John Bolton - November 25, 2024


EV Batteries Running Out Of Juice


Episode Stats


Length

3 minutes

Words per minute

173.11948

Word count

626

Sentence count

40


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

A company that makes electric vehicle batteries files for bankruptcy protection. What does this mean for the future of electric vehicle sales in Canada and the rest of the world? And why is the government not investing in Northvolt?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.240 Hi, it's John. Welcome. Enjoying a cup of coffee this morning just after 5 o'clock, November the 25th, one month from Christmas.
00:00:08.560 And have you heard of a company called Northvolt? Northvolt? No?
00:00:13.920 I hadn't heard of Northvolt until this morning, but I maybe should have known a little bit about it because I have money invested in this company, and you may as well.
00:00:22.880 Let me read a paragraph from The Daily Skeptic with a little information regarding Northvolt.
00:00:28.480 According to The Telegraph, Europe's electric car market rebellion is claiming its biggest scalp.
00:00:34.200 There's no reason to gloat, though. The vast sums of money poured into the Swedish-based firm Northvolt, which has now filed for bankruptcy protection,
00:00:42.720 have come from investors, bondholders, pension funds, and European governments since it was founded in 2016,
00:00:49.080 to say nothing of ceding yet more market dominance and strategic autonomy to China.
00:00:53.940 So Northvolt makes electric vehicle batteries, and for some reason, people just don't seem to be buying as many electric vehicles
00:01:02.100 as governments around the world think they should be, and that's happening in Canada as well.
00:01:08.040 We live in a northern climate. They don't work as well here, and people seem to like their fossil fuel vehicles.
00:01:13.200 But governments around the world are picking winners and losers, and they're picking the electric vehicle market as winners,
00:01:20.000 and they're trying to get rid of all fossil fuels.
00:01:22.300 Let's look up from a Canada standpoint.
00:01:25.120 In Canada alone, the government has, well, they're subsidizing electric vehicle batteries to the tune of $56 billion,
00:01:32.740 including about $1.5 billion for Northvolt.
00:01:37.880 Quebec is also putting $1.5 billion into Northvolt and investing in electric vehicle batteries.
00:01:45.560 Now, here's the thing. In Quebec, they're supposed to be building a $7 billion plant for Northvolt.
00:01:51.480 It was supposed to open in 2026.
00:01:53.800 Now, because of what's going on with this company and them filing for bankruptcy protection,
00:01:58.080 they're pushing the opening date of that plant back.
00:02:02.400 But according to the economy minister in Quebec, everything's just fine, and it will open like normal.
00:02:08.680 But at the same time, Quebec and the Canadian government are withholding any additional funds for Northvolt.
00:02:14.560 So I don't think they have too much faith in this company opening at all.
00:02:18.400 Here's the problem.
00:02:19.980 Governments are picking winners and losers, and they're picking electric vehicles as winners
00:02:24.440 as they try to get rid of fossil fuel vehicles, regular cars, as the losers.
00:02:30.040 And they should not be doing that.
00:02:31.580 Do you want the government deciding anything for you?
00:02:34.240 I mean, they're stupid enough to make investments in companies that are going under right now,
00:02:38.140 and they're using your money to do it.
00:02:40.120 It's up to you to choose what vehicle you want.
00:02:43.440 In Canada, I believe the Liberal government is committing to all electric vehicles being sold in the country by 2035 being electric.
00:02:52.620 That ain't going to happen.
00:02:54.440 We're likely to have a new government here in October,
00:02:56.660 and we're going to be pumping more oil and gas here if Pierre Polyev and the Conservative Party get their way.
00:03:02.480 And look what's going on in the United States right now.
00:03:04.920 Do you really think Donald Trump's going all in on EVs?
00:03:08.160 No.
00:03:08.740 He's going to pump more oil and gas, and Canada better be watching what's going on,
00:03:13.200 because Donald Trump may be pickpocketing our country for automotive jobs very soon that make vehicles that run on fossil fuels.
00:03:23.080 So this is what's going on with your money.
00:03:25.420 Look into Northvolt.
00:03:27.160 If you haven't read much about it, you can't.
00:03:29.860 There's not a lot out there about this,
00:03:31.420 but your money is being wasted by your government,
00:03:33.600 and it's all because of the Green Dream.
00:03:35.820 Thanks for watching.