Are we still convinced that electric vehicles are the best way forward?

[teamzr1]

The EPA visited schools in Winthrop, Maine, late last month as part of an investigation into electric buses supplied to the schools through federal grants paid for by American tax dollars.
The probe comes after it was discovered that the buses built by a Canadian company have proven faulty, forcing kids to walk to and from school or the parents having to take time to drive them

Federal agents visited the Maine schools in late January while probing electric school buses built by the Quebec-based Lion Electric Company. Interim Superintendent Becky Foley explained the situation to the school board earlier this month, according to a report by the Kennebec Journal.

Foley said the EPA interviewed her and Josh Wheeler, the school district’s director of transportation, about four electric buses that have been plagued with problems ever since they arrived in Winthrop from Lion Electric in late 2023.
“I met with an EPA special agent last week to see if there was any fraud committed by Lion,” she told the school board on February 5.
“I think whatever resolution may occur will take some time, and I will keep the board posted.”

Lion Electric, headquartered in Saint-Jérôme, Canada, has recently filed for credit protection and was the first company to provide Maine with electric buses through a federal program seeking to replace gasoline-powered buses with EVs, the Journal reports.

But the Quebec-based company is no longer part of Maine’s program to provide electric buses to school districts in the state after it was discovered that the only buses that consistently experienced problems had all come from Lion Electric.
Additionally, Maine schools began reporting problems with their EV buses from day one.

In a letter sent to the EPA last month, Maine Department of Education Commissioner Pender Makin asked how she should advise the schools in her state with Lion Electric buses to proceed.
“In more than half of the school districts, including Winthrop, the buses remain inoperable,” Central Maine noted.

A former Lion Electric technician, meanwhile, told the outlet that the company’s buses are “more like a science project than a validated, road-legal vehicle.”
Notably, Lion Electric being under credit protection means it does not have the ability to ship the parts needed to fix its buses.
Meanwhile, the Canadian company reportedly owes Maine schools at least $57,000 toward bus rentals being used in place of its EVs that could not successfully operate.

“We are waiting for the technician to come up,” Foley said on Thursday. “Our buses are still under warranty, so we are waiting for the technician, but there are no technicians in Maine.”
“The tech would be the one to tell us what is wrong with the buses and what our buses need,” she added.

 

[teamzr1]

Aston Martin has delayed the roll-out of its first fully-electric vehicle in the latest sign that the switch from petrol and diesel to battery cars is stalling.
The British firm said its battery electric vehicle (BEV), previously set to be launched in 2026, and was now planned for the latter part of this decade

It comes as the wider industry struggles with the transition to electric amid lack of demand from motorists and tough regulations pushing carmakers to go green.
Aston Martin, said the delay was being made ‘in response to customer feedback and evolving customer dynamics’.
As a result, it will instead focus on plug-in hybrids battery-powered vehicles with a back-up petrol engine for the time being.

It is the latest delay to the electrification plans, after the company previously pushed back the launch from 2025 to 2026.
Aston Martin’s big spending customers are prepared to shell out more than £200,000 on average to get behind the wheel of the 007 cars.
But executive chairman Lawrence Stroll said last year that demand for fully-electric versions of the marque had been lower than it had expected, with many still wanting to hear the throaty roar of a powerful internal combustion engine rather than the hum of a battery.

It suggests there is still no sign of recovery after production shrank by 14 percent in 2024.
The decline at the start of this year was partly due to continued disruption caused by the switch to new electric models, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

UK carmakers are also under pressure to meet government environmental targets.
The targets mean that an increasing proportion of vehicles they sell in the UK must be electric, but some firms have struggled to comply.
The rules were blamed by the industry when Vauxhall last year announced the closure of its Luton plant, putting more than 1,000 jobs at risk.

 

[Roscobbc]

And just last night the TV news was reporting a government announcement that 'project zero' was still going to happen, with all cars being zero emission etc etc etc........TBH just like the heat pump lies that are being foisted on the population (and just like all the TV adverts) I just don't listen to the rhetoric any more, knowing it to be a total load of 'spherical objects'. In fact I wonder if many of the goverment members themselves believe the 'speil' they are putting out and expecting us to believe.
As a footnote I coul almost feel sorry for automakers being put in a position of being forced to manufacture vehicles that few 'thinking' people really want..........but I then think back to the 'dieselgate' scandal and how so many manufacturers were effectively 'legging us over' re. diesel emissions.........

