Randon Thoughts About Some Golf Stats

According to the website golfplayed dot com, there are 38,864 golf courses in the world, and of those, 16,752 are located in the US. Japan is in 2nd place with 3,169 courses. Scotland, widely agreed to be the birthplace of golf, is in 10th place with 614 courses. That's about 1 golf courses for every 200 square miles in the US, every 500 square miles in Scotland, and every 35 square miles in Japan.

An estimated 1 to 2 billion golf balls are made annually. That's roughly 25,000 to 50,000 balls per course, per year. Where do they all go? The folks in the golf subreddit, the best experts I know, say: driving ranges, water hazards, golf bags, garages, Bigfoot. Perhaps the #1 answer is; Yeah, I don't know either, that's a whole bunch of golf balls.

How many golf carts are there in the world? Or perhaps I should ask, after searching and searching for even one estimate: why is no one willing to answer this question?  But I see that the golf cart industry is about $2.5 billion a year and growing. At $5,000 to $15,000 a cart, that's hundreds of thousands of new carts a year. 

Hundreds of thousands a year. That's a lot.

Golf carts have been selling well since the 1950's. I'd say there have to be millions of golf carts out there. Not necessarily mostly on golf courses full-time either, because is there room for all of them on golf courses? Not all at once. I've seen a lot of golf carts on movie lots, in movies about movies.

And here's where I start to get paranoid: I've been paying rather close attention to electric vehicles for about a decade now. I had never been one of those Who-holds-back-the-electric-car guys until now, when I think about all those big shots playing golf, the guys who call the shots, riding around in millions of electric golf carts for the past half century or so. Electric, because almost all golf carts are electric, because golfers, just like the rest of, would rather not be bothered by the noise and stink of internal combustion.

All those big shots playing all that golf, riding around in those constant reminders that electricity provides perfectly good, reliable transportation, all the way back to the Eisenhower administration...

 

New and used golf balls for sale at Amazon: https://amzn.to/4jXU0EF

Rainbow-Translucent Graphite-Fiber K-Pop Hyper-Efficient Micro-Mini EV's --

 -- would sell well here in the US. To those who say that they wouldn't sell, I ask: who's trying?

The post title refers to EV's which currently exist only in my head, unless they're on sale somewhere else in the world, and if I saw them I'd say, Yes, that's it, exactly. There are many, many tiny inexpensive EV's which have been sold in other countries. Every report of a new one ends: "-- and they will not be available in the US." The smallest US-made EV was the Chevy Bolt, manufactured until the end of 2023. We're waiting for the next-generation Bolt, and while we wait, the next-smallest EV from GM is -- the Equinox? Ain't exactly small. 

I literally dreamed about those tiny EV's with K-Pop vibes and colorful, translucent exterior panels. In the dream, magically, I was able to make drawings of cars in my head. In real life, I must rely on the magic of words. In my head, these tiny, sleek, fun 2-passangers cars have a K-pop youthful vibe. In my dream I was pitching the design to Hyundai/Kia, and they were talking about building and selling them here in Murrka.

In the dream, some friends of mine disapproved, saying that public transportation and walking and bicycling should be promoted instead. I replied that all of those things should be promoted, and EV's too. It's a debate I've had many times in waking life. 

The dream design I was pitching to Hyundai/Kia was fun. These are tiny little hot hatches, and the see-through exterior panels, as far I know, would be a new thing. Maybe we could save the world without having any fun, but would there be a point to that?

 Shop for K-Pop videos on Amazon (caution: you may have fun!) : https://amzn.to/4isHmMC

EV Public Charging

One evening over 20 years ago, I happened to surf onto "Nightly Business Report." Not the sort of thing which ordinarily held my interest for more than a few seconds, but this time I ended up watching an entire guest commentary or editorial by a columnist from Forbes, a crusty, white bearded curmudgeon who asked, "When are one of you billionaire geniuses going to design a computer I can turn on and off like a TV?"

A darn good question! And all these years later, it still is. The commentator went on to say that computer guys made computers for computer guys, and not for the public. Computers are inconvenient and difficult to use for the general public, because computer guys don't care.

I was reminded of this just a couple of days ago, reading a social media conversation about public EV charging. Someone had started a thread because they were new at using public chargers, and having some difficulty. 

Something lots and lots of people can relate to. And thankfully, they were getting lots of advice, and hopefully, enough of it helped and they can use public chargers now.

But one participant was not helpful, was not friendly. They called the original poster stupid, and had harsh words for people who were "too lazy to learn" how to operate public chargers. 

Personal computers all over again: tech guys know how to do things like public charging, and, basically, screw you if you don't.

