11 thoughts to “Open Thread Non-Petroleum September 19, 2024”

  1. One for the cornucopians and EV believers.
    https://www.acea.auto/pc-registrations/new-car-registrations-18-3-in-august-2024-bev-market-share-down-by-almost-one-third/
    The EU new car sales continue to stall, led by declines in EV purchases, especially in the German market. YTD data for BEV’s is a market share of 12.6 % of new cars, against a target(mandate) of 22% for 2024, rising to 28% for 2025.

    Worse still is that 3 year old BEV vehicles with around 30 k miles are fetching around 30-35% of original pricing . High end marques are even worse affected.

    All the German brands are in deep doo-doo with BEV’s.( VW, BMW, Mecedes, Porsche). Meanwhile gasoline and diesel used car pricing remains firm to tight depending on the marque.

    Reasons given for fall in sales include,: cost(buying and operating), depreciation, charging infrastructure, range anxiety. Private buyers are particularly elusive for BEV’s.

    With BEV sales in the doldrums it is highly unlikely that gasoline demand is going to decline any time soon, short of a global recession which could happen, judging by what is going on in China.

    1. Join the parade. Pretend that oil supplies are an inexhaustible resource, and not subject to geopolitical supply disruption.

    2. What happened in Germany is that the government subsidized EVs using a fund that was originally set up for COVID, and the opposition sued and won in court, so demand went down. It’s about political games, not the technology.

      Meanwhile the Chinese market continues to grow while the US and EU are scrambling to block imports of cheap Chinese EVs with 100% tariffs.

      I remember when cell phones were laughed at as “yuppie toys”. Then the price crashed and everyone noticed how much cheaper telecommunication is without land lines. Now there are more cell phone lines than people on the planet. The expensive part of an EV is the battery, and the price fell by half this year alone.

      There’s no question that the car market is going electric. Your best counterargument seems to be childish name calling. That isn’t a great argument, but I guess it’s all you’ve got.

      The internal combustion engine is going the way of typewriters, eight track tape and cathode ray tubes. All wonderful technologies, but none of them competitive any more.

      1. “There’s no question the car market is going electric..” That there is growth in a segment of the light vehicle market does not mean that segment then becomes the entire market anymore than the growth in the light truck market over the last 30 yrs means all vehicles will be light trucks. Speaking of the US market there is no growth left. It’s a mature market where used vehicle sales are greater than new vehicles. While total sales are roughly flat and per capita sales are on a slow decline.
        Whatever your goal is for EV domination I don’t see it happening or being relevant to addressing the challenges that the nation will have with climate change or declining oil supply simply because it’ll be cheaper to drive less and buy what is economical on the used market than buy a more expensive vehicle to drive the same amount.

        1. LEEG —
          I didn’t say anything about climate change.

          I don’t really buy into your analogy with the pickup truck fad, because we’re talking about technical change not a fad, but I agree that there will be niches for combustion engines for a while.

          1. Ok how about this, the sunk cost in ICE infrastructure and used vehicle market make BEVs an expensive choice that limits its rate of adoption. Instead of the US car market going electric it’s going flat and eventually downhill.

      2. Ah, the usual suspects of Hickory and Alimbiquated engaging their mouth rather than their brains before reading the text. Both of you should know by now that I am deeply concerned about resource depletion and population overshoot and the impending approach of Peak Oil.

        The ICE has a short lived future, but then the BEV might be extinct sooner because it will, in your fairy tale world, will be utterly dependent on unreliables.

        1. BEV might be extinct sooner because it will, in your fairy tale world, will be utterly dependent on unreliables.

          LOL like Trump’s claim that electric planes will fall out of the sky when the sun sets.

          No, your electric vehicle won’t care where how the energy is generated. That’s not how electricity works.

          You’ve got two completely different concepts muddled up in your head.

  2. Constellation Energy Expects Regulatory Review of Planned Relaunch at Three Mile Island Nuclear Reactor to Start Soon
    17:02:39 PM ET, 09/20/2024 – MT Newswires
    05:02 PM EDT, 09/20/2024 (MT Newswires) — Constellation Energy (CEG) expects to meet publicly with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission “within the next two to three weeks” to begin a review of the utility’s proposed restart of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania, a company spokesperson said in a late Friday email to MT Newswires.

    Constellation expects to submit its initial documents to the regulator before the end of the year and begin to address more detailed portions of its plan for review starting in around four months, the spokesperson said. The regulatory review should be completed sometime in 2027. “We are very confident in that timing,” the company’s spokesperson added.

    Constellation plans to spend $1.6 billion restoring the facility, a company spokesperson told MT Newswires in a separate email earlier in the day. The plant is expected to be online in 2028 as part of a 20-year power purchase deal with Microsoft (MSFT), which is expecting to use the electricity to power some of its future data center needs, Constellation said in a statement.

    Constellation shares closed more than 22% on Friday trade after announcing the proposed restart at Three Mile Island.

    “It’s up to Constellation to lay out its rationale for justifying restart, so we’re prepared to engage with the company on next steps,” a spokesperson for the regulator said in an email to MT Newswires late Friday.

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