Rut-Roh, Electric Vehicles losing some of their charm...

Frankly surprised any rental car firm would want more than just a few of these. Motels and hotels all have charging stations. Right
 
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State urges Winthrop, other school districts to take electric buses off the road due to defects

Winthrop, Vinalhaven and Yarmouth reported problems last fall with electric school buses, and the Maine Department of Education is advising all Lion Electric Co. buses be parked until further inspections are done.

WINTHROP — Electric school buses from Lion Electric Co. arrived with problems, reports say, and the Maine Department of Education is advising school districts take the buses off the road until the state can inspect them.

Inspection reports from the Maine Department of Public Safety, which routinely inspects school buses, indicate the buses in Winthrop and Vinalhaven show the kind of wear that’s consistent with older buses with higher mileage, not new buses that have yet to be driven 1,000 miles.

Josh Wheeler, the transportation director for Winthrop Public Schools, said one bus experienced a power steering failure when he drove it a couple of weeks ago with no children on board. Wheeler had to steer into a snowbank to avoid crashing into traffic, he told the Winthrop School Board at its Feb. 7 meeting.

“I called Jim from the snowbank and was like: ‘This is it. We are done,'” Wheeler said, referring to Superintendent James Hodgkin.

A number of school districts across Maine, including those in Winthrop, Bingham, Mount Desert Island and Yarmouth, received electric-powered buses at no cost through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program, which is working to make 75% of the public school bus fleet electric by 2035. The districts agreed to turn in one diesel-powered bus for each electric bus received.

School districts first reported problems with the buses last fall, but the issues are getting worse. Winthrop Public Schools has asked Gov. Janet Mills’ office and the state Department of Education for help with the problematic buses.

Officials with Winthrop Public Schools said the buses came with misaligned or incorrect wording on the side of the buses. Six weeks later, the windshields began to leak. After the power steering failure, district officials realized the problems were more serious than thought.

The defects noted in the initial inspections over the summer by the Maine State Police Vehicle Inspection Unit ranged from loose body rivets, an inoperative drivers’ auxiliary fan, a power steering hose rubbing on a bracket and a rear emergency door check that did not work properly.

In Vinalhaven, where the school district has one Lion Electric Co. school bus, the problems have included side body damage (broken rivets) and no wheel chocks, which are blocks that prevent large vehicles from rolling when parked.

The inspection flagged a leaky windshield on one of Yarmouth’s two Lion Electric Co. buses. No other issues were reported when the inspection was conducted in August.

Jason King, supervisor of the state Motor Vehicle Inspection Unit, said the buses, which he inspected in August when they arrived, had between 70 and 400 miles on the their odometers.

“These types of defects found are usually not on a brand-new school bus,” King said, “but are issues that might be noted during an inspection of a seasoned school bus while in service.”

Three of Winthrop’s four electric school buses have been sent for repairs to Quebec, where Lion Electric Co. is based, and the bus with the critical steering failure is in Louisiana for an “autopsy.”

In the meantime, Lion Electric Co. is responsible for paying Winthrop for the rental fees for replacement buses.

One electric school bus is estimated to cost about $345,000, according to the state Department of Education.

Wheeler said he has spoken with the Lion Electric Co. engineering team that has reviewed the bus with the critical failure. He said the engineers found corrosion on some terminals, but nothing else wrong.

“I said, ‘OK, did you forget about the fact I had to ‘snowbank’ the thing to bring it to a stop?'” Wheeler said, when recalling his conversation to the Winthrop School Board.

The Kennebec Journal attempted to contact Lion Electric Co. for this story. The calls were not returned.

Wheeler and Hodgkin met with the Winthrop Town Council in early January to explain the problems with the electric buses and why the buses had barely passed inspection over the summer. One councilor asked if Winthrop could scrap the buses. Wheeler said that would not easy because the buses were bought with a federal grant. He said the governor’s office is trying to determine the best course of action.

Marcus Mrowka, the spokesperson for the Maine Department of Education, said state officials are continuing conversations with Lion Electric Co. on how to move forward. Additionally, the state has ordered a second round of inspections for the Lion Electric Co. buses, which was to have been completed last week.

