By James P. Economos DDS, DDS
Given the recent amount of misinformation given to us by the federal government, this author is very concerned with the recent National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) warning about the safety of electric vehicles because of the weight of the batteries required to keep them running.
There’s no doubt – electric vehicles weigh a lot more than gasoline powered cars. No one disputes that fact.
Jennifer Homendy, chair of the NTSB, in a speech in Washington, raised concerns about the weight of electric vehicles and the fear of a collision with a lighter car. And this is a valid point.
The new GMC Hummer, for example, weighs 9,000 pounds, while the battery pack weighs 2,900 pounds. And while the Hummer may have an underwhelming range of about 300 miles, imagine the damage and debris field if this Hummer collided with a much smaller and lighter gasoline powered vehicle.
The result could be fatal.
It seems since the pandemic, there’s been a push towards electric vehicles. And besides their weight and the obvious fears of a collision with a lighter vehicle – and the destruction that would cause, there’s another issue with electric vehicles.
Many are not aware, but when these batteries need to be replaced, an electric vehicle owner is looking at an investment of about $14,000 – $25,000 per battery. That’s a new car for the price of a single battery! Not the sort of thing a teenager wants to tell their parents when the battery needs replacing – when the battery costs more than the actual worth of the aged electric vehicle.
But you cannot get away from the laws of physics. Energy equals mass times velocity squared. The more mass, the more energy.
That’s fine for the people inside the electric vehicle. But bad news for anybody that battering ram hits (a quote from a very educated friend of mine).
As is the case with many political actions, there seems to be “unintentional consequences” – and this is yet another example. And while the Democrats love the idea of an electric vehicle – their constituents won’t like it so much when they have to fork out the money to pay for a new battery.
Or even worse, collide with one of these beasts on the road.
By James P. Economos, DDS, Opinion ContributorIllinois has earned a national reputation for making questionable policy decisions. Too often, our state is cited as an example of what...
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