“It is a great day of celebration,” said Granholm, announcing the LG Chem project in July 2010. “I want the President . . . to really feel and know how grateful we are in Michigan for becoming the North American battery capital.”
According to a Washington Post account, the LG Chem Michigan project received $150 million from federal stimulus spending and was “also eligible for more than $175 million in tax relief from the state and local governments through 2025.”
This was contingent, the newspaper noted in February 2013, on the plant producing batteries for 60,000 electric vehicles by the end of 2013. Instead, according to the newspaper, a Department of Energy inspection found that this branch of Granholm’s “North American battery capital” had “yet to manufacture cells used in any vehicles sold to the public” and that its “workers passed time watching movies, playing board, card and video games, or volunteering for animal shelters and community groups.”
LG Chem’s hypothetical Michigan-made batteries were supposed to be used in the GM Volt EV, but sales were so awful that a plant in South Korea was already building enough to satisfy the paltry demand.
Two years later in October 2015, GM and LG Chem announced another battery agreement, this one for the Chevy Bolt EV. Unlike the weak-selling Volt, the Bolt caught fire—literally, the batteries caught on fire. By October 2021, LG Chem agreed to pay $1.9 billion so GM could recall and repair every Bolt built to that point.
Even before the Volt, GM’s first electric vehicle was the Impact, a tiny two-seat, aluminum subcompact built in the 1990s. Speaking to the unfortunate name, comedian Jay Leno asked: “Was crash-and-burn already taken?”
Last month, to the surprise of nobody paying attention, GM announced it would discontinue the Bolt.
If anything is going to get ordinary folk manning (or whatever the woke term should be) the barricades, substitute 'eat cake' with 'drive EVs'. Riots??? US - you ain't seen nothing yet!
So here's the answer - hydrogen powered internal combustion engine vehicles (HICEVs): Toyota; Hyundai; Cummins; Deutz; JCB. No more expensive than gasoline ICEVs; buoyant second hand market; whole of life recycling. And, most importantly - iron/steel/aluminium-based! No 'copper crunches'; no 'critical mineral crunches'.
All that's needed is a hydrogen economy and there's only one way of doing that - with nuclear enabled hydrogen (NEH) manufactured by small modular reactors (SMRs).
Note: SMRs generate pollution-free electricity and heat to manufacture NEH and they are also iron/steel/concrete-based with no mineral restrictions.
I love my Subaru Diesel. I can get 1200 km , about 750 miles on a full tank on the highway and can stretch it a bit more if I drive a bit slower. And it takes less than 5 mins to fill up. And with only 125000 miles on the clock, I'll probably get another 10 years life
Dealers are not incentivized to sell them either. EVs don't need much maintenance. And that hurts their service centers, which are a big $$$$ maker for dealers.
Been saying all along that Ford and GM in about 2-3 more years will have their hand out saying we built and no buyers. I’m not buying an F-150 that brags about going 200-300 mile per charge. I don’t have time to
Mess with that nonsense. BUT hybrid might be interesting...JS.
Concerning electric vehicles, the government bureaucrats obviously think the American people have the word "FOOL" tattooed across our foreheads. They have to know their mandates are not realistic. I suspect there's another plan in the works, and it involves the sunsetting of individually owned cars.
Everyone forgets a simple truism ... If the government is doing it, it's because the free market wouldn't. Mandates and subsidies are tools to used to modify your behaviour. If we want to end the insanity we'll need to stop voting for the manipulators.
I think both Ford and GM will be near bankruptcy within 3 years. Which of course will require a government bailout.
Nobody wants to pay a premium to be inconvenienced. The age of the vehicle fleet in the US is over 10 years and rising, because fewer people can afford new cars. When you add in the increased cost of EVs and the forced reduction of new gasoline cars there is only one possible outcome.
Want a sure fire business? Auto repair. Somebody is going to have to keep the old clunkers running.
My personal solution -a 1967 VW beetle in the barn. Easy on gas, easy to fix, acres of spare parts. I’m good till 2050 if they don’t outlaw gasoline.
"I defined climate corporatism as the use of government power to increase the profits of big corporations at the expense of consumers in the name of climate change."
This literally could not be said better or in a more succinct way.
So let me get this straight, F loses over $20k per EV sold and slashes lightning prices by 17%. It has to get way worse before it gets better is what I read about this whole fiasco.
Until I see America start to erect large strip mines across the country to fuel this "transition", the more I believe it's just fairy dust and unicorns. If the majority of the metals to produce EVs come from countries far away, we can only speculate the harsh conditions in which they are processed and refined. And if they were close enough to where we could see the atrocities with our own eyes, we wouldn't be able to virtue signal to our friends by buying an EV.
It will be a real reckoning when these things are filling lots and the sales numbers continue to drop. I think we are headed that direction unfortunately and it will continue to be funded by taxpayer dollars.
Thanks for the real reporting, Robert. You always bring hard numbers and do great research.
LG (which really stands for "Lucky Goldstar") must also mean "Lucre from Granholm" because this latest crookedness is part of a trend with her...
https://capitalresearch.org/article/bonkers-about-batteries-the-unauthorized-biography-of-jennifer-granholm/
LG Chem
“It is a great day of celebration,” said Granholm, announcing the LG Chem project in July 2010. “I want the President . . . to really feel and know how grateful we are in Michigan for becoming the North American battery capital.”
