Electric Vehicles

Columnists are speculating we are now witnessing the Last Oil and Gas Rally (think of the movie, The Last Picture Show). To that I would say, not so fast.

The big event of this past week in the Permian Basin was the sale by Shell to Conoco. Conoco COP bought Shell’s mineral property for a tidy $9.5 billion. That would be some 225,000 acres producing 200,000 bpd. Check the COP website for a Mission Statement we can actually understand, succinct and to the point.

We are challenged with an important job to safely find and deliver energy to the world.

And I would remind that COP is the merger of Texas based Conoco and Oklahoma based Phillips 66, gee oil companies located in oil country. Shell plans to have a shareholder distribution and I gather COP plans to produce energy, see above. Wall Street seems to like the idea as COP rose from $56 to $63.81. The point here is that Houston-based COP sees a continued future for fossil fuels.

Electric cars compromise less than 3% of all U.S. vehicle sales. And walk through any parking lot and you see hulking 2.5 ton pickups, yes I know Ford already has an electric F 150 prototype.

But here are my concerns.

1. Toyota told the Japanese government their electric grid will not sustain all electric cars by 2030. The government ignored the advice. Here in Texas a mere four inches of snow shut down our power grid. I doubt we will be up and running grid-wise for all electric cars by 2030, unless you can do without home air conditioning.

2. Hurricane Ida made it clear that driving an electric vehicle in a storm-ravaged state would be near impossible. Electrics would be pressed to ford deep water. And with the power grid still down, there is no way to re-charge the vehicle.

3. And electric vehicles are expensive to purchase. Great to talk about them but another thing to find your next vehicle will cost $50,000.

4. And there was another big energy saver this past 1.5 years that had nothing to do with electric cars — what was it? And it is still working to reduce the carbon footprint judging by the vehicle traffic. And that would be online meetings, no gasoline required. COVID finally made online visits a reality. Most small meetings now take place online. This saves travel time and gasoline. Yet I have yet to hear Team Biden acknowledge this simple fact of life.

5. The Dutch shut down their only natural gas field and are now importing from Texas and their good buddies in Russia. Ditto for Asia. Natural gas is still a very clean and plentiful fuel which works when the sun does not shine.

Stocks have staged a strong rally back, but the tops of the last few months remain in place. Caution is advised as Xi and the Democrats attempt to turn back to massive central control.

The days of the gas guzzler may be numbered.

Electric cars are moving from the rear-view mirror to the middle of the highway and commanding more attention in the automotive industry.

“GM is completely committed to it,” said Champion Chevrolet owner Alex Nafe. “I think GM has 25 electric models that will be out by 2025 and the vehicles we’ve seen are really good. We’ll probably sign up to be an electric vehicle dealer next year.”

Warren County Industrial Development Board director Don Alexander returned on Friday from a statewide Economic Development Council conference in Memphis. He said the talk of the conference was the ongoing transition to electric vehicles.

“With some of the new charging stations they are developing, you can get a full charge in 15 minutes,” said Alexander. “That’s about the time it takes you to fill up. GM, Volkswagen and Nissan are all committed to it. The year a lot of people are pointing to is 2035. It’s projected 40% of all vehicles will be electric by then. We’ll be seeing fewer gas stations and more electric charging stations. But it’s projected that 80% of all charging will be done at your residence.”

As for offers taking place right now, Nafe said GM will install a Level II charging station at your home for free if you purchase an electric vehicle.

“Your car will be like your cellphone,” said Nafe. “You’ll go home and charge it every night. It will be something we get used to doing.”

Nafe said he and his wife Amanda have taken a couple of GM’s electric vehicles for a test drive and they are well-pleased by the performance.

“The acceleration and torque are pretty awesome,” said Alex. “They take off and go fast. GM is coming out with an electric Silverado and there will also be an electric Hummer.”

Ford is experiencing extreme demand for its all-electric F-150 and already has well over 100,000 pre-orders for its Lightning model. The company has not released an exact date when the 2022 Lightning pickup will hit showroom floors. The announced date is spring of 2022.

New electric vehicles are being designed with a range of about 300 miles. Electric vehicle owners can download an app to inform them about the nearest charging stations.

In terms of employment, Alexander said getting workers trained on installing and maintaining charging stations is going to be in demand in the near future. 

Alexander is in the process of working with officials at our local Tennessee College of Applied Technology to incorporate that type of training in automotive courses offered in McMinnville.

“The bigger cities like New York, L.A. and Chicago are leading the charge on this because they’re trying to reduce their smog,” said Don.

REGINA —
The sixth annual National Drive Electric Week celebration in Regina aimed to dissolve common misconceptions around electric cars and promote their benefits for the environment.

The Saskatchewan Electric Vehicle Association set up an educational event and celebration at the Canadian Tire in Regina’s east end on Saturday.

The association said the most common “rumours” it hears about EV’s (electric vehicles) is they cost a lot to charge and they don’t work well in the winter.

Matthew Pointer, the association’s president, said most EV’s are designed to operate in countries like Norway, meaning manufacturers are taking cold winter environments into consideration.

Pointer said his electric car loses a little bit of battery power in the extreme cold, but because it can go on the charger at night it will start every morning.

“The battery packs are actually thermally managed. So that basically means that they are heated in the wintertime on their own power and cooled in the summertime on their own power,” said Pointer. “So they take care of themselves and what that does is prevent premature derogation of the battery.”

He added that in terms of charging, it only costs about $30 to $40 a month for power, depending on how much you drive, with the installation of a charger costing about $500.

Pointer said the battery life for an EV is very long, with him not knowing anyone who has had to replace it yet.

He said that Saskatchewan also has about two-thirds of the mined materials required to make an EV battery.

“We’ve got a massive amount of lithium stores that are available here. We’ve got nickel, we’ve got cobalt and a massive amount of sunshine naturally,” Pointer said. “I think we’ve got the ability to connect all the dots and make something that is truly great here in the province.”

Brian Black is a Regina resident considering making the switch to an electric vehicle.

Black said it’s the technology that’s going to be here in the future and “likely will be buying something like this in time.”

He added the event taught him how easy EV’s are to maintain.

“Different places you can charge your vehicle are becoming more and more common as time goes on,” Black said.

The east Canadian Tire location currently has Tesla-specific charging stations, but is adding two more charging stations that will work for all EV models.

Canadian Tire said it is adding these new stations to 11 other locations across the province by the end of 2021, bringing Saskatchewan’s charging station number up to about 30.