I know there are reasons for everything. I know tech guys got wedgies growing up and it made them angry at the whole world.

But there's a difference this time around: computers have never had to compete with any older, more familiar technology. They were new and unique, and they remain unique. EV's are competing with ICE vehicles, and public charging is competing with gas stations. 

And so, many of you may be very relieved to learn, the days when you can just go up to a public charger and swipe a credit card as if you were at a gas station -- no apps -- are already here in parts of Europe and California, which means they will be everywhere soon.

Competition between merchants, between old and new ways of doing things, leading to innovation which directly benefits the consumer. I hate to say it, but maybe Adam Smith wasn't completely wrong about everything.

Buy books about electric vehicles on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/4gPzFQw

EV Drivers

One thing that reactionary yahoos have long said about EV drivers is that they are smug. Well, I've been driving an EV for a while now, and, strangely, I AM smug about it. I DO feel superior to the drivers of the noisy, smelly dinosaur-burners all around me, as I dart nearly silently among them. Intellectually superior, morally superior, and definitely sexier! Superior every which way. I am the dog's biscuits. 

I can't open the rear doors yet, but I've googled it, and it's just a matter of settings and interior buttons. It'll come. I'll figure it out. I don't know why that overhead light comes on all the time, even in the brightest parts of the sunniest days, but I'll figure that out too! Just the same that I figured out where the radio's volume knob was! My brother helped with the volume knob. He's literally a rocket scientist and is wicked smart. With his help I'll get the charging situation sorted out. 

And you would not BELIEVE how smug I feel about it all. And I'm a person who's rarely felt smug about anything. Apparently I occasionally appear to be smug. People have sometimes accused me of smugness, but they've been wrong. Now they're right.

As the old saying goes: even a stopped clock is right twice a day. The yahoos were bound to be right about something eventually.  

I'm not saying that these feelings of superiority are accurate, just that I'm feeling them. For several months before the EV, I was without any sort of  personal-transportation vehicle. I walked or I took the bus. And I definitely THINK that those who do so are better than all of us who drive, no matter what we drive. 

But I didn't have this smirking, smug FEELING when I was on foot.

Can anyone else out there relate? Are we right to feel this way? Are we being manipulated by Big Something? Are are we the Vanguard of the Future? Are we silly? Maybe a little from Column A and a little from Column B?

EV Sales are Booming, Worldwide. So Why Do Many People Believe That They're Dropping?

Worldwide, 2.1 million electric vehicles were sold in 2019, 3 million in 2020, 6.76 million in 2021, 10 million in 2022, and sales in 2023 are expected to top 14 million, which will be well over 20 percent of total motor vehicles sales. Overall sales of motorized vehicles  have actually declined over the past several years.

So why are there so many stories about an alleged decline in the sales of EV's? I can only think of bad reasons, such as: people really are that bad at math. So bad that they would look at numbers as simple and clears as those I just gave you, and think it means that "the EV craze" is over. It's hard for me to believe that there are people smart enough to be able to read, but still that bad at math. But not as hard as it would have been before the 2016 Democratic US Presidential primaries.

Could it be because people think only of Teslas when they think of EV's? It seems a lot of people do. And Tesla's share of the EV market is shrinking in the US. And a lot of people, especially in the US, think only of the US when they think about how things are going in the world. 

Could it be because some bad people are flat-out lying to broad segments of the public who trust them and look to them for vital information about the world? It seems hard to avoid the conclusion that some influential bad people are doing exactly that, and trying their utmost to convince the public that "the EV craze" is over. 

I would guess that a combination of all of the above -- people's inability to do math, their tendency to do math, their tendency equate Tesla in the US with EV's globally, and lying big shots -- have led to the perception that the EV sector is doing poorly. 

This would be an example of the importance of investing in education, for instance, education in math and in critical thinking. Investments staunchly opposed by a lot of of those very same bad liars.

Is Toyota Getting Serious About the BEV Game?

Toyota finally released a mass-produced BEV, a Battery-Electric Vehicle, in May 2022, and now they actually seem to be advertising it. You say BEV if you want to make it perfectly clear that you're not talking about a hybrid, but a vehicle which is 100% electric. As opposed to a Prius. Yes, there certainly are other hybrids besides the Toyota Prius, but Toyota has sold about 20 million hybrids. I think that's most of the hybrids. 