According to a Washington Post account, the LG Chem Michigan project received $150 million from federal stimulus spending and was “also eligible for more than $175 million in tax relief from the state and local governments through 2025.”
This was contingent, the newspaper noted in February 2013, on the plant producing batteries for 60,000 electric vehicles by the end of 2013. Instead, according to the newspaper, a Department of Energy inspection found that this branch of Granholm’s “North American battery capital” had “yet to manufacture cells used in any vehicles sold to the public” and that its “workers passed time watching movies, playing board, card and video games, or volunteering for animal shelters and community groups.”
LG Chem’s hypothetical Michigan-made batteries were supposed to be used in the GM Volt EV, but sales were so awful that a plant in South Korea was already building enough to satisfy the paltry demand.
Two years later in October 2015, GM and LG Chem announced another battery agreement, this one for the Chevy Bolt EV. Unlike the weak-selling Volt, the Bolt caught fire—literally, the batteries caught on fire. By October 2021, LG Chem agreed to pay $1.9 billion so GM could recall and repair every Bolt built to that point.
Even before the Volt, GM’s first electric vehicle was the Impact, a tiny two-seat, aluminum subcompact built in the 1990s. Speaking to the unfortunate name, comedian Jay Leno asked: “Was crash-and-burn already taken?”
Last month, to the surprise of nobody paying attention, GM announced it would discontinue the Bolt.
If anything is going to get ordinary folk manning (or whatever the woke term should be) the barricades, substitute 'eat cake' with 'drive EVs'. Riots??? US - you ain't seen nothing yet!
So here's the answer - hydrogen powered internal combustion engine vehicles (HICEVs): Toyota; Hyundai; Cummins; Deutz; JCB. No more expensive than gasoline ICEVs; buoyant second hand market; whole of life recycling. And, most importantly - iron/steel/aluminium-based! No 'copper crunches'; no 'critical mineral crunches'.
All that's needed is a hydrogen economy and there's only one way of doing that - with nuclear enabled hydrogen (NEH) manufactured by small modular reactors (SMRs).
Note: SMRs generate pollution-free electricity and heat to manufacture NEH and they are also iron/steel/concrete-based with no mineral restrictions.
https://energycentral.com/comment/106165#comment-106165
If a Democrat wins the Presidency in 2024, expect the complete mandate of only EVs, with a 2030 to phase out ICEs.
Democrats are Marxist zealots in respect of climate.
But slightly over 50% of American robotically vote for them, and all the horrors they bring.
I love my Subaru Diesel. I can get 1200 km , about 750 miles on a full tank on the highway and can stretch it a bit more if I drive a bit slower. And it takes less than 5 mins to fill up. And with only 125000 miles on the clock, I'll probably get another 10 years life
Another thing not mentioned in this article:
Dealers are not incentivized to sell them either. EVs don't need much maintenance. And that hurts their service centers, which are a big $$$$ maker for dealers.
Been saying all along that Ford and GM in about 2-3 more years will have their hand out saying we built and no buyers. I’m not buying an F-150 that brags about going 200-300 mile per charge. I don’t have time to
Mess with that nonsense. BUT hybrid might be interesting...JS.
Concerning electric vehicles, the government bureaucrats obviously think the American people have the word "FOOL" tattooed across our foreheads. They have to know their mandates are not realistic. I suspect there's another plan in the works, and it involves the sunsetting of individually owned cars.
"Electrify everything" is impossible. Needs six times more copper, ten times more nickel, 26 times more cobalt... than are known to exist.
The Greta Green Energy Reset is Impossible:
https://vsnyder.substack.com/p/report-about-energy-that-i-requested
When will governments learn that the money they tax out of the economy to create jobs will destroy more jobs than they create?
Everyone forgets a simple truism ... If the government is doing it, it's because the free market wouldn't. Mandates and subsidies are tools to used to modify your behaviour. If we want to end the insanity we'll need to stop voting for the manipulators.
I think both Ford and GM will be near bankruptcy within 3 years. Which of course will require a government bailout.
Nobody wants to pay a premium to be inconvenienced. The age of the vehicle fleet in the US is over 10 years and rising, because fewer people can afford new cars. When you add in the increased cost of EVs and the forced reduction of new gasoline cars there is only one possible outcome.
Want a sure fire business? Auto repair. Somebody is going to have to keep the old clunkers running.
My personal solution -a 1967 VW beetle in the barn. Easy on gas, easy to fix, acres of spare parts. I’m good till 2050 if they don’t outlaw gasoline.
"I defined climate corporatism as the use of government power to increase the profits of big corporations at the expense of consumers in the name of climate change."
This literally could not be said better or in a more succinct way.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/07/18/extreme-heat-record-limits-human-survival/
Great article as always.
So let me get this straight, F loses over $20k per EV sold and slashes lightning prices by 17%. It has to get way worse before it gets better is what I read about this whole fiasco.
Until I see America start to erect large strip mines across the country to fuel this "transition", the more I believe it's just fairy dust and unicorns. If the majority of the metals to produce EVs come from countries far away, we can only speculate the harsh conditions in which they are processed and refined. And if they were close enough to where we could see the atrocities with our own eyes, we wouldn't be able to virtue signal to our friends by buying an EV.
It will be a real reckoning when these things are filling lots and the sales numbers continue to drop. I think we are headed that direction unfortunately and it will continue to be funded by taxpayer dollars.
Thanks for the real reporting, Robert. You always bring hard numbers and do great research.
EV = green money laundering machine