Valuetainment - Will Electric Cars Save The Planet？ Or Is It Just Propaganda？

00:00:00.200 Is it just me or does it feel like the only way you and I can save the world from climate

00:00:03.520 change or global warming is by owning a Tesla or an electric vehicle?

00:00:08.520 As if we drive gas or diesel, the world is coming to an end.

00:00:12.000 Matter of fact, we just recently saw President Biden talk about the fact that by 2030, 50%

00:00:17.440 of all cars need to be EVs, and even Newsom talked about the fact that by 2035, 100% of

00:00:23.160 the cars need to be EVs.

00:00:24.840 But the story's deeper than that.

00:00:26.080 The more we researched, the more bizarre it got with China, with Congo, with cobalt,

00:00:32.180 with lithium, with child labor.

00:00:34.640 Very bizarre, but we're going to get right into it in today's episode.

00:00:46.440 So stick around to get the PDF of what we're talking about today, but there's a few questions

00:00:50.800 that we have to answer.

00:00:51.800 Number one, the argument for having EVs, and the argument against it.

00:00:56.400 Number two, which industry will benefit the most from EVs?

00:01:00.720 Number three, who is hurt by EVs?

00:01:02.900 Number four, are EVs, the new diesel scandal waiting to happen, and then some final thoughts

00:01:08.200 on today's discussion.

00:01:09.480 So first things first, there's a lot of good motives here.

00:01:11.820 People are concerned, younger generation, climate change, global warming, but is it really

00:01:15.400 worth it?

00:01:16.400 Here's why.

00:01:17.400 Because when we look at the total US greenhouse gas emissions by economic sector in 2020,

00:01:22.420 this is what it looks like.

00:01:23.620 29% is caused by transportation, 25% is electricity, 24% is industry, which is raw material we all

00:01:30.960 use, 13% is commercial and residential, 11% is agriculture, but this is the key.

00:01:36.480 Today's focus is transportation, and out of the 29%, only 16.82% of it is cars.

00:01:43.200 So the question becomes, is this 16.82%, the cars, everything, let's change everything

00:01:47.420 up, 2030, 2035, is that worth the shift that we're making today?

00:01:52.060 To fully understand that, we have to look at some numbers.

00:01:54.640 Here's some numbers to look at in regards to total cars sold in Q4 of 2021.

00:02:00.300 In Q4 of 2021, we sold a little over 3.3 million cars in the US, of which only 152,000

00:02:06.880 were diesel, 353,000 were EV, and then the rest, which is about 2.761 million, are just

00:02:13.200 regular gasoline cars.

00:02:15.260 And by the way, for some of you, just to show you how new this is, we've only been selling

00:02:19.380 EVs roughly since 2010.

00:02:21.740 Tesla, who is the main leader in this market, has only sold 1.917,450,000 cars.

00:02:29.700 And FYI, since 2016 to the first half of 2021, they've sold roughly a third of all EVs in

00:02:35.580 America.

00:02:36.580 Okay, so now that we saw some of those numbers, let's look at the argument between having an

00:02:39.780 EV versus not having one.

00:02:41.840 So price-wise, if you want to buy an EV today, the average EV today is roughly $56,437 versus

00:02:48.900 the average gasoline car is $47,077, according to Kelley Blue Book.

00:02:55.980 So if you look at the numbers right there, it's only a $10,000 difference.

00:02:58.720 But if you do buy an EV, you get a $7,500 tax credit on the back end from the government.

00:03:03.020 So maybe it's not upfront, but you are getting it on the back end.

00:03:05.720 Now let's take a look at miles.

00:03:07.480 When it comes onto miles, let's compare two cars.

00:03:09.880 I drive an F-150.

00:03:12.140 So let's look at the F-150, that's gas, versus the F-150, that's EV, which is called the Lightning.

00:03:18.540 So if we were to look at the regular F-150, it would cost you $99.31 to fill up the gas

00:03:24.780 tank.

00:03:25.780 That's at an average of $4.32.

00:03:28.040 But if you had the Lightning, it would only cost you $13.48 to charge the battery.

00:03:33.700 So what does that number break down to?

00:03:34.960 Here's what it looks like.

00:03:35.960 On the F-150, the regular one, it comes down to $0.20 a mile, versus the Lightning, it comes

00:03:43.000 down to $0.06 a mile.

00:03:45.220 That's a big savings, nearly a third of the cost for regular gas.

