EVs Are The Yugo Of The 21st Century

[Valin]

Issues & Insights

I & I Editorial Board
March 28, 2023

Way back in the mid-1980s, communist Yugoslavia exported the Yugo, a compact car that sold for around $4,000. It was so poorly made that bumping into a pole at 5 mph could total it.

Fast forward to today, and a new class of cars has a similar problem. A minor accident can cause a total loss, even if the car’s been driven only a few miles. The only difference is that these cars aren’t cheap imports from some godforsaken socialist state. These are state-of-art electric vehicles that come with an average sticker price of $55,000.

Why are insurance companies totaling low-mileage EVs that have been in a fender bender? For the same reason you could total a new Yugo when backing out of a parking spot. The cost of repair is exorbitant.

As Reuters reported recently, “For many electric vehicles, there is no way to repair or assess even slightly damaged battery packs after accidents,” which means the only viable option is to replace the battery, which represents about half the cost of the car.

A replacement battery for a $44,000 Tesla Model 3 can cost up to $20,000.

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[Valin]

Mar 31, 2023

'The Five' co-hosts react to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland acknowledging that the Biden administration's climate agenda is strengthening China during a House Appropriations Committee hearing

[Valin]

Time for EV Class Actions?

John Hinderaker

April 1, 2023

Electric vehicles are the South Sea Bubble of the 21st century. They are essentially obsolete, having lost out to the internal combustion engine 100 years ago. Yes, you can make a good car with a battery, like a Tesla. But the cost will always be too high, the environmental consequences are horrific, the drain on natural resources is unconscionable, and charging requirements will always render the vehicle impractical.

This is why EVs need hype to go along with subsidies and mandates.

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I think there is good reason to think that most, or all, electric vehicles manufactured today are being sold on the basis of misrepresentations amounting to consumer fraud. Why shouldn’t this be the basis for class action lawsuits?

Everyone knows there are two systems of justice in the United States, one system for favored people, industries, and organizations, and another system for disfavored people, industries, and organizations. Electric vehicles are the pets of both the federal and many state governments. Still, the plaintiffs’ class action bar goes where the money is. Class actions, filed in courts not dominated by the Left and ultimately decided by juries, could be one way to bring the incipient EV disaster to a screeching halt.