Kamala Harris has flip-flopped on her E.V. stance.  Her campaign staff, particularly communications official Ammar Moussa, contends it’s a “lie” that she supports E.V. mandates.  However, then-senator Harris was a co-sponsor of the Zero Emissions Vehicles Act of 2019, a bill that proposed to require 100% of new car sales to be E.V.s or otherwise be emissions-free by 2040. 

The key is “emissions-free.”

Her flip-flop is proof that she will say or do anything to get elected.  It also illustrates that her environmentalist beliefs are to be subjugated to the appearance of being more mainstream, therefore more electable, by throwing her leftist belief under the bus. 

She will, if elected, pick that belief back up.  She has said her values have not changed.  She is therefore one who lets her ideology override reality.  Although E.V.s themselves may be emissions-free, most of the electricity generated in North American has greenhouse gas emissions associated with it.  Coal is about the dirtiest way to generate electricity to recharge an E.V. battery.  Although powering an E.V. with electricity generated from coal, currently 16% in the U.S., is marginally better than burning gasoline in an internal combustion engine, it’s far from emissions-free.  Even electricity generated using natural gas (43% of electricity generation fuel), though cleaner than coal, is not emissions-free. 

And mining, processing, and refining the lithium, cobalt, and nickel required for all E.V. batteries entails highly energy-intensive processes that require greenhouse gas–producing fossil fuels that are not emissions-free.

Kamala’s emissions-free ideology affects her values and actions in two ways. 

First, in an attempt to make E.V.s more affordable, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 says E.V. buyers may qualify for a full tax credit of $7,500 or a partial tax credit of $3,750, depending upon the E.V.’s battery and critical mineral requirements.  Further, E.V. subsidies including up to $4,000 off the price of a used E.V. can be had for eligible vehicles.  Starting in 2024, consumers can transfer the credit to an eligible dealer for an immediate discount on the E.V. at the point of sale.

The Inflation Reduction Act amended the Qualified Plug-in Electric Drive Motor Vehicle Credit (IRC 30D), now known as the Clean Vehicle Credit, to add a new requirement for new E.V.s, fuel cell E.V.s, and plug-in hybrid E.V.s: they must be assembled in North America, which includes Mexico, the country that has done very little to help with our southern border crisis.

Second, and her ideology is really apparent here, the Clean Vehicle Credit that she supported doesn’t apply to hybrid E.V.s — only to plug-in hybrid E.V.s and E.V.s.  In fact, hybrid E.V.s don’t qualify for any (that I can find) federal incentives, tax credits, or rebates.

To provide a real-world comparison capability, consider the  Kia Niro, the only vehicle currently available (that I can find) as an E.V., a plug-in hybrid, and a hybrid.

The “cheapest” model is the hybrid — $27,915 with no options, powered by a 104-hp 1.6-liter four-cylinder coupled to two electric motors: an 11-hp starter-generator for starting and stopping the gasoline engine and for recharging the 1.3-kWh battery, with the other a 43 hp unit that helps drive the wheels.  Total system output is 139 hp and 195 lb-ft of torque (internal combustion engines and electric motors supplement one another so system output is seldom the sum of both power sources).  It’s EPA-rated at 53/45/49 mpg city/highway/combined and can travel up to 544 miles on a tank of gasoline.

I say “cheapest” because $27,915 is a hefty price to pay for a very basic econo-car.

Next is the $35,165 plug-in hybrid E.V.  It has an engine-motor arrangement like the hybrid.  Total system output is 180 hp and 195 ft-lb of torque.  When fully charged, it can travel up to 34 miles on electricity alone and a total of 510 miles between gas and electricity.  It can operate as an E.V. (engine never started), so it can technically be emissions-free.

Finally, at $40,875, the E.V. has a 188-lb-ft of torque electric motor and no gasoline engine.  The motor gets electricity from a 64.8-kWh battery pack underneath the floor.  It has an EPA-estimated range of up to 253 miles and is rated at 126/101/113 mpg-e.

Please note that paying almost $13,000 more for the E.V. gets you less than half the driving range of the hybrid E.V.

The basic hybrid configuration mates a gasoline engine with an electric motor to boost an E.V.’s range and fuel economy.  The battery pack that runs the motor recharges itself by recovering energy that would otherwise be lost (in the form of heat) when decelerating or stopping (regenerative braking — regen for short).  The regen system does not replace traditional brakes; instead, it works with them.  Electrical energy collected via this system is stored in a battery for immediate reuse the next time the hybrid E.V. accelerates.  The gasoline engine (which can recharge the battery if necessary) usually doesn’t come into play until 25 mph is reached.  This gives the hybrid E.V. outstanding gasoline mileage in stop-and-go driving.  And the assistance of the electric motor permits the gasoline engine to be smaller than in an equivalent gasoline-engine automobile.  Hybrids have lower battery driving ranges than comparable E.V.s because the electrical capacity is designed to supplement gasoline engine driving and to help maximize fuel efficiency.

Gasoline is the only fuel a hybrid E.V. uses.  (Diesel hybrids do exist, but they’re mainly found in locomotives and other extreme heavy-duty applications.  In fact, diesel locomotives, technically known as diesel-electrics, came into widespread use in 1937 following development by General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division.  This technology is not new.)  Hybrids have small high-voltage batteries to power their electric motors, but they’re never plugged in.

For those of you who aren’t automobile racing fans, Formula One cars (the fastest cars on the planet) and Indy Racing League cars are hybrids.  F1 cars have been hybrids since 2014, whereas IRL cars became hybrids this year.  Literally millions of (non-government subsidized) dollars have been and are being spent annually to improve hybrid automobile performance.

Note also that Ford has, with respect to E.V.s, bowed to reality.  Ford’s CEO, Jim Farley, says, “What we’ve learned is that customers want choice, and so we’re providing that choice, with a full lineup of EVs, hybrid, electric, gas and diesel products.”  Ford is transferring to hybrid technologies for its next three-row SUVs.

Bottom line: over the entire life cycle of an E.V., from raw materials to final disposal, driving an E.V. or plug-in E.V. produces more pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions than a comparable hybrid E.V.  We truly live in a Bizarro World, where Kamala’s ideology overrides reality.

Warren Beatty has created a web page that facilitates quick responses and/or comments to anything you consider outrageous: quick-rant.atwebpages.com.

Image: Axel Rouvin via Flickr, CC BY 2.0.