00:03:49.100 Now a few things.

00:03:50.100 If you're on the EV, you have no emissions, no gas, less maintenance.

00:03:53.400 Of course you're going to have to change the tires and the basic things, but when it comes

00:03:56.620 down to the EV, they can pretty much update on their own.

00:03:59.320 You know, software updates are going to happen regularly.

00:04:01.300 You don't need to do an oil change.

00:04:02.460 You don't need to do all the other stuff that you go to a mechanic for.

00:04:06.580 You don't have that with the EV, which saves you a lot of time.

00:04:09.640 So now, so far you may say, oh my God, Pat, you already sold me.

00:04:11.720 I'm going to go buy an EV tomorrow.

00:04:12.720 I'm buying a Tesla tomorrow.

00:04:13.720 Matter of fact, I'm going online to order a Tesla.

00:04:15.580 Before you do, hang tight, hear the entire argument.

00:04:19.360 The complete opposite side says the following.

00:04:21.700 Number one, if you have a car that's a regular car going off of gas, you can find gas stations

00:04:27.060 pretty much everywhere.

00:04:27.460 Now, if you drive an EV and you go on a road trip, good luck finding a charging station,

00:04:32.080 because that's spotty at best.

00:04:33.640 And on top of it, many of them that you may find, maybe not even working.

00:04:37.380 One of the questions we asked on Twitter, we said, what's your biggest argument against

00:04:41.020 EV?

00:04:42.140 One guy commented and said, I am an EV owner.

00:04:44.580 I drive my car, but half the charging stations are broken and it's frustrating for an owner.

00:04:50.640 Next, when it comes down to Tesla, the makeup of a typical Tesla owner is a six-figure earner

00:04:56.840 who's making money, who can afford to finance a $57,000 car with tax and everything included.

00:05:03.320 Even though you're getting the $7,500 on the back end, don't forget, you need to finance

00:05:06.220 the whole thing up front.

00:05:07.700 So you need to make money to be able to buy an EV like a Tesla.

00:05:11.060 So at this point in the game, you may say, Pat, you still haven't changed my mind, I'm

00:05:13.460 still getting an EV and I'm sticking to it.

00:05:15.120 No problem.

00:05:16.120 There's two things you need to know about.

00:05:17.220 The current EVs that they're producing, you need lithium and you need cobalt, okay, to

00:05:22.000 produce the EVs that they're producing.

00:05:24.460 Now what's the big deal about lithium?

00:05:26.540 Let me explain to you.

00:05:27.880 Over a single year, producing 60 tons of lithium at the site could mean digging up as much as

00:05:32.840 20 to 30 million tons of earth.

00:05:35.720 Yes, earth.

00:05:36.720 Like, if you look at the picture right there, that's earth.

00:05:38.500 You see that big hole?

00:05:39.940 We need to do that to get 60 tons of lithium.

00:05:42.920 More than the annual amount of earth dug up to produce all coal output of all but seven

00:05:49.180 or eight U.S. states.

00:05:51.420 That's pretty insane to think about.

00:05:53.480 Hauling the material, wait for this one, will require 75 tractor trailers loads a day.

00:06:00.040 Every one of them running on, ready, fossil fuels.

00:06:04.160 And this doesn't include the excavators, the diggers, any of that other stuff.

00:06:08.200 And it doesn't include the transportation of the employees going there, I'm just giving

00:06:11.500 you the basics of lithium here.

00:06:14.260 Now let's take a look at cobalt.

00:06:15.820 When it comes down to cobalt reserves, we have roughly 7.6 million worldwide, of which

00:06:21.740 you have countries like U.S. have 69,000, China 80,000, Madagascar 100,000, Canada 220,

00:06:27.580 Russia 250, Philippines 260, Cuba 500,000, Indonesia 600,000, Australia 1.4 million, you ready?

00:06:35.820 In the Democratic Republic of Congo, 3.5 million tons of reserves of cobalt, which by the way,

00:06:44.000 15 out of the 19 mines in Congo are owned and operated by China.

00:06:51.200 Let me say that one more time, 15 out of 19 are owned and operated by China.

00:06:56.400 Which by the way, they bought this land in Africa nearly two decades ago, which is a massive

00:07:00.800 bet that they took thinking one day this year.

00:07:03.420 A lot of people say, oh, this is such a visionary, this guy's such a visionary.

