Grokking the Con

Anyone who hasn’t grokked the con by now is probably a hopeless case. Tesla has been in “business” for going on 15 years and still loses money despite taking billions.

Ask yourself what kind of “business” gets propped up by the government for that long – and what it implies about the reasons for propping it up.

Tesla’s purpose isn’t crony capitalism/rent-seeking, except incidentally.

Its purpose was to habituate the public to the EV as a “normal” car. As the inevitable replacement for our current (IC) cars.

To get the public used to hearing about and seeing electric cars. And most of all, to sex them up. Amazon.com Gift Card i... Buy New $15.00 (as of 06:10 UTC - Details)

This was also done in order to nudge the car industry into the Electric Car Era – to nudge it into committing billions to EV development, which has happened. So as to mainstream EVs.

To make them seem The Future – and  IC-powered cars so yesterday.

Note that all of this came from above – as opposed to organically, from below.

You see, it was determined more than 40 years ago that IC-powered cars had to be gotten rid of – at least, for the masses.

But how to do this?

Americans loved their cars and though the affection has waned, they still do. Cars are mobility – which is another aspect of freedom. Come – and go – as you like, on your own schedule – and on the spur of the moment.

IC cars are not tied to umbilical cords – and older IC cars are completely under the control of their owners.

You perhaps see the problem . . . from a certain point of view.

Except for a brief moment at the very dawn of the car age, EVs  haven’t been able to compete with gas and diesel-powered cars in terms of their economics or their practicality. Only a small handful of quirky (and affluent) people would freely choose to spend 50-plus percent more to buy an EV that goes half as far as an IC-powered car and needs at least 5-6 times as long to recharge as an IC-powered car takes to refuel.

The market for EVs as they are – as opposed to how they are hyped – is extremely small.

The first attempt at purveying EVs via major car companies such as GM (the EV-1/Impact of the mid-1990s) and Ford (Ecostar) failed as badly as a cannonball trying to float.

As long as gas prices stayed affordable, so IC-powered cars would always remain preferable to EVs, because of their superior versatility and convenience.

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