 

[Chuffer]

And just last night the TV news was reporting a government announcement that 'project zero' was still going to happen, with all cars being zero emission etc etc etc........TBH just like the heat pump lies that are being foisted on the population (and just like all the TV adverts) I just don't listen to the rhetoric any more, knowing it to be a total load of 'spherical objects'. In fact I wonder if many of the goverment members themselves believe the 'speil' they are putting out and expecting us to believe.
As a footnote I coul almost feel sorry for automakers being put in a position of being forced to manufacture vehicles that few 'thinking' people really want..........but I then think back to the 'dieselgate' scandal and how so many manufacturers were effectively 'legging us over' re. diesel emissions.........

It has also been announced that some `green energy` projects will be scaled back in favour of gas and oil production . The bubble may not have burst yet but I think it`s beginning to leak a bit . Totally agree with you Ross on the hype and mis information about heat pumps for homes and of course government ministers beleive their own spiel : politians are pre programmed that way in the same way that sociopaths believe their own lies and expect `thinking` people to believe them ! Sir Queer Stammer and Donald Mump should be getting on right well today !!

 

[Roscobbc]

Not saying that electric vehicles don't have a place........they certainly do for city operation. Also not 'dissing' heat pumps - its just that the only people really who can logically afford to install them are the people typically wealthy enough not to need to.....and able to easily pay 'elevated' fossil fuel costs without even thinking about it.
Scandanavian countries have been building seriously insulated houses for years using ground sourced heat pumps (not air sourced) - extremely expensive to install, and you need sufficient land space for bore holes...........

 

[Chuffer]

Designing houses from the ground up to function effectively and efficiently with heat pumps is one thing , retro fitting is an entirely different matter . Also let`s not forget how much electricity air source heat pumps consume .

 

[teamzr1]

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc would grant carmakers a three-year window in which to hit carbon dioxide emissions targets that were originally set for this year.
The targeted amendment to give the auto sector flexibility under the 2025 emissions rules will be proposed later this month, according to von der Leyen. In effect, the changes will mean that carmakers can miss the target this year as long as they outperform in the next two.

Shares of European automakers including Volkswagen AG, Mercedes-Benz Group AG and Renault SA jumped following von der Leyen’s remarks, sending the Stoxx 600 Automobiles & Parts Index up almost 3% in intraday trading.
“Instead of the annual compliance, companies will get three years on the principle of banking and borrowing,” she said Monday in a press briefing. “The targets will stay the same, but it means more breathing space for industry and more clarity, without changing the agreed targets.”

Europe’s carmakers have pushed to change the 2025 goal after an electric vehicle sales slump last year, which made it more difficult to hit the target and may have entailed billions of euros of fines.
They could have circumvented a portion of those penalties by pooling sales with carmakers further along the transition, but concerns were raised that it would unduly benefit the likes of Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. and Chinese manufacturers.

While the move will provide some respite Volkswagen AG had warned that it was on the hook for a €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion) hit due to the rules other companies like Volvo Car AB have called on the commission to stick to its goals to help provide regulatory certainty for those who have already invested heavily in new technology.

Less than two hours before von der Leyen’s comments, Volvo Cars said adjustments to the rules may delay the shift to electric vehicles.
Set years ago, the EU standards gave the industry plenty of time to prepare and several mechanisms to comply, Volvo Chief Executive Officer Jim Rowan said in an emailed statement.
Volvo “has made the heavy investments needed to be ready for 2025,” Rowan said.
“Companies like ours should not be disadvantaged by any last-minute changes to legislation.”

Volvo was among the automakers poised to benefit from over-complying with the EU’s regulation. Analysts at UBS Group AG have said they expect the company to be paid as much as €300 million by peers wanting to pool their fleet with the manufacturer. It’s not fully clear what von der Leyen’s extension means for pooling.

