The 20th century has been described as the “American century”. As a world leader in the automotive business, perhaps we can say the same about the 21st century.
The foundations of all this were laid in the 19th century.
Specifically, if not ironically, in relation to the current push toward electric vehicles, we point to the discovery of oil in Titusville, Penn., in 1859. This “rock oil” was used primarily as an alternative to whale oil and as a lubricant for machinery. Things began to change with the invention of the internal combustion engine and its diesel cousin in the late 1800s.
Before all of this, the Netherlands, Hungary, and the US began developing electric vehicles in the early 1800s. (Someone email Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.) The use of early electric vehicles as a practical form of transportation occurred in the 1870s. In the United States, the first “successful” EV made its debut in the 1890s.
However, 11 years later, on January 10, 1901, oil began to flow in unimaginable volumes from a drilling site atop Spindletop Hill outside of Beaumont, Texas. Additional outbreaks followed. The transportation industry needed good fuel. Oil needed a bigger market. And so, it was perfectly clear where transportation was headed for the next 100 years or so.
We can now look back on these events as small steps toward the manufacturing, interstate, military, and regional theater economy of the American boom. Baby steps are critical for future steps and towards an electric vehicle future.
It seems like every day we hear or read about puzzle pieces coming together that we will one day look back on as baby steps, before we start leaping tall buildings in one fell swoop. All are promising, but come with the crushing caveat that we still have some pain left to endure, albeit less each day.
It is no reason to abandon the race to the future.
On Monday, electric vehicle startup Canoo announced that it signed a “…long-term lease for a facility in Oklahoma where it plans to manufacture its vehicles.” According to the company, it “expects to employ 500 workers” and includes “assembly lines, a body shop, paint shop and automated paint line, quality control, full vehicle testing…”. workers.
The facility is expected to “produce up to 20,000 vehicles at the plant during its first year of operations.” That’s great news for Oklahoma that we wish had happened here in Arkansas. However, investors were unimpressed as the company’s share price fell a penny, from 52 cents to 53 cents.
Ford Motor Company has lost billions of dollars and plans to lose billions more before it breaks even and turns a profit with its electric vehicle products. That includes the F-150 Lightning, a vehicle the company warns will take at least a year for buyers to receive due to high demand. Because of this, Ford almost doubles production from 80,000 to 150,000 per year.
For perspective, the gasoline version of Ford’s F-Series is the #1 selling car or SUV in the United States. According to the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, the F-150 is our state’s most popular vehicle in 2023. It’s only a matter of time before the Lightning lights up the Arkansas market.
Electric vehicle makers are also eyeing the Middle East as a fertile market given the trend to reduce or eliminate gasoline subsidies for its citizens, made possible by collecting millions of dollars in oil revenue over decades.
Where they are sold, additional market penetration inevitably leads to higher production volumes, which almost always lead to lower prices. This snowball effect will further stimulate markets everywhere.
One of the downsides to this is the need for rare earth minerals used in solar panels and wind turbines. The lion’s share of world reserves are in China and Russia with whom we have, shall we say, diplomatic tensions.
The diplomatic problems are compounded by China’s tight control over the supply chain of these minerals. According to Bloomberg News, China is home to “two-thirds of mining and 85 percent of materials refining.” And they are “commodities,” subject to the same wild price swings as oil.
We know we’ll never be able to take a gallon of electricity down the street to fill a car without a charge, but if there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that nothing is perfect, but some things are very good. Count electric vehicles among them.
But for all the future benefits of electric vehicles, one thing should be clear to everyone: they are not saving the Earth or the environment or the air you breathe. Not quite yet. Not as long as fossil fuels still account for the largest percentage of electricity generators.
But even mentioning this, there is good news.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, about 60 percent of US electricity was produced by fossil fuels (coal, natural gas and others) last year. But, this is a big but, last year renewables switched to coal for the first time (!). Coal-derived energy reached 19.5 percent, and wind, hydro, solar, and others accounted for 21.5 percent.
So we are going in the right direction. Soon you could plug your car into your home outlet and sleep well knowing the electricity isn’t coming from the coal-fired power plant in the next county. How many years for this peaceful dream is still a question. But . . . .
We, and many other Americans, have been waiting for this day. In the coming years, things may get even better.
Now if we can only convince Red China, India and the rest of the world to move in this direction.
