EV Dark Truths

Electric vehicles are promoted by many groups as the solution to fossil fuel use in vehicles and tailpipe pollution near dense populations that harm the environment & public health. 

Slow charging in public means 4X more time on level 3 chargers than fuel-ups at gas stations. Most conventional gasoline powered automobiles can be refueled with 300-400 miles of fuel within 7 minutes of fueling at the gas station.

Almost no EV chargers are nearly as fast as refueling. On the other hand, most EV owners plug in when they get home using the EVSE level 1 extension cord charger included with their EV, all night long, with enough charging for their vehicle use the next day, when they wake up & unplug & go in their EV to work, school, the store, or wherever they go, and enough charge to make it back to the L1 charging for another slow trickly charge all night long. 

A typical EV going to be driven around 10,500 mi annually. This means about 4,000 kWh of charging energy required to energize the EV for a year of use. A typical home of 4 people with electric utility uses around 11,000 kWh per year.

Each new EV sort of like adding 1/2 of a house worth of electrical grid power use, though many EV owners live in single family homes with an 8-30kW rooftop solar PV system that works with the whole home battery system to power the electrical loads at home, TV's, appliances, lights, bulbs, EV charging, computers, routers, switches, modems, phone charging & more. 

Most power grid energy cleaner that coal power, such that a mix of hydro, wind, solar PV, natural gas, geothermal, nuclear & other energy sources are used to make electrical power. This means that EV charging going to result in less net pollution than gas powered cars in most locals. Also, more renewables are being added to the worlds electrical grids as many nations seek to reduce carbon emissions, with broad decarbonization policies & laws to phase out carbon combustion energy. 

Right now in late 2023 about 97% of the transportation industry powered by fossil fuels. Thats many petawatt hours per year. There is no easy or cheap way to quickly replace fossil fuels with batteries & electric vehicles.

Gasoline contains 44 megajoules per kilogram. Thats 20X more energy dense than the best Tesla Model whatever NMC lithium battery today, in terms of energy density. In aircraft the JP8 sorta like diesel fuel & even more energy dense than gasoline. Thus, battery electric passenger aircraft will be limited to less than 1000 mi flights, and likely energized by composite hydrogen tanks & fuel cells + batteries & ultra-capacitors. I imagine a hybrid electric high bypass turbo fan jet engine will use fuel for cruising, with clean quiet electric take off & landing, even energy recovery to charge up when descending for a landing as they approach the destination airport.

Heavy bunker oil used on cargo ships very cheap per unit of propulsive energy, like coal cheap per unit of power produced, but both are very dirty burning, meaning they release a lot of toxic pollution per unit of power produced. Diesel fuel similarly dirty burning with complicated emissions that require a DPF & DEF injection 3way costly emissions control system to remediate most of the tailpipe NOX & particulate matter into non-toxic gases & solids. 

Burning wood & other biomass makes air pollutants too. When rain mixes with combustion caused air pollutants it forms acids that cause acid rain, corrosion & ecological damage to aquatic life in oceans, rivers, lakes & streams. Tire treat erosion products that EV's release 6X faster than gas powered cars, also runs off as water pollution, putting microplastics everywhere. 

Child labor in Co or Cobalt mining a major problem, and Cobalt used to improve the safety & performance of common lithium-ion batteries in portable electronics & EV's. Many EV makers are working to improve mining safety & address the use of child labor by investing in education in poor developing areas of the DRC for example to help the children become educated adults, getting them away from the dangerous environment of the cobalt mines. Cobalt production not the only reason that child labor still exists. Many other materials & products are made with child labor, sadly. 

Acceleration in an EV really fun! Silent acceleration without funky emissions where many other people are breathing nearby. This gives a guilt reduction when driving an EV with enthusiasm like an auto sports enthusiast might operate a fossil fueled car when drag racing or while racing. Ludacris mode & Beast Mode on Tesla Model S P100D & CyberTruck respectively off sub 3 second 0-60 MPH times like a supercar or very powerful sports car. 

Then again, EV lack the exhaust note, manual shifting engagement, engine noises & other fun NVH from engines in high performance automobiles. This means that an EV like driving a low noise optimized automatic car, think Lexus LS or similar, less dynamic visceral or engaging, though there are electric supercars for $ millions with exceptional handling & driving dynamics. 

Most people with 10 years of experience with smartphones know that batteries fade. EV batteries fade and this means a loss of range, something that increases range anxiety in older used EV's. Progress battery capacity loss means eventually the EV battery has to be replaced at great cost. With 100kWh EV battery costs of $20K, that means the older used EV's will depreciate faster. 

