Would you let Justin Trudeau manage your investments?
Even if climate change was an emergency EVs would not be a solution. This is ground I have covered before but it is worth revisiting and this fellow does a very good job of describing the myths surrounding EVs.
To be clear I have nothing against EVs, but I am vehemently opposed to government EV policies. EVs do have their place in the market. EVs are better at stop and go driving than ICEs (internal combustion engines) and while they don’t eliminate pollution, as we have been told, they do move the pollution to the generating station where it is easier to control. The excellent low RPM torque of electric motors can also make EVs fun to drive. My friend owns one and he loves it, but he will admit that it is an expensive luxury purchase.
That is the point. Evs would have found their place in the market without government intervention. Every time the government intrudes it distorts the market and causes problems. Skewing the playing field in favor of EVs has resulted in an oversupply of vehicles that very few people want.
What!? Consumers don’t want to pay purchase prices 20% to 30% higher for vehicles that can’t go as far as gasoline vehicles, don’t work well in Canadian winters and cost slightly more to maintain than internal-combustion vehicles over their lifetimes? (Don’t believe the government bumph about EVs being cheaper. At the very least, they cost the same to maintain as ICE vehicles over their useful lifetimes.)
Despite sizeable subsidies from governments, EVs aren’t selling in the numbers manufacturers had hoped, nor in the numbers “green” governments need to accomplish their bans on ICEs by 2035. Wealthy consumers who can afford the premium price tag for EVs have bought some, but it is hard-to-impossible to crack the middle-class, family market.
What an incredible waste of taxpayer money and capital that could have been used producing products people want and need. Unfortunately, the waste is not just confined to the car lots. Canada has struck deals with battery manufacturers that will effectively never produce a return for Canadian taxpayers.
But according to the PBO, it will take 20 years, not five years, to merely recover the money the government “invested” on behalf of Canadians.
I can guarantee you the government will never recover this money they have “invested”. The companies that received tax money are building batteries that are likely to be obsolete 5 years from now. Last month Toyota announced a breakthrough in solid state battery production. Solid state batteries can hold more than twice as much power as the current EV batteries. If Toyota is successful, then all the batteries produced in Canadian factories and all the EVs sitting on car lots will be old technology. You won’t even be able to give them away.
I have no reason to doubt the Toyota press release. Toyota is not a company known for the blatant stock manipulation practiced by Tesla. If they say they can do something it is likely to be true. Canada’s EV and battery “investments” will just be another federal boondoggle. Friends of the liberals will get rich at the expense of taxpayers.
This is exactly why we should oppose subsidies for any industry. Politicians just are not that smart. Most seem to be quite stupid. You certainly would not want any of them managing your stock portfolio. When it comes to picking market winners and losers, politicians will invariable pick losers. We need to get the government out of the market and the hell out of our lives. If we don’t those idiots will soon bankrupt us.
