Treason! Outrage! New York Times Kills The Electric Car
The electric car is in deep trouble. Why is that? The New York Times just pulled the plug.
Yes, the New York Times. I know, until a few weeks ago, there was hardly an EV the Times did not like. The Times even drove a pre-not-production BYD F3DM plug-in hybrid, and liked it. Never mind the “wobbly storage compartment between the front seats, subpar floor mats, squishy handling.” If it had a plug and four wheels, an adoring review in the NYT was pretty much guaranteed. No more.
Now, suddenly, the lady in grey disses EVs with the vitriolic verve of a thin-lipped, lockjawed Upper East Side co-op board chairwoman who denies a gangsta rapper’s application to buy the penthouse.
“The state of the electric car is dismal, the victim of hyped expectations, technological flops, high costs and a hostile political climate. General Motors has temporarily suspended production of the plug-in electric Chevy Volt because of low sales. Nissan’s all-electric Leaf is struggling in the market. A number of start-up electric vehicle and battery companies have folded.”
Yes, that’s the New York Times writing. And it’s not a guest piece by Op-Ed Niedermeyer. The man who asks whether this is “the beginning of the end of the latest experiment in the electric car, whose checkered history goes back to the dawn of the automobile age” is none less than John M. Broder, the NYT’s chief drummer of the green beat. Broder having second thoughts about the viability of EVs is as momentous as Obama running a budget surplus.
After garroting, drawing, and quartering an already pretty lifeless EV, Broder blames the death of the electric car on the same people that had conspired against the miracle carburetor and Stanley Meyer’s water fuel cell: Big nasty oil. Being a good journalist, Broder does not blame himself. He outsources blame to Chris Paine, of “Who Killed the Electric Car?” fame:
But one possible culprit still stands to gain if the electric car is killed yet again, Mr. Paine suggested.
“Not too hard to guess,” he said. “With Americans paying $250 a month to fill up on gasoline when electricity can do the job in a Volt for $50 a month, why are we being told electric cars are failures? Who could possibly be behind this?”
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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I think I failed to make my point to Highdesertcat. Our government is spending a few million dollars on several types of alternative energy sources compared to the TRILLION dollars we spent on trying to protect, move, and clean up oil supplies. This research will improve the batteries we might use in EVs but also in our computers and in back up systems you might like to have for protection from your brownouts. I agree that the world may have enough oil to last for a long time but does that mean we should just burn it up in 18% efficient internal combustion engines? We almost wiped out whales before we switched to petroleum for lubrication. Now we also need oil for plastics. Should we suck up every last barrel of petrol and just burn most of it before we look for alternatives? The research money we are now spending on batteries, natural gas, solar, wind, wave, hydrogen, propane, etc could give us a nice quiet and cleaner world. The encouragement money we now offer early EV adopters is tiny compared to what we spent on wars, pipelines, and clean ups. Petroleum burners got their huge subsidies now lets encourage some new ideas.
"On Monday, BMW announced it is recalling 1.3 million cars worldwide because the battery cable cover in the trunk might be incorrectly mounted. When that happens, BMW says the electrical system can malfunction, meaning the vehicle could fail to start, or in the worst cases, the system could char or catch fire." http://www.forbes.com/sites/michelinemaynard/2012/03/27/big-bmw-recall-affects-1-3-million-cars-worldwide/ Wonder how many times this story will get attention from the media? In other news... "BMW is recalling 89,000 Mini Coopers in the United States for the same sort of problem that led to earlier recalls of BMW and Rolls-Royce luxury cars. The problem, in all the recalls, is that a computer circuit board controlling a turbocharger cooling system can fail. The result: a smoldering water pump and, in some cases, a fire in the engine compartment. ... some turbocharged Mini cars have caught fire in the same way the larger cars did." http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/16/autos/mini_cooper_recall/index.htm "Volvo has issued out a recall for 2,742 of its 2012 S60 sedan and XC60 crossover for a potential fire risk. The NHTSA recall report cites that an incorrect mixture of underbody coating could have been over applied, resulting in “rigid, icicle-like areas hanging from vehicle’s undercarriage.” Those icicle-like areas can penetrate the fuel lines causing leaks, increasing the likelihood of a vehicle fire." http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2012/03/volvo-s60-xc60-recalled-for-possible-vehicle-fire-risk.html "For decades, Ferrari sports cars have been known and loved for their quality and their design. However, the new Ferrari Italia model is being recalled from around the world after dozens of sports car owners reported that the back ends of their luxury cars has burst into flames while on the road." http://www.chandlerlawgroup.com/library/ferrari-car-recall-car-fire-injury-lawyer.cfm "A Nissan recall will affect nearly 250,000 vehicles worldwide over a potential fire hazard with certain models' fuel sensor." http://global.christianpost.com/news/nissan-recalls-250000-cars-over-fire-hazard-problems-70198/ "Ford Motor Company — the second-largest U.S. automaker — has announced a voluntary recall of millions of its popular pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles due to a fire risk. Ford is recalling the vehicles because their cruise-control switches could short circuit and start a fire under the hood while parked, the automaker said Thursday. “This is a ticking time bomb ready to go off and something needs to be done,” Bob Garcia, owner of a Ford F-150, told NBC News. Garcia's pickup caught fire nine hours after he parked it at his home. The fire destroyed his truck and part of his home before firefighters arrived."" (This one has a great picture of a bright red Ford truck in flames.) http://www.ennislaw.com/ford_fire_recall.html "It's been a bad week for Japanese carmakers. First Toyota (NYSE:TM) gets backhanded by the NHTSA over its ongoing unintended acceleration issues--and associated multi-million-car recalls--and now the Honda Fit faces recall over a fire hazard. Honda (NYSE:HMC) today announced a recall of 646,000 Fit (Jazz in some markets) compact hatchbacks due to a faulty master switch that could allow water to enter the power window switch, potentially causing a fire. Of those, 140,000 cars in the U.S. are subject to the recall. While not as wide-ranging as the Toyota recall, the Fit recall, which affects 2007-2008 model-year cars, is no less dangerous. The car fire could potentially start at any time, causing property damage and personal injury--especially if while the car is driving down the highway, or parked in a garage. Already several vehicle fires have been reported, prompting Honda to issue the recall." http://www.thecarconnection.com/news/1042115_honda-fit-fire-recall-646000-cars-globally-140000-in-u-s Makes you wonder why so many news agencies made so much to-do about the one Volt battery fire in a test situation. Things that make one go "Hummmmmmmmm.......".