# Fortune Magazine: Republicans want you to fall out of love with your Tesla as they campaign on largely untrue statements about electric vehicles



## Joe90 (7 mo ago)

Heading into next week’s midterm elections, many Republican candidates are seeking to capitalize on voters’ concerns about inflation by vilifying a key component of President Joe Biden’s climate agenda: electric vehicles.

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## francoisp (Sep 28, 2018)

I am worried about the populous reaction when gas stations start to close, at least around major cities, causing a noticeable drop in demand, causing refineries to close, and all that. Watch out for charging cables being cut in response.


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## RickO2018 (Mar 13, 2018)

Gas station owners/franchises need to get on the train and start planning to save their business by adding a bank of charging stations Tesla and/or others. Royal Farms and Sheetz got the message. Otherwise they’ll eventually go the way of video rental companies!


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

francoisp said:


> I am worried about the populous reaction when gas stations start to close, at least around major cities, causing a noticeable drop in demand, causing refineries to close, and all that. Watch out for charging cables being cut in response.


It's going to be decades before that happens.


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## francoisp (Sep 28, 2018)

JasonF said:


> It's going to be decades before that happens.


It's happening today in Norway. The margin on gasoline is so thin, a small persistent decline on volume might be enough to cause gas stations closures or transitioning to electricity and therefore causing an increase in gas prices due to lesser competition, creating a destructive cycle.


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## Randyman (Feb 5, 2020)

Joe90 said:


> Heading into next week’s midterm elections, many Republican candidates are seeking to capitalize on voters’ concerns about inflation by vilifying a key component of President Joe Biden’s climate agenda: electric vehicles.
> 
> Continue Reading


Let me gain assurances of your message, please; Republicans are doing this? Seems like a disinformation plot to say that. We are all lifetimes away from not needing fossil fuel.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

We generally don't allow political discussions on this site. However, I'm happy to see that this discussion has been constructive.

I've updated the thread title to point out that this is an article from Fortune Magazine. If the discussion turns political, I'll have to lock this thread.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Randyman said:


> Let me gain assurances of your message, please...


Joe90 just posted an excerpt from the Fortune article.


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## francoisp (Sep 28, 2018)

Randyman said:


> We are all lifetimes away from not needing fossil fuel.


We will likely need to keep extracting oil for the foreseeable future because it is needed in so many products such as plastics. But there are more and more alternatives to oil that are friendlier to the environment and some governments might legislate in their favor. I agree with you that fossil fuels will be around for a long time but at what price?


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## shareef777 (Mar 10, 2019)

Gas stations are going to go the way of the blacksmiths were for horses (going to be fewer and fewer). But we're not even remotely close to there yet. In my area alone I can drive to 8 gas stations within 3mi. A 9th was built and opened a few months ago and a 10th is currently under construction. I'd never charge my EVs at any one of those, but still visit them for the inside sales (which is where they make most of their money anyway). They'll be glorified bodegas.

The ones off the highway will likely want to invest in some L3 chargers for those on a road trip. But don't know how the financial impact of recouping your investment of such a costly install would be. But it's an easy enough step for them to covert to EV stations.

What I'm more curious about is the local mechanic shops. Don't see a conversion path there. Vehicles are so locked down with proprietary parts, that there's nothing for them to do in a primarily EV world.


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## francoisp (Sep 28, 2018)

Randyman said:


> We are all lifetimes away from not needing fossil fuel.


Here's the fuel consumption in Norway between 2009 and 2020. Source


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

francoisp said:


> It's happening today in Norway. The margin on gasoline is so thin, a small persistent decline on volume might be enough to cause gas stations closures or transitioning to electricity and therefore causing an increase in gas prices due to lesser competition, creating a destructive cycle.


But the demand is leading the change. It's not "they're taking away our fuel and forcing us to buy EV's" at all - the people already have the EV's, the gas stations have just become more idle.


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## francoisp (Sep 28, 2018)

JasonF said:


> But the demand is leading the change. It's not "they're taking away our fuel and forcing us to buy EV's" at all - the people already have the EV's, the gas stations have just become more idle.


It's going to happen organically.