Toyota has made all-electric vehicles before this, but it's been a while. The latest BEV version of the RAV4 was discontinued in 2014, and, as in the case of General motors' EV1, it would be a stretch tpo call the RAV4 BEV mass-produced. In the past several years, not only has Toyota concentrated on making millions of hybrids, they're also made a lot of positively hostile remarks about BEV's. A few months ago there came a high point in this anti-BEV messaging, which  is to say a low point: an advertising campaign which showed a Toyota hybrid going on and on and on through an animated desert while ICE vehicles and BEV's stopped, stranded.

They had another ad campaign where they referred to their hybrids as "self-charging hybrids." Please allow me to be the last person on Earth to inform you that there is no such thing as a self-charging hybrid.

So now, finally, a decade and a half behind Nissan, GM, and Tesla, years behind VW and BMW and Jaguar and Audi and Porsche and Ford and Volvo and Honda and Rivian and Lucid and Nikola, Toyota has a mass-produced BEV, the bZ4X, yes, that's small b, capital Z, 4, Capital X. 

 

But even more bizarre that the name of the BEV is Toyota's new advertising campaign for the vehicle, with the slogan: "Beyond Zero."

I checked several times, and, no, that's not "Behind Zero," as in an honest admission that Toyota is way, way behind most of the rest of the world getting started on this. It's Beyond Zero. Because, as Toyota proudly says in their new ad campaigns, they want to go even farther than zero emissions, and have a positive effect on the planet, and that they have plans for many more BEV's.

Again: years and years behind everyone else.

But better years late, and with yet another ridiculous ad campaign, than never.  Welcome to the present day, Toyota. 

Yes, the bZ4X has actually been available for a year and a half. But the new advertising campaign makes me think that Toyota may actually be getting serious about BEV's. If they've fooled me again, then shame on me.

Nobody Killed the Electric Car!

I first saw Chris Paine's documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? over 15 years ago. I've seen it several times, watching very carefully, because I'm very much interested in electric cars. But only in the past few days has it occurred to me what a melodramatic, overstated and misleading title and outlook and approach the movie has. 

The movie has to do with the General Motors EV1, an electric car made from 1996 to 1999 in order to comply with California regulations. A total of 1,117 were made. They were leased, not sold, to customers in California. And then in 2002, when Republican took over the California legislature and rescinded the electric vehicle requirements, they were all recalled, and all but a few dozen were destroyed. Most of the remaining EV1's are now in museums. I think a few may actually be on the roads, but I'm not sure about that.

I still find GM's behavior with the EV1 to have been deplorable: refusing to sell this breakthrough electric vehicle, only leasing it, although there were customers begging to be allowed to buy them, and then taking them all back and scrapping them. I am in no way defending GM's scrapping of the EV1.

But Chris Paine's movie is, I repeat, a bit melodramatic. It consists for the most part of interviews with GM employees, some of whom worked on the EV1 project and were passionately in favor of the development of the electric vehicle, and some who seemed rather sleazy; and with some of those people to whom GM leased the EV1. 

As far as the viewer can tell by the movie, GM leased the EV1 only to movie stars. I'm guessing that GM leased some of them to people who weren't movie stars. But Paine didn't interview any of them. 

And one thing about actors is that we can get pretty dramatic at times. I say "we," although I haven't acted in a while, because I know I have the drama-queen gene. 

GM didn't kill the electric car, they discontinued the EV1 leases and recalled and scrapped the EV1's. That was not nice, and in my opinion it wasn't smart at all either, but there were still other EV's on the roads. You can see some of them in Who Killed the Electric Car? For example, the Toyota Rav4 EV. In the movie, in a melodramatically tense highway scene, one of the movie stars sees a truckload of these electric Rav4's and exclaims, OMG they're going to destroy all of THOSE too! (Nope. Toyota kept making the electric Rav4 until 2014.) 

Paine's camera shakes during that scene, as if he was getting caught up in the drama. I don't think he intentionally mislead anyone. I think he was caught up. Maybe most people who interviewed that many movie stars in that short a time would get caught up. Movie stars are very riveting, persuasive people. That's why they're stars.

But all this drama had to do with around 1,000 EV's. General Motors has sold about 200,000 Chevy Bolts. Recently, they announced they were going to discontinue the Bolt, and then they quickly reversed that decision. Maybe they've learned from the negative reaction of their handling of the EV1. Before the Bolt, they sold almost as many Volts. The electric Silverado, Sierra, Celestiq, Equinox and Blazer from GM are all already on the roads and showrooms, or coming very, very soon. The recall of the EV1 represents barely a hiccup in the overall scheme of EV production from General Motors. In his follow-up documentary, Revenge of the Electric Car, Paine represents the development of the Bolt as a change of heart for General Motors, but there's no real proof that GM wasn't committed to the most effective technology all along, and in case you didn't know it, EV's are the most technologically effective vehicles, and are rapidly pulling away from internal combustion in terms of their superior function.

