California: electric vehicles are on fire!
Gavin Newsom, possibly the soon-to-be recalled Governor of California, banned internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in California by 20235, ostensibly to reduce pollution. That pipe dream went up in smoke with the wildfires that are still consuming much of the LA area. Whatever pollution reduction that lunatic law might have achieved was lost with Newsom’s equally deranged refusal to do anything to prevent wildfires, including ensuring enough water to fight them.
Back in December, 2024, in Electric vehicles: Cuba shows the way I pointed out some of the obvious issues with EVs, issues that make them eternally impractical for most Americans. Among the issues I noted was Gavin Newsom’s mandate that no gas-powered vehicles be sold in California by 2035. California provides an ideal example, even before the recent and continuing wildfires, why EVs are never going to be ready for prime time.
They’re far more expensive than conventional vehicles, and repair and insurance costs are outrageous. Their greatly increased weight—batteries add at least a thousand pounds—wear out tires at incredible rates, and EV tires are different and much more expensive than conventional tires. Advertised range figures are wildly optimistic, and rely on ideal conditions: no wind, only the driver; no passengers, no cargo, no hills or mountains, driving substantially below highway speeds and mild weather. In cold weather, EVs lose easily half their range, and Ford, for it’s F-150 lightning, recommends using only the seat and steering wheels heaters during winter. That’s going to keep the windshield clear.
Graphic: X Screenshot
Even better, EV batteries tend to burst into flame because they contain substances that must be kept separate. Pinholes cause instant flames and even explosions. Once ignited, they produce their own oxygen to fuel the flames, are prone to reignite and all firefighters can do is pour thousands of gallons of water on them to keep the flames from spreading elsewhere as unquenchable flames melt the vehicles into the pavement.
Home chargers can easily cost more than $10,000 dollars if it’s even possible to install one with existing infrastructure. Absent a fast charger, it can take days to charge an EV. Manufacturers recommend no more than an 80% charge, and it’s on that they base manufacturers “fast charge” numbers of an hour or so. Going to 100% takes far longer to keep batteries from overheating and exploding, and the more batteries are recharged, the faster they lose their capacity for full charging. Replacing batteries takes about 1/3 of the original cost of the EV, so there is essentially no used EV market.
And now we move to California, which wants nothing but EVs, but has, for years, been telling EV owners not to charge their EVs at night. That's when most would need to charge them, because California’s greenie virtue signaling ensures they don’t have the electric capacity to meet Californian’s needs now, to say nothing of 2035 with universal EVs. Wildfires have exposed even more EV impracticality, from The LA Times via PJ Media:
You’ve plugged your electric vehicle into your home charger and hit the sack. Overnight, high winds topple a power line. Your charger blacks out. Then, a report of a fire, followed by an evacuation order. Your battery’s only charged to 25%. And it’s your only car.
Such are the fears some California car buyers are expressing amid the fires that have devastated Los Angeles County and forced people to evacuate their homes at a moment’s notice.
And oh yes, excessive heat can cause EV batteries to burst explosively into flames, which is the fate of the world’s largest Lithium-ion battery/power plant in central California. It’s melting into the ground, evacuations are ordered—the fumes produced are deadly—and firefighters are reduced to keeping the surrounding area from going up with the plant. They can’t put it out.
A gasoline car “can evacuate in any direction on any road and still get fuel when needed,” said Matthew Butterick, a Los Angeles attorney who lives near Griffith Park. “The EV stations on evacuation routes would have massive lines and delays, gasoline stations less so. And the electric grid may not be available. Power companies turn off power to avoid sparking a fire and also to avoid legal liability. This is probably the future of all the hillside neighborhoods.”
One can’t wait in line for tens of hours in the hopes of waiting for additional hours to get a partial charge when they’re running for their lives. Butterick is too kind. In the kinds of disasters parts of California are experiencing, there won’t be electrical power, which is shut down to avoid sparking additional wildfires.
A pertinent question is will the wildfires provoke the spread of sanity among Californians who keep voting worse and worse D/S/C politicians into office? If they keep EV mandates, the answer to that question is obvious.
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.