Pete Buttigieg is tone deaf on the auto market, but his media sycophants are none the wiser!
Evan Hurst, who like other writers for Wonkette has a tenuous grasp of anything besides profane ranting, doesn't understand WHY some EVs are priced cheaper
The internet is a natural habitat to all that’s irreverent and outrageous, so what’s a few curse words here and there? I think if a writer can present a story and get the idea across a few F-bombs never hurt anyone. The problem arises when the product comes out replete with obscenities at the expense of any semblance of research let alone understanding the topic itself. Wonkette is the type of web magazine that makes no attempt to maintain an air of objectivity. It was originally part of the original Gawker Media family and as such retains much of the same abrasive tone.
In a July 19 piece author Evan Hurst goes full supernova in an hilarious attempt to portray Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as being too smart for the House Transportation Committee Republican members. Hurst makes ample use of semi-satirical straw men characterizations such as this:
“Point is, they are all mad at EVs right now, because EVs are extremely cruel to the oil bid'ness.
And yes, we laugh at them, but we have to remember that a lot of these politicians' mothers were oil rigs and their daddies were also oil rigs and they were born when two oil rigs had gay oil sex with each other and got each other oil pregnant. Or, you know, however it works when people are completely bought-and-paid-for by the oil bid'ness.”
If you’re confused, Hurst’s point was that Republicans are “afraid” of electrical vehicles, because they are beholden to Big Oil. And he’s right, because the GOP is in bed with the fossil fuel industry. But guess what, so is the economy for the foreseeable. And what Hurst also omits is that Buttigieg has used EV’s as the panacea to the current high energy prices on several occasions including in November 2021 when average gasoline prices were at $3.39/gal.
The reason Hurst was exulting in Buttigieg’s performance was that in his exchange with Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) during that hearing he countered Perry’s use of the $55,000 average price tag of an electric vehicle by naming several alternative EV’s with lower price tags. According to Hurst “Secretary Mayor Pete stuffed his large shoe up Scott Perry's a** and said f*** off. But he said it nicely, and with math.” See the clip below:
Hurst also selectively listened to Perry’s exchange with Sec. Buttigieg, in which he also cites that since 2010 the US has closed 550 power generation plants, eliminating 102 gigawatts and continuing onward. Buttigieg does not address in response how to ready the power grid for higher demand from EV’s, nor how to more reliably source the rare earth minerals that are at the moment mostly mined in China. The exchange with Perry also followed a much more disastrous discussion between Buttigieg and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) who exposed how Buttigieg was unaware how EV’s require four times as much electricity to charge than the average air conditioning unit, which itself constitutes 17% of a house’s energy consumption.
But most importantly Hurst forgot to follow up and research the vehicles that Buttigieg named in the small segment where he focused the most. Let’s explore some of the reasons that Secretary Pete’s EV genie isn’t exactly an instant solution to petrol pain.
Pricing and charge range
The vehicles that Buttigieg go for the following prices: Chevrolet Bolt - $26,595, Ford F-150 Lighting - $41,769 (not as he said $39,974) and Chevrolet Silverado EV - $42,000 (not as he said $39,900).
Notably Buttigieg made sure to name cars from the traditional US-based automakers Chevy and Ford. (Stellantis, a Netherlands based company, now owns Chrysler, so I guess we don’t talk about them anymore.) There are cheaper EV’s available at least on paper, including the Nissan Leaf ($27,400), Mazda MX-30 ($33,740) and Mini Cooper SE ($29,900), but they do not have the same range as the others.
Availability
To compound the pricing discrepancy, the Silverado EV is not slated to begin production until 2023, only reaching market in 2024. Buttigieg proposed to drivers that they solve their current gasoline costs by purchasing an EV that is more than a year from reaching the dealer showroom.
Another major snag is a long term shortage of battery materials like lithium, cobalt, and nickel. In 2021 Autoweek reported on this storm cloud, along with massive recalls of EV batteries for late model Chevy Bolts and other EVs from Ford, Hyundai and GM. The EV supply shortage is not some obscure issue; CNBC produced an hourlong special (see above) on it March that addresses these issues in depth.
New car shortages, used car price spikes
Another issue that Buttigieg (and Hurst) ignore is that most Americans that cannot afford gasoline aren’t coincidentally flush with cash that they can dump on a brand new vehicle. But even if they were, the new car market has been plagued by shortages of microchips and semiconductors since 2020. The used car market has seen price spikes of up to 45% for many vehicles.
EV’s are a poor investment
Electric vehicles are steadily becoming more reliable and affordable, and are slowly gaining market share among new car buyers. That being said, they are not a great investment for owners concerned with resale value after purchase, because the cost for battery replacement is so high that each year of ownership the car loses typically $5700 off of its original value. After five years an EV will have depreciated by $28,500 compared to $16,000 for the average combustion engine powered vehicle. One exception is the Tesla Model 3 (base model sells for $48,190), which loses only 10% of its original value after three years.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this excursion into the world of the ideologically blind. Please remember to always read past the soundbites.