EV Myths

Myth #2: EVs are no good in winter

This is completely nonsense and there are a few Alaskans, and lots of Canadians and Norwegians (Norway is like 90% new electric EVs now) who say, "huh?", "what, eh?", "Quoi???", or "Hva?" when they hear this.  Plenty of ice climbers use EVs and park in near 0F (-15C)  sunless ice-covered parking lots between drives in and out, and have no problems. Many, many skiers, both backcountry and resort, have no issues with EVs as well. Visit our EVs in Winter page for details, including the "Great Chicago EV fail of 2024" report that was so widely mis-reported in the media. 

Myth #3: A careful lifecycle analysis reveals that EVs don't benefit the environment or climate action

OMG, will this idiotic trope ever go away? IF YOU MUST HAVE A DEFINITIVE REFERENCE, one excruciatingly detailed study is given here: https://greet.anl.gov. By now, however,  every national lab (I've seen them from INEL and LBNL, others in the US as well) in every G20 country has done repeated peer-reviewed studies on this. Most of them say something like "given typical annual miles, most people will start saving OVERALL emissions with an EV in about a year, even given that manufacturing is powered entirely by fossil fuels." 

It is obvious why this works out: Put your hand on the hood of a running ICE car. It's very very hot. You will never feel heat from an EV motor. That's all you need to know. Combustion engines are very thermodynamically inefficient, the vast majority of the energy in their fuel is wasted as heat, duh, stuff is burning and that doesn't go directly into mechamical motion. Any scientist will tell you there's just no way in the universe around thermodynamics. A record-breaking efficient ICE engine is 30% efficient. EV motors are commonly 90%+ efficient. Proper EVs are designed from the ground up to be more efficient in ways other than the motor, so they are really more than just 90/30 times better. That means that if you use fossil fuel to run a power plant to charge your EV, you are way, way ahead because you just use much, much less fossil fuel and the more miles you drive, the more you save.

*however*, solar and wind are generally the cheapest sources of new electricity, and every state in the US, and any country that can afford any new energy is buying wind and solar like crazy as a result.  As of end 2023, the US power grid was already 24% green. California was 59% by May 2023, but that will be crushed before Q1 2024 with GW of added green energy coming on-line just in the first month of 2024. Of course, there are much less green energy-friendly states than CA - That famously liberal and green state, Texas, yes, you heard me right, Texas, beats CA in solar and absolutely trounces it in wind.  Because economics.  Repeat after me, "solar and wind are generally the cheapest sources of new electricity." This makes EVs ever more green and climate-action effective. 

Myth #4  There are endless parking lots full of unsold EVs in 2024, no one wants them any more, and the EV thing is obviously dead. 

Whether you look in the US, EU, or elsewhere in the world, EV sales are increasing. This myth was started because around 2024 Q1, Tesla sales missed growth targets. But if Tesla sales missed targets, doesn't that mean this claim is true?  NO. The only germ of truth in this is that Tesla sales are not growing as fast as they hoped - and the reason is that more than 30 EV models  in the US with over 300 miles range now compete against them (Bloomberg Greener Living 2024 June8). This is great news. We here at EBA are not brand-biased, and we think that there should be a wide world of choice, and innovation and price competition for the benefit of consumers.  We know a person who isn't comfortable buying a Tesla because they aren't comfortable with supporting Elon Musk due to his political activities and values. Well, now such a person has several brands, and over 30 models in the US with over 300 mi range to choose from.  

THE NUMBERS: 2024 May 29 Cox Automative/Bloomberg Green reported 50%+ EV sales growth increases in six brands, decrease in Tesla, VW, and others.  The weirdest thing I have to report here that may not be a statistical one-quarter blip, is that the Cadillac Lyriq appears to be a big sales hit.  (With 27 minutes for 20-80% at a fast charger (evkx.net), I respond with "huh???".)

I'm having trouble finding total US sales number growth, but parsing the headlines I can say that that overall growth (not absolute sales numbers!) but overall US sales growth slowed in Q1 2024. ) 

Bloomberg NEF has it that 18% of global passenger cars sales were EVs last year (reported by LA Times Boiling Point 6/18/24), and this continues to grow. ICE cars may not be dead, but they are surely on their way out, all over the world.