In very cold environments, EV's have to heat the battery with up to 7kW of heat to keep the battery pack above 40 degrees. This means that EV's parked a ski resort all day can lose many kWh of battery energy. Consider 7kw battery heater running for 8 hours would consume 56kWh of battery. Going back down the mountain pass will recover some of that lost charge with brake regeneration, but when Tesla or others claims 300 mi of battery range, take that with a grain of salt, since in worst case winter conditions that could be as low as 140mi of battery range, less with older battery packs that have capacity loss from battery fade over time. 

In very hot environments, the EV has to run the HVAC compressor & heat pump to cool the battery pack, since above 100 degrees the lithium-ion battery damaged by thermal stress. This means 3-5kw of drain when parked in direct sunlight in a hot climate like Phoenix AZ, USA in dark asphalt parking lot. 

Registration Fee Debacle for EV's. Locally it was costing me over $600 per year to register used Nissan LEAF's. In contrast, our Toyota Prius were less than $200 per year to register, even when new. Over 10 years that means $4000 more for EV registration. That was specifically in Washington State when loss in gasoline taxes cost the state millions of dollars, so they passed special EV taxes to make up for the lost gas tax since EV's don't use gasoline. 

EV's kill tires faster because the EV motor makes instant torque acceleration fun. This makes EV a blast to drive, with smile inducing rapid acceleration, but the torque from the EV motor shreds the tread away 6-10 faster. Many Tesla EV owners only getting 6,000 miles on a set of tires, while conventional fossil fueled cars of similar performance get 35,000-80,000 miles on the same tires.

Battery recycling not ready for the high volume of large heave EV batteries that eventually wear out. The core of an EV, aside from the battery will probably last 500,000 miles or 40 years, but the EV battery probably going to be very weak by the end of 15 years of daily use. The range of the EV will slowly decline as the battery weakens over time and with cycling. Think 10+ years & 5000 cycles before 80% capacity reached. 

All of these EV problems will be addressed with better batteries, better pubic EV chargers, better EV motors, better cobalt mining conditions, and improved Li-ion battery recycling capacity. 

Synthetic gasoline will be around for decades to come, made from natural gas, bio-gas, coal gas, and other chemical waste. Syngas clean burning like propane, so much better than conventional gasoline. 

No vehicles are eco-friendly. Industrialization toxic to the environment or biosphere of Earth, nature & harms public health, through manufacturing emissions, energy production emissions, processing of minerals emissions & in other ways. 

Obviously, we can use technology to improve out transportation systems & reduce emissions of toxic pollutants at every level of society. Innovation means better solutions to problems. Applying more intelligent wisdom to solution creation means we can achieve miracles with technology. But do not delude yourself into believing that EV's are a solution to all pollution. After 12 years or 60,000 mi of US a typical EV becomes cleaner in terms of net emissions than a typical gasoline powered automobile. 

In 2005 I purchased a 2nd Gen. Prius from Toyota and sold it to Allan in early 2023. It had about 158,000 mi ODO after 17 years of use.

In 2020 we traded a 15 Nissan LEAF for a 2010 Prius III with 101,100 mi ODO. It works great & has gone on many long road trips with Meg & I providing fuel efficient reliable transportation. 

In late 2023 we purchased a used 2022 Corolla Hybrid from Toyota with 26,026 mi ODO & that is my daily commuter.  

In early 2023 we inherited my adoptive mother's 2001 Audi A4 Quattro 2.8L 30v narrow angle V6 sedan in Premium trim with heated leather seats & BOSE premium sound system & powered sunroof. It's got just less than 100,000 miles on it now, requires premium fuel, gets 23 MPG the way I drive it, and about to have the engine 92C thermostat changed out with an OEM unit by Matt the expert mechanic that QP told me about. 

I leased the 2013 Nissan LEAF S w/ 24kWh battery for 24mo $2000 down & $199 per month / gave it back at the end of the lease. 

In 2018 I traded my 2015 Honda CR-z for a 2015 Nissan LEAF w/ 30kWh battery. This LEAF was traded in for Meg's Prius III. 

In early 2023 I purchased a 2019 Nissan LEAF SV w/40kWh battery, but months later traded it in for the 22 Corolla Hybrid. 