“The department has recommended that districts not use their Lion (Electric Co.) buses until the buses have been inspected,” he said.

Scott Ogden, a spokesperson for Mills, said the governor’s office is working with the state Department of Education and the Office of Policy Innovation and the Future, Governor’s Energy Office and state Department of Public Safety to resolve the issue and make sure all students have reliable transportation.

“(The offices) are committed to supporting Maine school districts in resolving any issues they may be experiencing with their buses, including ensuring that the manufacturer of the buses is held appropriately accountable,” Ogden said.

The next electric buses bought through the federal grant are not from Lion Electric Co. They are coming from Thomas Built Electric Buses and supplied through W.C. Cressey & Son Inc. in Kennebunk.

Somerville-based Regional School Unit 12 is expected to receive two of the electric buses.

 
One thing I don't get is everyone is aware the the electric infrastructure is way behind supporting these EV mandates.
Existing EV cars have extremely wide tires with high rolling resistance, and are capable of insane acceleration times to also deplete their batteries in no time.

If they were serious about this, all EV's would have skinny tires and governors on acceleration and top speed - to stretch out our current limited electric capacity. Would they have an even harder time selling them if this was done?
 
How you can spend your entire camping trip worrying....

For those towing an extended distance for recreation, the Lightning isn't quite there yet. For me, a good camping weekend often means towing about 150 miles to the middle of nowhere, often over a steep mountain pass. And when it comes to this, the Lightning just can't cut it. Over 101.4 easy towing miles, the truck consumed 119.1 kWh of electricity (including powering the trailer and recharging via a generator), netting us 0.85 miles per kilowatt-hour (or 28.6 mpg-e) at a cost of $74.34. By contrast, our former F-150 Raptor with its high-output 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6 would average 9.7 mpg towing the same trailer, using about 10 gallons of premium fuel at a cost of about $50 for the same trip. However, with 36 gallons on board, the Raptor could do up to 350 miles of towing before needing to stop.

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How you can spend your entire camping trip worrying....

For those towing an extended distance for recreation, the Lightning isn't quite there yet. For me, a good camping weekend often means towing about 150 miles to the middle of nowhere, often over a steep mountain pass. And when it comes to this, the Lightning just can't cut it. Over 101.4 easy towing miles, the truck consumed 119.1 kWh of electricity (including powering the trailer and recharging via a generator), netting us 0.85 miles per kilowatt-hour (or 28.6 mpg-e) at a cost of $74.34. By contrast, our former F-150 Raptor with its high-output 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6 would average 9.7 mpg towing the same trailer, using about 10 gallons of premium fuel at a cost of about $50 for the same trip. However, with 36 gallons on board, the Raptor could do up to 350 miles of towing before needing to stop.

View attachment 75822
Nothing new, just finally being exposed.
 
Interesting topic called the Jevons Paradox which basically says as you make things more energy efficient, people use them more so energy use actually increases.

Here's a graphic example...
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This brings us to the biggest problem of all. Nearly every pathway for combating climate change and reducing global carbon emissions assumes not only that we shift to cleaner fuels but — and this is the critical part — that global energy demand actually falls. This is not just incredibly ambitious; it’s unprecedented.

Butchering Shakespeare, The Jevons Paradox: Aye there's the rub...
 
Well it usually snows in Maine, but you can't pull off a snow job!!

Maine board rejects mandate to boost electric vehicle sales by 2032

The vote by the state Board of Environmental Protection comes as the Biden administration has rolled out the country's strongest-ever limits on tailpipe pollution.

AUGUSTA — The state Board of Environmental Protection has rejected a mandate to dramatically step up sales of electric and hybrid vehicles in Maine.

The 4-2 vote by the board on Wednesday comes on the same day the Biden administration released the nation’s strongest-ever limits on tailpipe pollution, a move also meant to boost electric vehicle sales.

Maine car dealers and Republicans say the regulations would limit choice by forcing consumers to turn to costlier electric vehicles, or EVs. They also voiced concern that there are too few chargers, particularly in rural Maine.