Environmental groups also criticized the additional flexibility, saying that it risked further undermining the competitiveness of European carmakers during the transition. The advocacy group Transport & Environment described the change as “an unprecedented gift to Europe’s car industry in the middle of a compliance year.”

“Weakening the EU clean car rules rewards laggards and does little for Europe’s car industry except to leave it further behind China,” William Todts, T&E’s executive director, said in an emailed statement. “The EU risks creating very damaging uncertainty about the electric vehicle transition in Europe.”
The proposed amendment will need to be signed off by member states and the European Parliament.

The commission is set to publish on Wednesday its action plan to help Europe’s embattled car industry, with the relief on the 2025 targets to be supplemented with longer-term measures, like encouraging the corporate car sector to incentivize the purchase of EVs. Von der Leyen announced that the EU would set up an industry alliance to promote technological advances, particularly in autonomous driving.

She also said that the bloc would explore direct EU support for its battery makers, including gradually introducing European content requirements for batteries.

 

[teamzr1]

In yet another stunning example of government waste, the Biden administration’s $3 billion scheme to convert the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) fleet to electric vehicles (EVs) has delivered nothing but empty promises, skyrocketing costs, and a mere 93 vehicles out of the planned 50,000.

Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Representative Michael Cloud (R-Texas) are leading the charge against reckless taxpayer-funded disaster.
They introduced the Return to Sender Act, a bill aimed at clawing back the unspent billions that were funneled into the failed USPS EV initiative under Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

“Biden’s $3 billion EV fleet for USPS is lost in the mail! Just 93 of 50,000 vehicles have been delivered.
I am canceling the order and returning the unspent money to sender: the taxpayers!” Ernst wrote on X.

The USPS originally placed its 50,000-vehicle order three years ago, but thanks to bureaucratic mismanagement and Biden’s radical green agenda, barely 0.2% of those vehicles have made it to the streets.
Meanwhile, the cost of production continues to balloon, and taxpayers are footing the bill for a non-existent fleet.

“The Biden administration’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act funneled billions into a failed USPS EV project that has delivered nothing but delays, defective trucks, and skyrocketing costs,” said Cloud.
“Three years later, taxpayers are still waiting while the Postal Service refuses to provide basic transparency on where the money went.
The Return to Sender Act takes back the $3 billion in taxpayer money that has been wasted in this project.”

The Return to Sender Act aims to repeal and rescind any remaining, unobligated funds from the Inflation Reduction Act’s USPS EV provisions. The bill cancels this colossal waste of taxpayer money before even more cash is flushed down the drain.
The legislation targets sections 70002 and 70003 of the IRA, ensuring that billions in misused climate funds are reallocated to the American people instead of being used to prop up another one of Biden’s green boondoggles.

According to the press release, “Because of its ballooning cost and delays, the USPS EV project was featured as one of the worst government boondoggles when Ernst introduced her Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act that will require the disclosure of any government project that is $1 billion over budget or five years behind schedule.”

 

[teamzr1]

Bye, Bye government mandated EVs

(EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin went over his recent historic launch of the largest deregulatory effort in U.S. history and talked about the EPA’s sweeping deregulations to “save the coal industry” and “bring down the cost of living.”
After announcing 31 deregulations on Wednesday, including the termination of the Biden administration’s “Environmental Justice and DEI arms of the agency (EJ/DEI),” Zeldin told Boyle, “Undoubtedly, we’re going to be able to create jobs, including inside the American auto sector.”

“We will bring down the cost of living. It’s going to be easier to heat your home, to purchase a vehicle, to operate a business,” the former New York congressman said, touting President Donald Trump’s economic plan.

“A lot of Americans struggling to make ends meet want common sense back into the federal government, and we’re going to do our part at the EPA,” Zeldin continued. “So that’s why we made this announcement. It’s a lot of regulatory actions impacting the energy space. We want to make it easier for people to be able to access choice.”

In its announcement, the EPA stated that the deregulatory actions will “roll back trillions in regulatory costs and hidden ‘taxes'” on American families.
One of the larger commitments made by the agency was to clear the hundreds of backlogged cases having to do with clean air, saying the Biden administration focused on “ideological pursuits” rather than the agency’s “core mission.”

