The Environmental Wackos came first. They believe that human actions are causing the climate of our planet to become warmer (even though there is very little hard evidence that what increasing temperature there is, is actually caused by human actions). The Environmental Wackos believe that humans are throwing into the atmosphere of Earth too much Carbon Dioxide (CO2), which acts as a “greenhouse gas”, thus contributing to the average temperature of the Earth rising, with disastrous consequences.

They believe that, in order to stop this gradual warming of the planet, that everyone should stop using “fossil fuels” to create electricity and power vehicles, and only drive electric cars, which do not emit CO2 while being driven. [of course, they completely ignore all the pollution caused by the mining and production of minerals used to produce the batteries that power those electric cars] The Environmental Wacko lobby has been extremely successful in Europe, with the EU government insisting that emissions be reduced from power plants (causing Germany to shut down coal-fired power plants and move to much more expensive and less reliable wind and solar energy). The EU government has mandated that airplanes reduce emissions, and international shipping vessels stop using the cheap, dirty “bunker fuel”, and move to cleaner, much more expensive fuel.

Most European governments have instituted huge subsidies for people and governments to purchase electric cars; and mandated that automakers who wish to sell into the European market must build and sell electric cars. Those automakers have noticed that, in general, most car buyers prefer fossil-fuel-powered cars. Gasoline-powered cars can drive hundreds of miles on one tank of gas, and refuel quickly at any of the ubiquitous gas stations that exist near every road. Electric cars must be charged at special charging stations, which are few and far between, and take up to hours to recharge, thus preventing long road-trips. And those electric cars pose a huge demand on often-fragile electric grids everywhere.

The title of a story in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal is “Taxes Sought to Promote European EVs”.  It seems that European auto-makers, who have mandates from the government to build and promote electric cars, are now demanding that the EU institute extra taxes on the gasoline-powered vehicles, to discourage citizens from buying or keeping their CO2-spewing vehicles.  They must sell cars that customers do not want, so they demand that their government play the “heavy”, making it harder for the people to drive cheaper, efficient gas cars, so they will give up and buy more electric cars.  This is the “money quote” from the article:

Auto makers in Europe eager to boost sales of their electric vehicles have a new strategy:  Demanding higher taxes on conventional vehicles that burn gas and diesel fuel.

In December, the CEOs of truck makers Daimler Truck, MAN, Scania, DAF, Volvo, and Ford’s European truck unit published a joint appeal calling on European leaders to end support for diesel fuel. …

EVs make up less than 1% of sales for European truck makers.

Some environmental lobbyists say auto executives want higher fuel taxes–instead of, say, more onerous CO2 emissions standards–because they want consumers to foot the bill for the transition to EVs.

So, the auto makers who are mandated to build electric cars, but cannot sell enough of them to an unwilling public, demand taxes from government on gas-powered vehicles, to MAKE the public want their cars.

I say, Good Luck With That.  My own state of Washington has passed a law essentially outlawing gas-powered vehicles in the state after 2030, which is only nine years away.  No new gas-powered car will be allowed to be bought, sold, registered, or brought into the state after that.  Good luck getting everyone in the state to give up his reliable, long-distance gas-powered car, in favor of a very expensive, short-distance, unreliable electric car.