Solar and battery storage make up 81% of new power capacity this year

We do work for a large auto dealer with 60+ dealerships across the country. EVs are his longest inventory item. People aren't buying atvthe volumes car companies expected. Hertz dumped their entire fleet of Tesla because people weren't renting them. Toyota is shifting to hybrids because ev sales demand wasn't there. Most everything i read says sales are hampered by lack of charging stations

 

But, this effectively places a tariff on every single solar panel manufactured. There is not one that does not have components from all over the world.

 

I have a different take on the situation:

Over production for anticipated demand is different than EVs failing. EVs still increased sales YOY by 46% and will do so again this year. This is in a market where total new auto sales grew by 12%, EVs are on the more expensive side of the auto market, the loss of the EV credit for some vehicles has hurt, and interest rates are quite high so it has slowed things

Hertz primarily cited additional costs for EVs from higher crash rates with people driving EVs (studies have shown switching powertrains both directions increases the rate of crashes). They did rent at a slightly lower rate but Hertz was charging a large premium to rent them so for people like me my company would never allow me to rent EVs and that’s my primary rental usage. Hertz will bring them back once EV adoption is higher.

Toyota is not shifting to hybrids; they have been fully behind hybrids for two + decades, lead that market class, and have been staunchly anti-ev for a long time as the most anti-ev automaker in the world spending millions of dollars lobbying governments to stop EV mandates. Toyota has even gone so far as to push their ridiculous hydrogen powered car (talk about a fueling problem). They have one EV they make now that is godawful looking, middling performance, and is terribly slow charging so its sales have reflected that. Despite the above Toyota has finally started to unveil new EV models for the future.

Charging does play some role in vehicle selection but it’s vastly over emphasized (whether rhetoric or in actual decision process). Day to day most people wouldn’t use a charging station. It’s one of the great benefits of an ev, the convenience of home charging accounting for the vast, vast majority of your charging needs. I see the biggest reason for slowing growth is the price premium to go EV: higher purchase price, disproportionate effect of high interest rates, the loss of EV tax credits to offset the costs due to Joe Manchin, and higher insurance costs. The good news is the price gap between ICE and EVs is closing. And charging wise most EVs will be able to use Tesla’s charging network in the next 9 months, and the federal government is incentivizing the build of even more charging stations.

 

I am a sample of one, but I wouldn’t buy an EV now. Perhaps I will in future.

My issues:

- I typically buy low mileage used sedans to save money and get better value. I’m not wife of the economics of buying an EV that is several years old

- I’ve read they are really hard on tires and you may end up changing them every 10,000 miles or sooner.

- if you buy a Tesla seems like your are relying on the Tesla maintenance ecosystem.

- The range is just not far enough for my comfort. Maybe solid state batteries will change that.

- I go on at least a couple of trips cross country each year. That would be much more of a hassle with an EV.

BTW somebody determined that the Toyota Prius hybrid is more environmentally friendly than any electric car.

 

multiple companies are scaling back projections for ev's while ramping up hybrid production. at least that is what I am reading.

home charging is a convenience that renters and others don't seem to have and that is hurting uptake, just a different view or a more nuanced one. Lexus and Honda are both pushing the dealerships to add charging stations when capital improvements are. Apartments are adding more

Ford will follow Toyota as it leans into hybrids (electrek.co)

 

https://www.axios.com/2024/02/28/electric-vehicle-environment-emissions#


This year's most environmentally friendly caris the plug-in hybrid electric Toyota Prius Prime SE, according to a report from the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE).

Why it matters: The hybrid, which can be driven using nothing but electric power, edged out ahead of the most "green" electric vehicle (EV), the Lexus RZ 300e.

 

Yep, not cheap...
Texas hailstorm damages thousands of solar panels at 350-MW farm

 

Green Automation–Get Ready to Grow. A lot. (May, 2020) (youtube.com)

similar to this but multiple stacked trays with uv lights in-between them. same tech company, just 3 years advanced, project financed by their export bank to export their patented low labor, highly efficient tech to warm weather climates

 

should attract more data centers

 

Bought a plug-in hybrid (Volvo xc60 Recharge) 2-3 weeks ago and have driven a few hundred miles since. Gas needle hasn’t moved from the full tank the dealer provided as I’ve only driven about 6 miles on gas and the instrumentation shows I’m averaging about 700 miles per gallon. It’s awesome to run errands and drive around town without going to a gas station.

 

I was thinking the same thing. If I had a plug in hybrid that could get 30-40 miles per day on a charge, I'd probably only need to buy gas like once every 3 months ... but it's nice having unlimited range if you need it. What range do you get on your Volvo charge? I'm thinking about the new prius prime.

 

Plug in hybrid Sorrento coming to my house soon.

 

Small nuclear reactors may be coming to Texas, boosted by interest from Gov. Abbott (msn.com)

Abbott was there to talk about nuclear power — not big reactors like the ones that already operate in Texas, but a new generation of smaller nuclear reactors that companies are pitching as both safe and less financially risky than large nuclear power plants because they cost less. Abbott joined a panel with the CEO of chemical and plastics manufacturer Dow and the head of a newer business, called X-energy, which plans to build small nuclear reactors for Dow. The reactors will produce steam and electricity for the company’s complex just up the coast from Corpus Christi.
..............................
After that disaster, some energy industry experts said part of the state’s problem was that it lacked enough on-demand power — meaning power that can come on anytime. The state increasingly relies on solar farms that only work when the sun shines, and wind turbines that only turn when the wind blows. Companies have been building a lot of both in Texas over the past decade.
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X-energy, for example, is using uranium enclosed in graphite spheres for the fuel. The company says the spheres keep the radioactive waste contained when the fuel has been used up. Helium gas cools the reactor, which the company says cannot carry radioactive material if released like water can.

 

Does my golf cart count or at least balance my diesel,

 

My Amazon deliveries are mainly from electric vans. The future is coming want it or not.

 

Yeah, I frequently see the Rivian delivery van on my street but it’s like one of three Amazon vans that comes down the street daily.

 

The “EV is failing” talking point came out between Labor Day and Thanksgiving. On LD my dad didn’t say a word about EV’s. At Thanksgiving he brought it up every half hour.

Where it came from, I wouldn’t know. I am an expert at the Just Nod Until It Stops method now. Although this one is a little more entertaining because now that he has been sworn to worship the Eloninatti he has to work pretty hard to explain how EV is a total fail but Tesla is the best car company ever.

 

One of those sources for energy is NOT like the others, does NOT belong. That graph is deceptive at best and unrealistic unless we plan on printing much more money that we can't pay back. The wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine.

We should be adding far more nuclear energy to make sure we have dependable energy generation capacity in out country. The United States cannot rely on the California model of energy supply for our entire country. A;; of the above is good, but we need to be realistic and safe when it comes to our national energy grid, and it's dependability and reliability, to fill our needs for energy.

More energy independence requires the U.S to utilize the cheap abundant energy resources that we already have domestically. I have NO problem with alternative forms of energy, but we have to make sure we don't kill our dependable forms of energy in the process.

 

A great attribute of renewable energy sources (wind and solar) is their decentralized nature. This helps secure energy infrastructure vs a coal/oil/nuclear plants that can be targeted. I don’t think we’re close to switching over to only renewable resources, in part due to intermittent nature of their energy generation, but focusing on increasing them is crucial. In one year’s time Texas has reaped massive benefits to its energy grid due to increased solar and wind capacity that wouldn’t have been possible with any other energy source.