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

Also, in a separate post I want to point out that Fortune article illustrates one of the huge problems I have with the modern press and its political leanings - in _either_ direction. They like to create links between things that don't exist for the sole reason of scaring people into one alignment or another. Like the implication that if you want EV's to exist, you'd better youtube-like "Like and Subscribe" this particular political party, or EV's will be gone (mind you, some politicians make that implication easy by behaving like clowns publicly, but I digress...).

I think that's in large part of what helps shrink their subscribed base of readers, the need to tie things together that shouldn't be, and alienating not only readers of the opposite alignment, but also readers like me who don't care about alignment, and are just sick of the two sides sniping at each other over something that's really none of their concern and they shouldn't have any power over.


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## francoisp (Sep 28, 2018)

JasonF said:


> Also, in a separate post I want to point out that Fortune article illustrates one of the huge problems I have with the modern press and its political leanings - in _either_ direction. They like to create links between things that don't exist for the sole reason of scaring people into one alignment or another. Like the implication that if you want EV's to exist, you'd better youtube-like "Like and Subscribe" this particular political party, or EV's will be gone (mind you, some politicians make that implication easy by behaving like clowns publicly, but I digress...).
> 
> I think that's in large part of what helps shrink their subscribed base of readers, the need to tie things together that shouldn't be, and alienating not only readers of the opposite alignment, but also readers like me who don't care about alignment, and are just sick of the two sides sniping at each other over something that's really none of their concern and they shouldn't have any power over.


Fortune is a weird thing : it's a bunch of freelancers posting under a brand name these days. That said this article does report on candidates of a certain persuasion that seem to share a certain dislike for EV. In Ohio we have this guy Vance that fights against a battery factory from Honda who's already making cars in our state. How crazy is this!


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## shareef777 (Mar 10, 2019)

francoisp said:


> Here's the fuel consumption in Norway between 2009 and 2020. Source
> 
> View attachment 45460


Wow, you read about Norway taking the lead in EV adoption, but that chart of fuel consumption over the last decade is mind boggling. Gives hope that it IS possible. I'd be curious to see how the health of the citizens has improved over that last decade as less fuel is burned in that country.


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## NR4P (Jul 14, 2018)

Many new WaWa stations in S. Florida have a row of Tesla V3 chargers on the property. Stations are open 24 hours, generally clean with fair prices, decent bathrooms and attracting Tesla owners that have no need for gas. And they are thinking ahead.

I look forward to the day when 2-4 gas pumps on an island become charging stations so EV's that are towing things can drive up and charge. Tesla's SuperCharger designs are a problem for people towing.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

NR4P said:


> Many new WaWa stations in S. Florida have a row of Tesla V3 chargers on the property.


Here in the Northeast, Sheetz stations are doing the same.


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

NR4P said:


> I look forward to the day when 2-4 gas pumps on an island become charging stations so EV's that are towing things can drive up and charge. Tesla's SuperCharger designs are a problem for people towing.


Funny that most people don't realize how power hungry gas pumps are, they use a trio of 3-phase AC motor driven pumps. That makes their power supplies perfect for feeding into chargers.


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

I despise the implication that Republicans have it wrong and Democrats have it right. I equally despise the implication that Democrats have it wrong and Republicans have it right. Narrow-minded people have it wrong and open-minded people have it right. Unfortunately, almost all politicians are narrow-minded.


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## bwilson4web (Mar 4, 2019)

Opportunistic politicians manufacturing lies about reality has a long history. For example e-mail solicitation for political donations because I give money to one candidate.

I especially detest the ones that claim to be a ‘survey’ but no way to input my specific concern like recognizing Elon Musk achievements. So one side is trying to claim Elon and the other often treats Elon as suspect and sometimes despicable.

Meanwhile, my EV has cut my operating cost by 1/3d compared to the Prius Prime I traded in for it. Yet my wallet is a minor part of my political motivation. Often I have to choose which or who is less bad.

So I have my EV and charging network. I don’t sell EVs so the future subsidies don’t motivate me. In fact owning stock in an EV company that ran out of subsidies, the future subsides are encouraging my competition.

Bob Wilson


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