And that's only GM. It's a very similar story at Ford, Hyundai/Kia, VW, Sellantis, BMW, Mercedes and almost every single other major automotive manufacturer. The transition to EV's is real, and Elon Musk didn't make it happen. He just jumped out in front of this parade and has pretended to lead it. And maybe, just possibly, he watched Who Killed the Electric Car? and saw how much fuss movie stars could stir up over a thousand EV's, and so decided to make them his first marketing niche and unwitting advertising department.

People Can't Do Math, Green Energy Edition

Yes, some rooftop solar installers are sketchy. But some aren't. It's like many other things, you need to do some research.

Yes, some regions get less sunlight than others, which means you'll get less financial benefit from solar, all other things being equal.

 

But, if you own the house you live in, and if your financial situation allows you to get loans, and if you get a loan to pay for the installation of rooftop solar, and your savings on your electrical bill are more than the loan payments -- sorry to break it to you Bucko, but you just got free solar. Free as in, not only is it not costing you money, it's making you some money.

 

 

I'm posting this in frustration after reading a thread on asocial media in which a few of the participants were unable to grasp that, yes indeed, in some cases, for some people, solar power can be free.

 

Actually much better than free, but one mental weakness at a time.

 

I'm autistic, and one of the aspects of my neurological condition is that I'm above average at math, so I can understand how rooftop solar can be free, or how an EV can cost the owner less than ICE over 5 years, let alone 10, despite having a higher purchase price, because lower operating and maintenance costs more than make up for the higher initial price.

 

Unfortunately, another aspect of my neurological condition is that I'm not good at explaining math to morons.

 

It's extremely frustrating. People who are too dumb to grasp the importance of polluting less, would pollute less anyway, if they were smart enough to see how much money it would save them.

The EV Backlash in Wyoming and Boston

In Wyoming, it's typified by the new proposal in the state legislature -- a proposal which apparently is already dead -- to ban all sales of new EVs in the state by 2035. 

 

When a recent opinion piece in the Boston Globe refers to the backlash against EVs, by contrast, it's talking about the effort to ban all cars, regardless of powertrain.

I'm actually disappointed that the Wyoming EV ban is not gathering steam. I looked forward to urging EV enthusiasts to drive around Wyoming rather than through it, and to pointing out how people, and how few vehicles of any kind, are in Wyoming, so stop debating them on Reddit about whether EVs have enough range yet to be practical, and ignore them instead. I was joking when I said that the way to react to the Wyoming EV ban was to build a wall around the state -- but only partly joking. EVs are getting more and more positive reactions from the majority of the Earth populace. I say, let's get on with the EV transition, and the solar and wind transition, and just drive around those who are resisting the transition until they finally see all the advantages of joining in. 

Meanwhile, 510 EVs are already owned and registered in Wyoming. I suppose we ought to take a moment and acknowledge those EV owners. Well, maybe much more than a moment. On Reddit, instead of the ongoing feuding with the above-mentioned people who claim that EVs don't have enough range -- many of whom, perhaps most, are of course trolls -- we should focus more attention, and support, moral support if nothing else, on the people who actually own and drive EVs out there where all those trolls keep saying it can't be done. 

Ignore the trolls. Shine a light on EV owners in Wyoming. Report more on how they're getting it down out there. Photos. Details. CHARGING STATIONS MAPS! Might turn out to be just the kick in the pants needed by those in, say, Pennsylvania or Oregon, who claim that EVs ares still not a viable option for them.

Growth of EV Sales

Worldwide, about 6.75 EV's were sold in 2021, which was more than twice the 2020 total of 3.3 million, which itself was a 60% increase over 2019's total of 2 million. In the first quarter of 2022, 2 million units were sold, almost twice the 1.1 million sold in Q1 2021. 

 

No one knows how quickly EV sales will increase in the future, and no one I've seen is predicting that sales will continue to double every year -- but just for fun, just for the moment, let's pretend they will. Double 2022's global total of 6.75 million would be 13.5 million in 2023, 27 million in 2024, 54 million in 2025, 108 million in 2026 and hold it, hold it, because as far as I know, there have never been as many as 108 million motor vehicles sold in any calendar year. If I've got it right, the worldwide record so far was under 80 million, in 2017, and few if any people are predicting as many as 108 by 2026.

I'm sure that a lot of you, including many hardcore EV advocates, are yelling at your screens about now, saying that I'm an idiot and that 100% growth of EV sales every year is impossible. 

