Believe It Or Not, "April Fools" -- April 30, 2021

Since it's unlikely I will be reporting on the US equity markets today, I need to have something to post.

How about this?

From a reader. 

Thank you.

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EVs

 

Updates

Later, 3:31 p.m. Central Time: this time, Joe Biden is correct; his DOE is wrong. Biden wants to spend $15 billion on public charging stations but the DOE estimates 80% of charging is done at home. And that's the problem: the DOE can't think outside the box.

Biden’s plan to spend $15 billion to help create 500,000 more public stations by 2030 is feeding the optimism, with investors flocking to EV charging companies since his election. The risk is that the early movers will get badly burned, potentially souring capital markets on the industry for years to come.

$15 billion over ten years is $1.5 billion year. The US population is about 300 million. That works out to $5/person/year -- and the DOE is balking. Oh, give me a break. Let's say $100,000 per charging station. $15 billion / $100,000 = 150,000 charging stations. 

Let's say 300 million registered vehicles in the country, but let's say only 200 million are privately owned vehicles. Forty percent are owned by folks who do not live in homes where they could have their own charging stations. That leaves 80 million vehicles. 

Eighty million vehicles / 150,000 charging stations = 500 vehicles per charging station. These are vehicles that would need to be charged at least once a week. So 500 vehicles competing for each charging station each week.

Original Post

 

Link here.This corroborates another survey reported earlier this month: twenty percent of Tesla / EV owners would not buy another EV. [That may change if gasoline hits $6/gallon in California this year. For the naysayers: if gasoline does not hit $6/gallon in California, it takes the wind out of that sail for "rationalizing" why one would buy an EV in the first place.]

I've said that from the beginning. Every day I'm reminded what a pain it is to re-charge my mobile devices: iPhone, laptops, tablets. I can't even imagine the hassle thinking about re-charging my vehicle on a daily basis, unless I had a personal charging station. 

[By the way, with reports of spontaneous battery fires, would you really wants to park your Tesla inside your garage attached to your multi-million-dollar home? But I digress.]

Anecdote. This was my not-ready-for-prime-time-e-mail reply regarding a couple of Tescla charging stations maps posted earlier: 

There was a backstory for posting those two maps.

We live in a pretty upscale apartment complex near the DFW airport (north Texas, Dallas-Ft Worth) now that we have moved.

There are maybe two or three Tesla owners here and one charging station on site.

I was speaking to a Tesla owner yesterday. He just moved to Texas in January. He moved from Reno, NV, probably in his late 50's -- very, very well off.

He moved to Texas to get away from west coast liberalism. Doesn't care for the weather in north Texs all that much but loves Texas in all other respects.

He was curious what I thought about "the hill country," Texas (Austin to San Antonio).

He is looking for interesting places to explore in Texas right now.

He said he made a mistake driving his Tesla from DFW to Austin last weekend -- he couldn't find Tesla charging stations along his intended route and had to make significant changes in his route plans.

He said Tesla was great for driving around town when one has charging station at home or on site (apartment complex) but he says Teslas are "no good' for cross country trips.

What struck me was that DFW to Austin is one of the busiest routes in the entire US. The "hill country" is a huge tourist destination for all Texans.

To hear that there was a paucity of charging stations in this area simply blew me away.

The range for my Honda Civic, full tank, can exceed 500 miles. Tesla range is about 350 miles, I assume. So, when traveling long distance, I stop fairly often to re-fuel; an average stop takes less than five minutes and service stations are everywhere. I never have to look for them.

So, taking that same trip with a Tesla would be a real hassle. If someone has that much trouble tethered to an EV between DFW and Austin (where Tesla is building a gigafactory) one can imagine how difficult it is in the rest of fly-over country.