His speech was so disjointed
Trump wants to beat up electric cars.
He has long claimed electric cars will “kill” America’s auto industry. He has called them an “assassination” of jobs. He has declared that the Biden administration “ordered a hit job on Michigan manufacturing” by encouraging the sales of electric cars.
And on Saturday, after ticking off a litany of false claims about electric vehicles, he spoke about slapping a “100 percent tariff” on cars manufactured in Mexico but imported into the United States. “And you’re not going to be able to sell those cars,” he said. “If I get elected. Now if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a blood bath for the whole. That’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a blood bath for the country, that’s going to be the least of it. But they’re not going to sell those cars.”
It’s a metaphor, of course, but metaphor choice can be very instructive. It’s not without interest that he likes using violent metaphors. (I think I probably do too, but then I’m not running for president.)
Jennifer Mercieca, author of “Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump,” noted that in his weekend speech, Mr. Trump jumped from complaining about the failure of the United Auto Workers to endorse him to making claims about the auto manufacturing industry leaving the United States for Mexico to the blood bath comment and then back to car sales.
“Because his speech was so disjointed it makes it difficult to know if he was threatening the U.A.W. workers, the U.S. auto manufacturers, or the nation as a whole,” Ms. Mercieca said. But, she added, “In a sense, it doesn’t matter because Trump was threatening all at once.”
Ms. Mercieca, who teaches communications at Texas A&M University, called Mr. Trump’s rhetoric a strategy of “ad baculum,” which is using threats of force or intimidation to coerce behavior.
It’s the crudest form of rhetoric there is, so of course Trump likes it. He’s the Platonic essence of crudity.
I’ve been reading that the sales of electric vehicles is down; that didn’t require Trump. The market will make the decision, and I thought Republicans were supposed to be all about the market? That means not making mandates for electric cars, but not banning them, either.
And yet the Republicans love him. Of course, they always jump on the ban-wagon when it’s something they don’t like.
Good pun. I was about to “fix” it but then I realized.
With current battery technology I would go for a plug in hybrid.
Get one with a battery that will take me 50 to 100 km, so I do most city driving on the battery, and a combustion engine turning a generator that is just powerful enough to move the car at highway speed so I can go several hundred km without worrying about running out of charge.
see this article to compare the energy per liter or kg of batteries vs petroleum products.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density
See the graph.
Note also the value for lithium, which gives you the theoretical maximum for a lithium-air battery, much better than lithium ion batteries and almost as good as hydrocarbons. How close to that maximum we might get if a lithium air battery turns out to be doable is another matter
Lithium Ion is becoming old hat, newer, better battery technology is being developed, particularly by BYD in China. Sodium Ion is a growing alternative.
I live around 200 km from Adelaide and make the trip regularly. My next car will be 100% electric, will make the return trip and still have around 30% battery capacity left.
Trump can work as hard as he likes to keep buggy whip manufacturers employed, but he’s pissing into the wind.
A reason to use sodium rather than lithium is that sodium is *much* more commonly available.
The big reason to use lithium is that you get more energy per kg or liter than for other battery materials.
The high energy density is a big advantage for vehicles.
For stationary applications cheapness rather that high energy density is the important thing, which is why pumped hydro has long been the biggest form of grid energy storage.
Batteries generally tend to perform poorly in cold conditions, so I would be less inclined to use an all electric vehicle in Canada than in Australia.