Yes, I'm an idiot, you've got no argument from me there. Where we disagree is in the use of this term "impossible." I've long believed that it's an overused term, and that many more things are possible than most of us tend to think most of the time.

The growth of the EV sector over the past couple of years has happened in spite of COVID, in spite of supply chain issues -- and in spite of very, very few EV's having been sold outside of China, Europe and North America. Lots of vehicles were sold in Central and South America, Africa, India. Very, very few EV's. 

About 90% of recent EV sales have been in China and Europe. Why? It's very simple: because laws in China and Europe said that higher percentages of vehicles had to be EV's. Because people decided that EV sales were going to grow.

What's the biggest obstacle to the growth of solar and wind power to run all these EV's, real present-day one plus the imaginary future ones? It's the legal situation again, with the fossil fuel industry and so-called "utilities" hindering the growth of solar and wind, and thus the death of fossil fuels. 

From one perspective it all seems very complicated, and it's true that there are a lot of moving parts here, and that EV sales are just a part of it: exposing the ties between fossil fuels and government, building up solar and wind, smartening up the grid, improving public transportation, encouraging people to walk more and eat less meat, afforestation, re-forestation, rebuilding wetlands, etc etc. Yes, you could say that it's complicated.

From another perspective, though, it's as simple as anything could ever be: do we want to save our own lives? How much do we want it? Do we want it bad enough, or not?

I'm not going to save the world all by myself, one isolated autistic weirdo with a silly blog. How many people are working on these things, how many will join them? People with the brains to make better batteries and smarter grids? People with power, people in positions to pass laws that get more EV's and less ICE vehicles built, laws that speed the growth of solar and wind and kill off fossil fuels, laws which improve education so that everyone is better equipped to improve all of these things? People with the patience and eloquence and intelligence to explain, better than I can, why all of these things are necessary and how important they are?

Here Come The Clean, Quiet, Non-Stinky EV's

The night before yesterday, I woke up a few hours earlier than I had planned to. I imagine many other others in my neighborhood may have awoken at the same time, for the same reason: because an extremely loud pickup truck was parked at the curb and revving. Honestly, it was rattling my windows. 

I don't know whether the truck's driver was intentionally altering people's sleep patterns. I don't know whether his truck has been modified to be that loud, or if it has a broken muffler. I suspect the second, because the truck is usually dirty and full of tools and the driver doesn't look well-off enough to have a budget for a fancy, intentionally-noisy exhaust.

Later that day, yesterday, the Ford F-150 Lightning, the first all-electric pickup truck from Detroit, was officially released, and deliveries to paying customers began. And, yesterday, it occurred to me that it's going to be much harder to wake people up with a loud engine, when EV's replace ICE vehicles. 

And they will replace ICE. Not as soon as some of us would like, but a lot sooner than many people think. Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, says that he expects Ford to produce about 200,000 F-150 Lightnings in the first 12 months after yesterday launch. He also says that Ford's combined production of all its EV models to be at a rate of around 600,000 per year by the end of 2023, and 2,000,000 by the end of 2026. 

By 2035, or sooner, new ICE vehicles will be somewhat rare. If a pickup truck driver or a motorcyclist wants to wake up his neighbors in the middle of the night, it will be much harder for him to do so. He'll have to find some other way of dealing with his frustration and hostility -- like maybe talking to somebody about how he feels, which might actually help him feel much better.

If he feels bad about waking people up, then the new electric vehicles will be a relief. 

Those who are already used to being in EV's all the time already assure us that they now hate the stink of internal combustion, the stink they hardly noticed before, the stink most of us hardly notice, because it''s always there. 

The noise is also always there. 

It's not as if an electric motor is entirely silent, but an electric vehicle is quiet enough that you can't wake up your neighbors with it. The absence of the stink, of the noise, of the pollution -- startling changes are coming faster than some of you think. In some neighborhoods they're already here.

EV's By Themselves Will Not Save the World. But They Are an Improvement. Here are Some More Things We Can Do

I saw a story linked on Reddit, whose author had figured out that Tesla is bad, and concluded that EV's are bad. I commented that I hope this sort of simplemindedness wasn't widespread, and I hope people will actually judge EV manufacturers individually. 

 

I got some severe pushback for that remark, with people saying that EV's aren't going to save the planet by themselves, and that it would be better if people didn't drive at all. 

Well, I didn't say that EV's would save us all by themselves. And I agree that it would be better if people drove less. 

But I don't see a feasible way to get people to give up privately-owned cars and private trucks altogether. But driving less would be good, and it would be better if people drove EV's rather than ICE. 