00:07:07.300 Two decades ago is 2002, 2002 ain't nobody driving Teslas.

00:07:12.720 But in 2002, they kind of said, we may be going in this direction, that cobalt.

00:07:16.420 Nobody looks at cobalt and looks at it as anything.

00:07:18.420 You've seen ceramics of cobalt, but you don't wake up one morning and say, we need to go buy

00:07:22.360 cobalt.

00:07:23.360 Right?

00:07:24.360 That's what they did.

00:07:25.360 15 out of 19, which if you were to look at the DNA of China and you were to say, what would

00:07:29.280 their motive be, maybe they're thinking about not selling the cobalt to others.

00:07:34.840 Maybe they're thinking about producing the cars that need cobalt, because the world has

00:07:40.520 to buy the cars from them.

00:07:42.840 It's a form of a monopoly, isn't it?

00:07:44.780 If we go in that direction, got to give them credit for making a decision like that.

00:07:49.160 But at the end of the day, that in itself could lead to something where other countries

00:07:54.280 are relying on China to get cobalt from them, just like the world has been relying on China 0.98

00:07:59.380 to get chips and many other products that we felt during COVID.

00:08:03.800 According to human rights organization Amnesty International, the growth has put pressure

00:08:07.740 on miners in the DRC to ramp up production, leading in turn to tens of thousands of children

00:08:14.420 being lured or forced into grueling and dangerous mine work.

00:08:18.560 You know, sometimes when we're trying to solve a problem, you're like, well, yeah, we have

00:08:21.560 to do this because we've got to get away from fossil fuel, and then when you really look

00:08:24.980 it up and you put the map together, you're like, wait a minute, to get to where we want

00:08:27.780 to get to, we have to make some kind of sacrifices.

00:08:30.740 So no, let's not do fossil fuel because God forbid global warming and, you know, everything

00:08:34.700 climate change that we're going through, but yeah, let's do lithium and take 20 to 30 million

00:08:38.240 tons and dig up from the earth.

00:08:40.760 That's pretty bad if we keep doing that.

00:08:42.240 Yeah, how about we go get cobalt and we get through China 15 to 19 mines they own and 50% plus

00:08:50.800 of it isn't there.

00:08:52.100 So we have to go through Congo and they've got a monopoly, and we've got to get away from 1.00

00:08:55.900 cobalt, but we've still got to do it, but how about the child labor, oh my God, so what

00:09:01.920 do we, so should we go this direction or not?

00:09:04.380 It's a very conflicted, bizarre decision processing that we're going through, so there's not really

00:09:10.200 a, we're making the right decision, we're not making the right decision.

00:09:13.180 It's very complex, but let me continue.

00:09:15.380 So the next question is, which industries will benefit from EVs?

00:09:18.540 So the first one is battery manufacturers, obviously this is going to be very big for

00:09:21.520 them because if this is the direction that we're going to, companies that develop batteries

00:09:25.220 for EVs are set to see huge upturn in adoption of these vehicles worldwide.

00:09:30.180 Matter of fact, if the sale of EVs continue at the anticipated rate, a study suggests a total

00:09:36.060 of $60 billion worth of batteries will need to be produced to cater to this demand.

00:09:40.700 So that's one industry that's going to take a massive, massive profit from this direction

00:09:45.340 that we go to.

00:09:46.340 Number two is EV manufacturers, which is pretty obvious.

00:09:48.880 You got Tesla and anybody else that's producing EVs, they're going to see, this is why Tesla's

00:09:54.400 valued at nearly a trillion dollars, and they've only sold 1.9 million cars.

00:09:58.400 That's pretty insane to see numbers like that.

00:10:01.060 And then you have transport, you know, whether it's transport, public transportation, they're

00:10:04.900 going to have to convert to that because it's less maintenance, less headache.

00:10:07.960 Of course, the cost of getting it up front is going to be more, but it's going to be less

00:10:10.980 headache and, you know, maintenance on the back end, and last but not least, is utility

00:10:15.980 providers.

00:10:16.980 As more drivers opt to install an EV charging point at home, their energy usage will inevitably

00:10:22.620 increase.

00:10:23.620 In fact, predictions suggest that the average household energy consumption will double with

00:10:27.580 the installation of an EV charging point.

00:10:30.760 So the next question is, who will be hurt by EVs?

00:10:33.920 Many will say big oil, however, even if electric vehicles come to entirely dominate the transportation

00:10:39.580 space, ExxonMobil is expecting little change in global oil use.

