the planet! Ve haf vays to make you buy EVs! And eat bugs! Don’t forget about the bugs!
When a Leaf turns into a ‘brick’: Juno winner describes EV catastrophe
The owner of a Nissan Leaf electric car says his experience has been a cautionary tale for others who might make the leap to electric vehicles.
And though Brian Sanderson has paid 417 Nissan, the dealership that’s been servicing the car, almost $10,000, he said the bills aren’t even the most heartbreaking part of his experience.
“It’s cruel because I don’t want to be part of the ‘let’s slam electric vehicles’ crowd,” said Sanderson, a professional musician who, along with his instrumental chamber rock ensemble Esmerine, has won four Juno Awards.
I have no idea why the CBC thinks being a Juno winner has a bearing on this story.
The Trudeau government’s mandate that all new passenger vehicle sales must be electric or plug-in hybrid by 2035 could cause chaos because Canada’s electricity grid isn’t close to having the capacity needed to charge them, according to a new study by the Fraser Institute.
DETROIT — The buzz around electric vehicles is wearing off.
For years, the automotive industry has been in a state of EV euphoria. Automakers trotted out optimistic sales forecasts for electric models and announced ambitious targets for EV growth. Wall Street boosted valuations for legacy automakers and startup entrants alike, based in part on their visions for an EV future.
Now the hype is dwindling, and companies are again cheering consumer choice. Automakers from Ford Motor and General Motors to Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin are scaling back or delaying their electric vehicle plans.
h/t DS
It is all beginning to look a bit like the Volkswagen scandal: you remember, when regulators caught out the German car company for installing software which detected when diesel engines were in test mode and adjusted performance so that it flattered emissions figures.
A test by What Car magazine has revealed that the official figures for the range of electric cars over-estimates their real-life range by around a third. Vehicles were driven around a test track in Bedfordshire until they ran out of juice.
Tests to find out the range of electric cars are flawed and give a misleading indication of battery life, motorists have been warned.
Steve Huntingford, the editor of What Car? magazine, said official laboratory tests have “inadequacies” and need overhauling so that drivers have “realistic information and won’t be left disappointed” after buying an electric vehicle (EV).
In real-world winter conditions, EV ranges have been found to fall by more than a third compared with official test results.
Economist Jack Mintz says it will be hard for Canada to become a leader in critical minerals and to make EV battery production profitable, despite Ottawa’s hopes.
“Our economic plan is turning Canada into a critical minerals superpower. From EV battery plants to net-zero mining, we are responsibly unlocking Canada’s natural resources to create more good jobs and prosperity today and for the next generation,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a March 5 post on X.
The Tesla Gigafactory in Grünheide near Berlin was evacuated on Tuesday after a major power outage.
The left-wing extremist “Volcano Group” said it had carried out the assault on the power grid supplying the carmaker.
“We sabotaged Tesla today,” a letter from the Volcano Group said, specifying an “attack on the electricity supply.”
The Biden administration is reviewing California’s plan to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035. To get federal approval, California claims it “needs” this ban to prevent harm to public health from particulate matter—airborne particles like dust, dirt and soot. But banning gasoline cars would do little to reduce particulate emissions, and it could even increase them.
That’s because new gasoline cars are very clean. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, cars emit only about 1% of all direct fine particulate matter in California, and most of those emissions come from older models. The newer gasoline cars that California wants to ban will often have particulate filters that reduce emissions to below one 1/1,000th of a gram per mile driven.
Bassam Mahfoud bought a Tesla last December, following other Canadians who are flocking toward zero-emission vehicles.
And while electric vehicle sales in Canada are breaking records every year, Mahfoud said he isn’t surprised by the Alberta government’s recent decision to implement an annual electric vehicle tax.
Electric vehicle owners in the province will need to fork out an extra $200 to pay the new fee, starting as early as January 2025.
No CBC. No one is “flocking toward zero-emission vehicles”.
On the A2 highway outside of Berlin, I found myself on a deserted stretch of road and slowed my vehicle to a comfortable cruising pace of 100 kilometres an hour.
Soon enough, a panel van whipped by me and let out a lengthy honk, despite the open roads. The message seemed clear: Speed up, you’re in Germany now.
Why had I slowed down? Because I had rented an electric vehicle. While it was my first time driving an EV, I knew that high speeds would drain its battery more quickly, something at odds with Germany’s autobahn highway system, most of which does not have a speed limit. (Around two-thirds of the network has an advisory limit of 130 km an hour – a mere suggestion for the BMW and Porsche drivers who barrelled past me at 200 km/h.)