And replacing ICE with electricity in public transportation, and in cargo railroad trains, and in ships and aircraft, wood be good.

And solar, and wind, and geothermal power, and tidal. And smarter grids, and smarter agriculture, and smarter manufacturing, and smarter architecture.

And reforestation, and afforestation. 

And restoring wetlands!

And just as I don't see a way, short term, to make all people go without driving, I don't see a way to persuade them all to go completely vegan right now. But still, it would be better if they ate less meat. We can't make everything perfect right now, but we can make improvements.

It would be better if we generated less household waste. Better waste management, better recycling, better land management, better water management, better city management. Everywhere you look, there are things we're doing that we could be doing in a more efficient, healthier way. Which is where we came in: manufacturing EV's can be done in a cleaner or dirtier way. Tesla does it in a dirty way. That's no reason not to see whether other companies aren't doing it more cleanly. As if somebody in those companies actually cared about reducing greenhouse gasses.

It's not always 100% clear which way is best. For example, are plug-in hybrids the best way to go for the moment? Are they speeding the transition to pure EV, or slowing it down? I think they're slowing down. But I realize that I might be wrong. And either way, a plug-in hybrid pollutes much less than an ICE car. 

And if BEV advocates spend too much time squabbling with plug-in hybrid drivers, it could distract them from lobbying for that bike path they both want. Denouncing all EV's, because you want nobody to drive at all, could persuade people to just keep driving ICE. Again, there's a question of efficiency. Your energy and eloquence are yet another resource which can be allocated more efficiently, or less.

Speaking of driving, there sure has to be a more environmentally-friendly way of making roads than our current asphalt-based approach. 

And hopefully I've helped you think of many more things to do.

Statistics About Electric Vehicles

The problem is, you don't always know what they mean. 

California has registered over one million EV's. First and foremost, I want to say that this is tremendously good news. And secondly, I want to acknowledge that it's possible that I'm the only one who doesn't know exactly what "EV's" means in this context. 

Possible, but it seems very unlikely. And it's not just this story. People say that so and so many EV's have been sold in this time frame in this place, and very often, the meaning of "EV" is not clearly specified.

The most common confusion is whether PHEV's are being counted along with BEV's. 

But that's not all. In case of the one-million-EV milestone in California: and just let me repeat: I think it's great, no matter what "EV" means exactly -- I don't know whether we're talking about cars,vans and light-duty trucks only, or whether we're talking about cars, vans and light-duty trucks, and also electric public-transportation buses, and private buses (think music superstars on tour), and delivery trucks and other large trucks, and electric earth-movers and farm equipment, and electric motorcycles and scooters (stand up scooters as well as sit-down scooters) and power assisted bicycles and electric unicycles. Yes, electric unicycles are a thing. 

If you added up all of those other categories besides car, vans and trucks -- all of the categories besides personal-use 4-wheel electric vehicles -- would it add up to enough to change the number significantly? I don't know. 

I know that the pollution avoided with an electric bus is much more than that avoided with an electric car. How much more? I don't know that either. 

And I don't know who knows these things, I don't know where to get this information. It would be nice to know.

"I went back to ICE because there's no viable alternative to Tesla."

Audi E-Tron, BMWi3, Chevy Bolt, Ford Mach-e, Hyundai Ionoiq Electric, Hyundai Kona Electric, Jaguar I-Pace, Kandi K27, Kia Niro Electric, Lucid Air, MiniCooper SE, Nissan Leaf, Polestar 2, Porsche Taycan, Rivian R1T, Rivian R1S, Volvo XC40 and VW ID4. These are all on the market to buy new in Murrka. There are also some discontinued models available used. And I've probably missed a few of the current options. I don't know whether the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and the Kia EV 6 are on sale in Murrka, for example.

 There are over 100 models of new EV currently for sale in Europe. So why are most of them not on sale here in Murrka? That's a damn good question, if you ask me! And if you ask why so many more EV's are sold in Europe and in China than in Murrka, that's one of the obvious answers. And if people say that Murrkins don't buy small cars, I reply that we're not ABLE to buy cars which aren't offered for SALE here. (And I resist the urge to hit. I haven't punched anyone since 1978 and I'm proud of that.) Last time I checked, over half the top 10 bestselling EV's in Europe are not available in the US.

 

The only reason I'm talking more about EV's in Europe than in China is I know less about EV's in China. And about EV's in the rest of the world.

 

(And all of this is not counting large trucks, delivery vans, buses and so forth. There are a lot of those.)