Zeldin also told Boyle that the EPA is “eliminating” the Biden administration’s electric vehicle (EV) mandate.

“President Trump talks about clean, beautiful coal, and what we’re doing on Wednesday is going to save the coal industry,” he stated.
“I’ve been told that we’re going after the holy grail of the climate change religion, and I would just say this: that we can protect the environment and grow the economy. It’s not a binary choice,” he explained. “We don’t have to just choose one. The Trump administration chooses both.”

 

[Roscobbc]

I wonder who Trump imagines will want to work in the coal, auto and other 'lost' industries? - given the likely salary levels Americans will reasonably expect for manual work I further wonder how US car makers will manage to be competitive in their own market if paying the salary levels the workers will find accepable?
The American public with a history of initially purchasing European and Japanesed imported cars......and laterly buying the brands of car perhaps assembled or fully manufactured in USA based assembly plants.......how will the buying public face-up to buying cars perhaps designed and built by historic American brands..... yet not being able to source the foreign brands they really want and have been purchasing for the last 40 or 50 years?
It'll be interesting to see how it all works.

 

[teamzr1]

Free train to taxpayers money has left the station

Over the past few years, electric vehicle manufacturing facilities producing lithium batteries, car parts and critical minerals sprang up all over the United States. Drawing on cash and tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act (Taxpayers money), these factories promised to provide jobs and to set the nation on a path to making homegrown EVs.

But even before President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on imports, many of those projects were being canceled, leaving thousands of jobs and the shift to clean energy in doubt.

According to data from Atlas Public Policy, a policy research group, more projects were canceled in the first quarter of 2025 than in the previous two years combined.
Those cancellations include a $1 billion factory in Georgia that would have made thermal barriers for batteries and a $1.2 billion lithium-ion battery factory in Arizona.

“It’s hard at the moment to be a manufacturer in the U.S. given uncertainties on tariffs, tax credits and regulations,” said Tom Taylor, senior policy analyst at Atlas Public Policy. Hundreds of millions of dollars in additional investments appear to be stalled, he added, but haven’t been formally canceled yet.
“Nothing is more important to business than market clarity,” said Bob Keefe, executive director of E2, a clean energy advocacy group. “It’s about as clear as a blizzard at midnight.”

The 2022 climate law that Democrats passed was designed to reward automakers for building cars and parts in the United States. Vehicles qualified for a $7,500 tax credit based on their American-made parts and minerals, and companies could get additional cash if they manufactured batteries domestically.

But many of those benefits could be repealed in a new Republican-led tax bill. The Trump administration has also moved to reverse the Biden administration’s rules on car tailpipe pollution. Just those changes, according to a recent report from Princeton University, could cut EV sales in 2030 by 40 percent.

In response, companies that had invested in manufacturing American EV parts are now pulling back and canceling projects. In an earnings call in February, Aspen Aerogels, the company behind the $1 billion factory in Georgia, announced that it was canceling the facility and shifting manufacturing loan existing U.S. factory and to Mexico and China.

“China is at 50 percent EV penetration already,” Ricardo C. Rodriguez, the chief financial officer and treasurer of Aspen Aerogels, said on the call, saying the shift to China was a “no-brainer.” “In North America and Europe, we continue to dabble in this 10 percent to 15 percent level. So, you do start wondering, right, is that progress?”
Aspen Aerogels declined to comment further.

“It’s working-class people in places like Georgia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Michigan and Arizona that have seen some of these projects get canceled,” Keefe said. “And I can tell you who’s benefiting China and other countries that are doubling down.”
Diana Furchtgott-Roth, director of the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment at the Heritage Foundation, praised Trump’s move to roll back EV regulations. Despite generous federal incentives, she said, many Americans were not buying electric vehicles.

“Costly, mandated EVs make poor people poorer and less safe,” Furchtgott-Roth said.
Taylor Rogers, the White House assistant press secretary, said in an email that the administration’s approach would benefit Americans.
“The President’s brilliant economic agenda is an all-encompassing plan to revive our economy by unleashing American energy, implementing tariffs to level the playing field, and bringing billions of dollars in historic investments to America’s manufacturing sector,” Rogers said.

