David Larson had an interesting opinion piece at Carolina Journal that discusses the massive new project in Randolph County. It is to be a Toyota plant that will produce batteries for electric vehicles. The claim is that the plant will ultimately employ 5,100 people.
Here is what Larson had to say:
To the degree there is natural demand for electric vehicles, that’s great. It will be good for our state to help meet that demand. But much of the demand for EVs is artificial, created by politicians who think it would be better for us all to drive them, despite our electric grid already being under strain. Demand for EVs doesn’t appear to be materializing at the scale they desire anyway. In fact, Ford announced just today that EV sales are so disappointing that they are going to scale back their investments.
Here are a couple of problems. First, the materials for electric batteries are largely mined in rogue countries like China upon which we would be dependent. Second, electric vehicles have major limitations. Third, as Larson suggests, they will add to strain on electricity demand.
But Biden is forcing us into electric vehicles by requiring that manufacturers produce them after a certain date.
Should we be cheering the Toyota electric battery plant in Randolph County? I understand all the positives… massive increases in good jobs for citizens; opportunities for regional vendors and suppliers; and the “multiplier effect” associated with industrial plants that produces economic benefits far beyond what is immediately apparent. Civic boosterism would ordinarily require that we support such an endeavor.
But electric vehicles are a bad product; and we ought not be forced into them. There will be major problems associated with any major shift to these vehicles.
Toyota has a long history of producing reliable, durable vehicles. I myself drive a 10 year-old Camry– manufactured in the United States– that has racked up 170,000 miles.
The company has gone woke during recent years, and is cheerfully participating in this socialist-induced requirement for electric vehicles.
As Mr. Larson suggests in his piece, I only want electric vehicles and electric car batteries to be used to the extent that consumers truly want them. But that is not the world in which we live right now.
Americans are not buying EVs . The demand for gas powered vehicles far outpaces the green cars . So stop with the mandates etc. 2024 can’t come soon enough !
I guess one of the big tests is whether the American electoral system is still capable of making course corrections when our leaders go rogue. I am honestly not sure if that will happen.
If we are stuck with manufacturers being forced to make electric vehicles only, many of us will be rushing to buy our last gasoline-powered vehicle before the buzzer.
Excellent article, right in every detail.
Thanks, Healey. And this move toward electric vehicles appears to be imploding before Biden’s senile eyes.
Large numbers of auto dealers joined to write a letter to the White House dramatizing that consumers don’t want these vehicles, and they can’t sell them. They sit on the dealers’ lots.
And the AP published an article dramatizing the numerous problems owners are having with these vehicles.
The tide may be turning, but the socialists are determined.