 

Anyway, all of this is in response to a post I saw recently in social media from a person who had troubles with a Tesla (yes, shocking, I know, but he was less than fully satisfied), and went back to ICE, because "there is no viable alternative to Tesla."

 

Another SLOW Month in Non-Tesla Murrkin EV News

Lucid have actually delivered some vehicles to customers! I don't know how many.

 

So what do you think, is Lucid currently delivering units at a faster pace than Rivian?

Rivian has said they will deliver 1,000 units in 2021, so I think the only question about that is, how late in 2022 will the 1,000th unit be delivered? (I'm highly confident that they can do it before January 1, 2023.)

Seriously, though, I wish Rivian and Lucid well. And Bollinger, and Farraday Future and Fisker, and... I was about to say "and Nikola too," but it's really hard to wish those assholes well.

But someone has to crush Tesla.

Another question: Musk has always said, in media interviews, that he wishes nothing but success for anyone making EV's, and that Tesla want to do everything they can to help all of those other EV manufacturers.

So my question is: am I actually the only person on Earth who sees that Musk is completely full of shit when he says those things? Does no-one else have the computing power in their brain-grease to see that, if Tesla was actually helping even a little bit, the combined deliveries of all non-Tesla Murrkin EV-only manufacturers would currently be a lot higher than a few hundred? (Not counting aftermarket conversions, which I would guess number in the thousands in the US alone by now.)

 

Am I the only one on Earth who suspects Tesla of actual illegal interference with other EV manufacturers? Not just everyday hardball business-as-usual dirty tricks, but actual completely illegal sabotage? Answer me! Am I the only one? I did a Google search, tesla sabotage of other ev manufacturers, all I got were some stories from 2018 about Musk yelling that someone had sabotaged Tesla, no doubt to divert from the latest horrible thing he himself had done. FEAR MY SUPER-POWERED AUTISTIC BRAIN-GREASE, MUSK! You fool all these others. Not me.

Update on Green Energy

Around 2.6 million EV's were sold in the first half of 2021. For some perspective on this, the total number of EV's on the road in the world passed 2.6 million during 2016. At the end of 2019 there were about 7.5 million. That number has probably doubled since then. It's possible that the total sales for 2021 alone will exceed 7.5, although most predictions are closer to 6 million.

 

So, yes, graphs of EV's sales currently show a line going almost straight up. The numbers in the US are much smaller than in Europe and China -- approximately 350,000 in 2020 in the US and around 1.5 each in Europe and China -- but in all 3 regions, 2021 are expected to double the figures from 2020. 

Why are more EV's being sold in Europe and China than in the US? The answer is: the Republican Party and gas, coal and oil companies. There's no big mystery or debate about this: the numbers since 1990 speed up when Democrats are in charge and slow down when Republicans are in power. And the same, unsurprisingly, is true of solar and wind power: the US lead the world, by a large margin, several decades ago, and since then, the GOP, bought and paid for by Big Oil and Coal and Gas, have slowed down progress just as much as they can. The GOP, plus a few Democrats in places like West Virginia and Oklahoma.

Globally, however, there has been a lot a progress. Vote Democratic and help the US join in on this good stuff. 

Other regions which have been held back by the fossil fuel industry include Brasil and Australia.

Globally, we can see a lot of improvement, and a lot of room for improvement. The human race might just survive its habit of burning stuff. Wouldn't that be something.

The Answer is, There is No One Answer

Sometimes when you come across something stupid, the best thing you can do is forget it and move on.

However, sometimes it just keeps gnawing at your brain like a stupid rodent. I suppose that's one of the things blogs are for.

Someone (I'll do him the kindness of not saying who) who seems to think he's extraordinarily intelligent, and has a considerable following who seem to agree, recently made an elaborate online presentation of all of the reasons why evs are not the answer and are not going to solve the climate crisis all by themselves: they are better than ice vehicles, he says, but they still have tires and drive on roads and other very bad things.

 

The thing is, I literally can't think of anyone, offhand, who has claimed that evs, all by themselves, are the answer. It seems to me that almost everyone bright enough to realize that evs actually are cleaner than ice vehicles, also knows that they are not perfect from an ecological standpoint, and also is in favor of addressing the climate crisis in a number of ways: not just with evs, but also with public transportation, solar power, wind power, geothermal, tidal, sustainable agriculture, a sustainable timber industry, afforestation, reforestation, veganism, smarter architecture, cleaner concrete, cleaner steel, cleaner rubber, better science, better education, better politicians, etc, etc, etc.

I say almost everyone, because this guy, after listing all of the reasons why evs aren't the answer,  said that trains, public transportation by rail, ARE the answer.