Some of the companies pulling back also had been seeking loans from the federal government loans that, since the Trump administration, have been paused or put on hold. Battery Non-American maker KORE Power received conditional approval in 2023 for an $850 million loan to build a factory in Arizona. But earlier this year, the company said it had abandoned that plan and would instead retrofit an existing factory.

A company spokesperson told The Post at the time that KORE Power decided to change its plans before Trump took office.
Other projects were closed by EV makers facing tough headwinds and scandal. Nikola Motors and Canoo, both EV start-ups, have filed for bankruptcy in recent months.

Before the closures, the United States was on track for producing almost all the batteries needed for the country’s electric cars and trucks by 2030, according to an analysis from research firm Rhodium Group.
“The EV outlook was already looking pretty bearish before the election,” said Trevor Houser, a partner at Rhodium Group in energy and climate. Compounded with concerns about tariffs and trade, he added, “any downside in the outlook would naturally lead to some battery cancellations.”

Even projects that are moving forward are downplaying or reducing the role of all-electric vehicles. Hyundai’s multibillion-dollar manufacturing plant in Savannah, Georgia, recently announced a switch from making only EVs to also producing hybrids.
There is also a slowdown in new facilities coming online.
According to E2, January saw just $176 million in clean manufacturing projects announced, while a normal month would see around $1 billion in new investments.

“You see a lot of people watching and waiting,” said Jason Grumet, CEO of the American Clean Power Association. “If you don’t know if the inputs to your factory are going to dramatically increase in price, it slows things down.”
The slowdown threatens to stall American EV supply chains before they truly got off the ground. While wind and solar energy have been growing in the United States for years, clean manufacturing needed a bit more of a boost, Houser said. Without help, the sector could slip back into obscurity.
“Everyone’s looking for a silver lining,” Keefe said. “I have a hard time finding it.”

 

[teamzr1]

A General Motors Co. plant in Toledo is beefing up capacity to build transmissions for gas-powered trucks, while pulling out some equipment that had been installed recently to make drive systems for electric vehicles.

GM informed workers at the Toledo Propulsion Systems plant of the changes on Wednesday. The plant recently blew $760 million upgrade to make drive units for battery-powered trucks like the Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Hummer EV.
But those new production lines never ramped up amid slower-than-expected demand for electric vehicles.

"General Motors will revise production plans at Toledo Propulsion to support additional capacity of ICE propulsion units in alignment with current market demand and manufacturing resiliency," GM spokesperson Kevin Kelly said in a statement.

The plant is expected to beef up transmission production for GM's heavy-duty truck line. Chevrolet Silverado HD sales were up more than 12% in the first quarter compared to last year, with GMC Sierra HD up 9%.

"To align with current market demand and manufacturing needs, leadership has made the decision to add capacity to support propulsion units currently built at Toledo for ICE (Internal Combustion Engines) products," said a note sent to employees on Wednesday.

It added that in the coming weeks, one of the electric drive unit production lines will start being pulled out, allowing more space to produce more transmission units "that power our truck portfolio." The plant also makes 8-speeds for other GM vehicles, including trucks and SUVs.

"It's an acknowledgment of market conditions, and what customer demand is, and right now it's still with ICE," said Tony Totty, president of United Auto Workers Local 14 that represents workers at the plant. "It's our trucks and SUVs, which are very popular."

Totty said it is "huge" news for his membership at the plant of about 1,300. He said it was too soon to say how the additional work would impact staffing levels. Totty said the additional work isn't tied to the new 25% auto tariffs ordered by President Donald Trump that took effect early this month.

"It's a commitment to Toledo because our workforce is world-class," Totty said.

The union leader and many in the Toledo area had welcomed the big electric drive unit investment that was announced in 2022 as the industry moved aggressively toward EVs.
But demand hasn't turned out as strong as anticipated, at least not yet and the new truck transmission investment secures more work for now. GM did not specify how much it planned to spend.