In every case, the Nissan LEAF did the same thing. When driving in cold weather the battery state of charge display would suddenly drop rapidly, showing remaining range that was at 40-80 mi dropping to 10, or 8 or 5mi critical low battery warning. At freeway speeds this would happen. When climbing mountains nearby this would happen. Slowing down or pulling over & stopping would cause the remaining range to restore to the nominal double-digit range, but as soon as I loaded it with acceleration the faded battery pack SOC would decline rapidly, causing a sudden loss of performance & frightening me significantly. 

I came home every day for a couple weeks complaining to Meg that I need to get rid of the Nissan LEAF SV because it keeps almost stranding me. She agreed to get another car as long as it got better than 40 miles per gallon and was not an EV.

I will never buy another used Nissan LEAF. I loved the quiet brisk acceleration of the LEAF and the tech, but the air-cooled battery pack let me down too many times. I believe a proper EV for American highway & winter use cases needs at least 100kWh of battery & more like 250-400kWh of battery to really parallel what the Toyota Hybrids can do in terms of worst-case winter use cases. 

I always had a soft spot in my heart for the Toyota Corolla for a lot of reasons. With more than 50 million Corolla's sold worldwide. Through 12 generations of redesigns, Corolla are practical, reliable, efficient cars that many other people obviously appreciate. 

The 2ZR-FXE Atkinson cycle 1.8L inline 4 fuel injected liquid cooled aluminum motor of the 22 Corolla Hybrid been used in many other Toyota Hybrids, 3rd & 4th generation Prius for example, since 2009, and been revised repeatedly to improve reliability & thermal efficiency.

I love the Corolla Hybrid :) Its super-efficient, able to get over 60 MPG with mild hypermiling. With more aggressive fuel saving driving techniques it gives over 70 MPG & best-case scenario over 80 MPG. Gives over 40 MPG when driving quickly, and around 53 MPG when driven normal to keep up with light full speed early morning freeway traffic in winter. 

PHEV like Prius Prime or Rav4 Prime are awesome, just too expensive for my budget locally. 

I really love the 2023 Prius fifth generation too, with eAWD & 196 HP. The 5th Gen Prius engine achieves over 43% thermal efficiency, or class leading. Sub 8 seconds 0-60 MPH, it's the fastest Prius, and has over 50 MPG fuel economy on regular unleaded gasoline. Superior traction in winter conditions with eAWD the Prius all-wheel drive system only imposes a tiny 2 mpg reduction in fuel economy. There was a 6mo waiting list for 5th Gen Prius locally. Toyota Sienna Hybrid has a 3-year waiting list locally. 

They had a lovely white colored Corolla Hybrid that we test drove & liked, so that's what we got :) I have driven it just over 1,200 mi now & really like it. I like smaller cars. I didn't want to go the truck or SUV route yet. If money was no option, I would have gone with the 2023 Rav4 Prime, but that would have cost more than $50 grand out the door. 

I spent half that much on the Corolla Hybrid :) Gas prices are starting to go down a little now too. Locally gasoline prices peaked at $5.80 a gallon, while many stations are selling for $4.70 or slightly less per gallon now. Indicated range after a fill-up between 580 & 620 mi depending on recent driving patterns. The range & fuel economy goes down if I drive quickly, in a hurry, and improves if I go slow & steady & leave earlier to have extra time to hypermile carefully, safety & with great focus. 

EV's not free to charge, though at nighttime off peak utility prices for electric vehicles means they are cheaper to charge at night than during the day. This means that the ~4000 or so kWh of electric power going to cost a few hundred dollars depending on the cost of electricity. Thats cheaper than the fueling cost of gasoline powered vehicles, less maintenance costs for the EV too. EV main problem from the fading lithium-ion batteries & loss of range & performance as the battery pack breaks down from use.

EV terrible for infrequently used vehicles, since the sitting battery pack will fade from onboard parasitic loads from the battery pack BMS monitor & cell balancing, cooling & heating of the pack. Some Tesla EV owners note a 1% per hour parked drain. That means almost a full discharge after being parked for 3-7 days continually. This means EV good for daily commuting, but not good for infrequent use by retired people for example who only drive 1 day a week or less. 

You are not everyone, and the vehicle that works best for you is up to you to choose. I am just sharing my thoughts here :) The scope of my blog is to inspire other people to think about their choices more carefully with better information to consider more fully. I believe that people are enabled with better access to facts & accurate information. I share my personal opinion, choices & experiences so that you can use me as an example for analysis & comparison. I really hope my blog posting help other people & that's the most important part of why I publish these postings; to make the world a better place by helping other people, even if only with just a little information.