Drive to decarbonize hitting roadblocks

When you compare the number of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations to the number of gasoline-powered stations within the city of San Bernardino there is no contest. There are just a few EV stations versus more than two dozen of the gas variety.

Now take the median household income in the City of San Bernardino of about $45,000 per household and $21,000 for individuals. And when it comes to spending for transportation, financial experts advise limiting it to 10-15 percent of your income.

A new Tesla can set you back a whopping $129,000 before taxes, license, and other fees but a Nissan leaf is only $30,000. But, even with a five percent down payment, the nearly $500 a month car payment is well out of reach of the average individual in San Bernardino, and a stretch for the median income household and, by definition, household means more than one person. Most families can’t get by with one vehicle.

Unless you are planning on sleeping in your car at one of the few EV Charging stations in San Bernardino, you are going to have to charge the vehicle at home, and that means installing a charging station at home, which can cost anywhere between a few thousand dollars and $50,000 depending on how fast you expect your car to charge. That is yet another barrier to people of moderate to low incomes being able to own and primarily use an EV realistically.

Cliff Cummings, CEO of the Cummings Auto Group, which owns several car dealerships in the region, including Toyota of San Bernardino and others at the San Bernardino Auto Mall says “I really like electric vehicles, but cost for the average family for an EV is just not realistic. There are other logistical issues to deal with, such as the lack of available charging options. The infrastructure just isn’t there to support widespread EV usage.”

It’s Not Easy Being Green

Kermit the Frog sang it, and EVs are proving it as the drive to decarbonize is hitting roadblocks along the way to a future without the combustion engine.

“The fact is the road to getting an EV engine built is a dirty one environmentally and even morally,” said Dr. Adrian Moore, Vice President of the Reason Foundation, a Libertarian Think-Tank specializing in public policy.

According to a recent United Nations Report:

“…the raw materials used in electric car batteries are highly concentrated in a small number of countries where environmental and labor regulations are weak or non-existent. Thus, battery production for EVs is driving a boom in small-scale or “artisanal” cobalt production in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which supplies two-thirds of the global output of the mineral. These artisanal miners, which account for up to a quarter of the country’s products, are dangerous and employ child labor.”

This reality is hard to square with a virtue-signaling liberal populace that wants to drive their Tesla free of guilt that the batteries in the vehicles might as well be Blood Diamonds. According to Michael Kelly, the Emeritus Prince Philip Professor of Technology at the University of Cambridge, if we want the whole world to be transported by electric vehicles, the vast increases in the supply of the raw materials listed above would go far beyond known reserves. The environmental and social impact of vastly-expanded mining for these materials — some of which are highly toxic when mined, transported, and processed – in countries afflicted by corruption and poor human rights records can only be imagined. The clean and green image of EVs stands in stark contrast to the realities of manufacturing batteries.

In Case of Emergency – Use Gas

The electric vehicle also seems to be a vast disadvantage in a California landscape where intermittent blackouts based on weather conditions and fear of wildfires is contributing to the logistical headaches of owning an EV, not to mention the real dangers if there is a catastrophe and your only option is an electric vehicle.

“What do you do if your power is cut off,” said Cummings. “Is ‘the power is out’ going to become the new and acceptable sick day? Even if you work from home, you can’t have your zoom meetings on your computer because there is no power. If there is a real emergency like a wildfire or earthquake and you can’t charge your vehicle, you are stuck.”

Someday everyone might be able to afford, charge and drive in an emissions-free world, but globally we are less than one percent there, and in cities like San Bernardino, that future is even farther away.