Dr Will Jones: 2024 Registrations Of New Electric Cars Plummet 27.5% in Germany

The share of electric cars in new registrations in Germany plummeted 27.5% in 2024 compared to the previous year. Blackout News has more.

According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), only 380,600 electric vehicles were newly registered. This corresponds to a decrease of 27.5% compared to the previous year. While 18.4% of new cars were electrically powered in 2023, the share was only 13.5% last year.

Bonner Cohen: Rising battery fires cloud electric vehicles’ future

China’s grip on EV supply chain makes U.S. dangerously dependent

Contributing to the slowing sales of electric vehicles in the United States and Europe are growing concerns about the safety of their lithium-ion batteries, which can spark spectacular fires, quickly engulfing the vehicle in flames and smoke and spewing toxic fumes.

The internet is awash in videos of EVs going up in flames in tightly packed underground parking garages.

Michael Heberling: The environmental downside of electric vehicles

At one time, “Saving the Environment” and “Fighting Climate Change” were synonymous. That is no longer true. The quest for Clean Energy through electric vehicles (EVs) epitomizes “the end justifies the means.”

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), an electric vehicle requires six times the mineral inputs of a comparable internal combustion engine vehicle (ICE). EV batteries are very heavy and are made with some exotic, expensive, toxic, and flammable materials.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Electric vehicle owners should be paying to fix our potholes, as well.

I think it’s time to the end the freeloading of the EV owners, don’t you? 

The big news from the Chris Hipkins government is that they’re raising petrol tax again.

That's right... they were just giving us a discount on the tax 2 months ago and now they are going in the opposite direction.

From next year they’ll start hiking phasing in 12 cents a litre hike

Ian Bradford: THINKING OF BUYING AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE? Read this first.

In 2017, Human Rights organisation Amnesty produced a report into Cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It found that there were children as young as seven, working in dangerous conditions.

Cobalt is a vital component of Lithium- ion batteries used in electric vehicles, and of course such things as cell phones. DRC produces around 70% of the world’s cobalt. Miners working in the mines face long term health problems including lung disease, and risk fatal accidents. Between Sept 2014 and Dec 2015 it is claimed at least 80 miners had died underground in southern DRC.