The state standards, would have required increasing the share of electric and hybrid cars and trucks sold in Maine to 51% of all vehicles sold in 2028 – up from 43% previously proposed – and 82% of all vehicles sold in 2032.
 
Forgot to share this, but late last month I was in IL & IA for a week. I sauntered up to the AVIS desk in IL and the nice lady said, "Oh, you're eligible for an upgrade, how far you driving before coming back here?" "Eastern Iowa, traveling through Wisconsin farm land."
"OK, I'll forget about renting you that Mercedes EV, how about a nice Hyundai Santa Fe?"
"Perfect, thank you, and thank you for forgetting about the EV."

I know that the Rental Companies jumped on the EV thing to appease the Greta T., et al. crowd, but their recoil from them is truly the barometer of how practical they are in their current configuration and the current infrastructure for charging them.
 
It seems Toyota is onto something, at least Ford thinks so, and many other manufacturers will probably start following suit. I highlighted my beef with EVs...

Ford Slows Its Push Into Electric Vehicles

The automaker said it would delay new battery-powered models and shift its focus to hybrid cars, sales of which are rising fast.

Ford Motor on Thursday delayed the production of at least two new electric cars and said it would pivot to making more hybrids. Its decision was the latest sign that large automakers have been forced to rethink their strategy for electric vehicles because sales for those models are slowing.

The shift by Ford and automakers like General Motors and Mercedes-Benz, which have also pushed back their electric car plans, has been prompted largely by the companies’ difficulties in making and selling enough electric cars and doing so profitably.

Sales of such vehicles are still growing but the pace has slowed sharply in recent months as automakers have tapped out many of the early adopters who were willing to spend more than $50,000 on a new battery-powered car. Because they are still learning how to make the cars and their batteries at lower cost, the companies have not been able to bring out more affordable models.

Some consumers are also reluctant to buy electric models because they can’t charge the vehicles at home or are worried that there won’t be enough public chargers available when they want to travel more than a couple of hundred miles.

Many car buyers interested in electric vehicles appear to be choosing hybrid cars, which can cost just a few hundred dollars more than comparable gasoline-only models and in some cases offer much better fuel economy. Those cars are also easier for consumers to get used to because they don’t have to be plugged in and are fueled like conventional models.

Ford said on Thursday that it hoped to offer a hybrid version of every model it sold by the end of the decade. It already makes hybrid versions of two pickups — the Maverick and the F-150 — and its Escape crossover.

The company said it was now planning to start making a large electric sport-utility vehicle at its plant in Oakville, Ontario, in 2027, two years later than it had planned. A plant that Ford is building in Tennessee will start making an electric pickup truck in 2026, a year later than originally scheduled.

“We are committed to scaling a profitable E.V. business, using capital wisely and bringing to market the right gas, hybrid and fully electric vehicles at the right time,” Ford’s chief executive, Jim Farley, said in a statement.

The slowdown in sales is also hurting the leading maker of electric models in the United States, Tesla. This week it reported an unexpected 8.5 percent decrease in sales of its electric cars in the first three months of the year.

On Wednesday, Ford said its sales of electric vehicles grew 86 percent in the quarter, to 20,223 vehicles, but the total was well below the level the company once hoped to reach and came after it cut some prices.

The company sold more than 7,700 F-150 Lightning pickups, its flagship electric model, in the three-month period. As recently as last summer, Ford hoped to be able to produce some 150,000 Lightnings trucks a year. The company recently reduced Lightning production to one shift per day from two.

Two years ago, Ford, G.M., Volkswagen and other automakers were planning to introduce dozens of new electric cars and trucks, expecting consumers to make a rapid transition to electric vehicles from gasoline-powered vehicles.

But in the second half of 2023, the growth in electric sales decreased significantly, forcing manufacturers to scale back their ambitions. Ford and G.M. have also slowed work on factories that are supposed to supply battery packs for their new electric models.

Ford’s electric vehicle division lost about $4.7 billion last year before taking interest and taxes into account. By contrast, its division that makes gasoline and hybrid vehicles for consumers made a $7.5 billion profit.
 
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