Maybe he was making a joke and I missed it. I've missed a few jokes in my lifetime. 

And public transportation by rail will be very helpful in decreasing humanity's carbon footprint. Along with with evs and many, many other things. As you very likely already knew. 

Making it questionable whether this blog post accomplished a thing. Except perhaps to warn you against those who believe that there is one single thing which, all by itself, will repair the Earth's climate. 

If there actually are any such people. There probably are at least a few here and there. Possibly even including the train-obsessed jerk who impelled me to write this.

Or Are They All Just Trolls?

Typical comments absolutely everywhere EV's are discussed: "Range, range, range, range, this Honda E looks nice and all, but I live in the Yukon 500 miles from the nearest electrical outlet." Then get a Tesla or a Lucid. "Space, space, space, I have to transport 500 kg of moose feed every day (living in the Yukon as I do)." Then get an SUV. 

 

It's amazing, the number of people commenting on EV's who live in the Yukon, know what I mean? Only about 35,000 people live in the Yukon, and still, somehow, they seem to make up 70-90% of the prospective EV buyers in the world, to judge from the number of people commenting about the Honda E and complaining about its lack of range. You know what, I bet a lot of them are also concerned about what we'll do with all of those EV batteries when they're worn out and all of those poor birds being killed by the wind turbines.

Electric Crossovers and Trucks are Coming to the US, But Smaller, Bestselling EV's Aren't Being Brought Here

If you keep up with the news about EV's, you will perceive a lot of of excitement in the US right now about electric SUV's, crossovers, trucks and big sedans. The Mustang Mach-E, which despite its name is not a Mustang, but a crossover, has been selling very well. The Hyundai Ioniq 5, another crossover, is coming soon, as are big fast sedans from Lucid, Polestar and Audi, and trucks from Rivian and Tesla and Bollinger, as well as newer versions of great big huge EV's which have already been on sale in the US for a while. And a report from some alleged geniuses says that VW "could" eventually compete with Tesla in the EV market. The VW id.4, a crossover, will go on sale in the US very soon, if it hasn't already.

In Europe, the best-selling EV right now is the VW id.3, a hatchback a bit smaller then the id.4, which hit the market last year. 2nd place: the Renault Zoe, which has been around for years and sold a huge number of units, over 250,000 and counting fast, 4th all-time among EV's after the Tesla Model 3, the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model S.. 

Neither the id.3 nor the Zoe is on sale in the US. 

And European reviewers are very excited about many other smallish EV's, such as the Honda E, which also are not for sale in in the US. The best-selling EV in China is the Wuling HongGuang Mini EV -- not on sale in the US.

"They" say that we Americans love SUV's, crossovers and trucks. But it's sort of hard for us to make the case that we would often prefer smaller cars when it's literally impossible for us to buy them.

 

Jeepers, why were almost 4 times as many EV's sold in Europe last year as in the US? It's a complete and stupefying mystery! The number sold in China was almost identical to Europe. Europe just barely won.

 

I'm old enough to remember the 1960's and 70's, when the US market was full of muscle cars, station wagons and huge sluggish sedans. Not very exciting machines, but the manufacturers made huge profits per vehicle. What's going on right now in the US EV market feels very familiar, unfortunately. Except that in this case it's doubly stupid, of course, because EV's are supposedly about efficiency.

The Cute EV of the Month Award goes to the Citroen Ami. This time it wasn't even close.

 

This French 2-seater is technically not even  a car, at least not according to French laws. 14-year-olds can legally drive it. The exterior is entirely made of plastic. The Ami doesn't have any of the sound insulation found in conventional automobiles, so you hear the very small electrical motor whizzing away as you drive. It doesn't seem to be able to top 30mph, except maybe downhill. Don't quote me on the downhill over-30mph, I'm not entirely sure about it. So far it's only available in France. Despite the total lack of anything even remotely resembling frills, British reviewers are going, please please please, Citroen, bring it to the UK, and Citroen is saying, Okay, maybe, we'll see, which makes the British reviewers hop around with glee.

What about in the US? Haha. Ahhhh, haaaa-hahahaaaa, haahaa, haha!  

No, as far as I know, there are no immediate plans to bring the Citroen Ami to the US.

I've got a great idea for a commercial for the Citroen Ami. "Ami" is French for "friend." In the commercial, someone is walking along the sidewalk, while an Ami rolls along silently in the street just behind him. There's no-one behind the steering wheel. He turns around and the Ami stops. He starts walking again and the Ami starts rolling along behind him again. He turns around again and looks at the Ami for a longer period of time. Then the Ami says, in a voice like ET: "Friend."