00:10:45.540 The oil major predicts that oil use for transportation will decline slowly, but overall, oil demand will

00:10:51.300 continue to rise as crude as needed for industry and petrochemicals.

00:10:56.460 Here's what a spokesperson from ExxonMobil said, if every car sold in 2025 was an EV, leading

00:11:02.400 to every single passenger vehicle in the world being an EV, by 2040, the global demand for oil

00:11:08.760 and gas would be the same as it was in 2010.

00:11:12.800 They won't even feel it.

00:11:14.120 But who will feel it is going to be that small little business owner that owns that gas station

00:11:18.540 in the corner.

00:11:19.540 You know who I'm talking about.

00:11:20.540 You go to Mobil, Exxon, whoever it is.

00:11:22.760 Not Exxon, but some of those guys that own that franchise, they will feel it because that's

00:11:26.480 eventually going to go away.

00:11:27.880 So for those of you that drive diesel, you may want to skip this next part because the decision

00:11:31.900 you made to get diesel, this may offend you.

00:11:34.160 So brace for impact.

00:11:35.660 Are Electric Vehicles The New Diesel Scandal Waiting to Happen?

00:11:39.880 So Bjorn Lomberg, the author of False Alarm, wrote an article for Daily Mail which was

00:11:43.760 titled, Are Electric Cars The New Diesel Scandal Waiting to Happen?

00:11:48.520 He says, do you remember Britain's dash for diesel?

00:11:51.220 It began more than 20 years ago when then Chancellor Gordon Brown announced a new car tax system

00:11:55.420 favoring vehicles with lower emissions of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that contributes

00:11:59.880 to global warming.

00:12:01.420 Diesel cars tend to be more fuel efficient with lower emissions and Mr. Brown held them

00:12:05.640 as a greener and cheaper option.

00:12:07.500 Over a decade and a half, the number of such vehicles on British roads quadrupled.

00:12:12.660 What happened?

00:12:13.980 What didn't emerge until much later, although it was no secret in the motor industry or

00:12:18.300 among government officials, was that diesel cars also emitted greater quantities of other

00:12:23.700 pollutants, nitrogen oxide, and particulates that damage air quality and human health.

00:12:29.520 Such particulates, which have been linked to respiratory problems, heart disease and lung

00:12:32.740 cancer, have been responsible for thousands of premature deaths.

00:12:36.780 Britain wasn't alone, of course, in their desire to be seen as ever greener governments of richer

00:12:41.020 countries were all pursuing the same policies on car tax or cutting duty on diesel fuel.

00:12:47.480 So what's the moral of the story?

00:12:48.740 None of us know if this thing's going to work or not.

00:12:51.540 Nobody knows.

00:12:52.540 Diesel, they took a big bet in Britain, 20 years later they realized maybe it wasn't the

00:12:56.080 right bet that we took, it didn't work, it backfired.

00:12:59.060 If U.S., their cars is only 4.6% diesel, 50% of cars in Europe is diesel.

00:13:05.320 Let me say that one more time, 10 times more than U.S. cars.

00:13:08.640 In Europe, one out of every two cars is diesel.

00:13:11.060 They all bet on this diesel thing, it didn't work for them.

00:13:14.280 Watch what someone said about the direction we're going with EVs.

00:13:19.120 The International Energy Agency, IEA, estimates that if every nation achieves its ambitious

00:13:25.500 targets on increasing electric car ownership, it will reduce CO2 emissions in this decade

00:13:31.740 by 235 million tons, which means what?

00:13:35.560 According to the UN Climate Panel Standard Model, we'll reduce a global temperature by

00:13:40.940 110,000 of a degree Celsius.

00:13:45.320 That's .0001 Celsius by the end of the century.

00:13:53.600 So is it really worth it?

00:13:55.440 So I'm curious, if you want to see more content like this, give us a thumbs up and subscribe

00:13:59.000 to the channel.

00:14:00.000 If you do want to get today's content in a PDF, click over here to get the PDF.

00:14:04.440 And if you want to see another video similar to this, I did a video titled Climate Change,

00:14:09.160 Myth or Reality, if you haven't watched it, click over here to watch that video.

00:14:12.920 Take care, everybody.

00:14:13.920 Bye-bye.

Valuetainment - July 11, 2022

Will Electric Cars Save The Planet？ Or Is It Just Propaganda？

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