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Electric Vehicles Are an Ideologically Driven Economic Misadventure

Jerome CorsiThe world’s energy infrastructures cannot keep pace with the leftists’ relentless push for electric vehicles. More

Over 2 million EVs have been sold in the United States, although EVs remain less than 1 percent of all vehicles on the road. On average, EVs cost $10,108 more than a standard vehicle. At the end of 2022, entry-level EVs cost customers between $20,000 and $40,000. In 2023, ongoing inflationary price increases, supply chain constraints, deteriorating labor conditions in major manufacturing regions, and component shortages will drive up EV prices. Statistica.com predicts EV prices will jump by another 37 percent in 2023, driving the average cost of an EV up to more than $69,000 by the second half of the year.


Jake Fogleman, a policy analyst at the Independence Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment, highlights another factor limiting EV expansion. NZE enthusiasts presume EVs contribute to decarbonization primarily because battery-powered electricity emits no CO2. The problem is that the electricity needed to recharge EV batteries is generated primarily by burning hydrocarbon fuels. In an article posted on January 3, 2023, Fogleman referred to the German word Dunkelflaute, which he translated as “dark doldrums,” a term he noted describes a weather pattern of low wind and limited sunlight that makes generating electricity from renewable fuels nearly impossible. He wrote:

The event is relatively common in northern and western Europe during the winter months—hence the German name—and just last month it led to a devastating spike in [natural] gas prices in the U.K. while forcing Germany to supply nearly half its electricity needs from coal….

In a day-by-day analysis of Colorado’s generation of electricity, Fogleman noted that between December 30, 2022, and January 2, 2023, “Colorado’s wind fleet (with its roughly 4,500 MW of installed capacity) went from producing 2,000 MW of electricity down to the negatives on multiple occasions,” while solar generation, “similarly flatlined on January 2, when overcast skies arrived in the state.”