As social media stories go, it was intriguing. But, as social media stories go, it probably had about 10% truth and 90% embellishment, innuendo or downright falsehoods, right?
"It" was a Facebook post in which it was claimed it would cost nearly $29,000 to replace the battery in a hybrid electric Chevrolet Volt. The Florida dealer estimate shared in the post looked real -- the battery for $26,853 and the total of $29,842, which included coolant, shop supplies and labor.
With the Biden administration pushing electric vehicles (EVs) like there is no tomorrow and the recently signed Inflation Reduction Act allowing up to $7,500 in tax credits for qualified vehicles, the battery post was not what the end-fossil-fuels crowd wanted to see.
It must have been posted originally by some Florida friend of Trump or by a friend of Big Oil or by some other conservative with an ax to grind, right? So, many left-of-center social media users were quick to call the post a hoax.
Alas, it was not.
Oh, the usual left-leaning "fact-check" suspects had a lot of words to throw out about the situation, but in the end they couldn't deny the post was "correct" or "true."
The car in question was a 2012 Volt with only 70,000 miles on it, but the car was no longer under warranty, the battery had been discontinued by General Motors and it had to be purchased at a premium from a third-party supplier.
The Volt itself had been replaced in 2018 by the Chevrolet Bolt, which the service director at the dealership said took "a completely different style of battery."
The average replacement battery in an electric car, according to a USA Today article, is about $6,300, but some can be more than three times as much.
Yet, automakers update their cars every year, making minor adjustments from the look of grilles and taillights to completely eliminating models. Car buyers who are interested in buying an electric vehicle or who are intrigued by the rebates don't want to think that such a vital part for their car like a battery might be discontinued within 10 years, much less two or three or five.
Similarly, the explanation by the Florida dealer service director -- "that's just how technology is" -- is not going to send car buyers scrambling out to dealers for EVs.
Buyers who are undaunted by the battery replacement charge, however, may be peeved that the $7,500 in credits are hard to come by.
An article in this newspaper Tuesday included a comment from John Bozzella, president and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, who maintained only about 70% of the 72 EV models available for purchase in the U.S. -- be they battery, plug-in hybrid or fuel cell -- have "immediately become ineligible," and none qualify for the full credit when additional battery sourcing require requirements go into effect.
Volkswagen's current EV, the ID-4, is not eligible for the credits, according to Bozzella. But the 2023 models, which are assembled in Chattanooga, are expected to be eligible by the end of the year.
"In the short term, we think the Inflation Reduction Act could have a negative impact on EV adoption," Volkswagen said in a statement to this newspaper.
In the long run, the statement said, the measures could "be beneficial for America's transition to electric vehicles" and for auto sector employment.
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., in a recent appearance before the Chattanooga Regional Manufacturers Association, more accurately reflected the country's reality about its energy needs and its vehicles.
"We're very hopeful for the work that VW, GM, Nissan and Ford are doing in Tennessee," she said. "We do know that we do not have a grid that would support a fully electric fleet. We continue to work to make sure that this will be commercially viable. But today, we need oil and gas."
Stephen Smith, executive director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, in an interview with this paper for the aforementioned article, perhaps unwittingly hit on the problem in addressing the climate change portions of the Inflation Reduction Act.
"This injects more serious financial support into these technologies than any bill that has passed in the United States in relation to no-carbon or low-carbon technologies," he said.
But if the federal government continues to prop up renewable or clean-energy technologies -- if they can't stand on their own -- they will have little incentive to ever do so, and taxpayers will continue to have to support technologies which are cost inefficient and whose cost hurts those who have the fewest resources the most.
For our money, for the price of one discontinued 2012 Volt battery -- not the car, just the battery -- one could buy a new 2022 Honda Civic hatchback, a new 2022 Subaru Crosstrek SUV or a new 2022 Toyota Corolla Cross SUV, all gasoline-powered, and replace the conventional battery two or three times.
We look forward to the day when electric vehicles and their replacement technology are self-supporting and their charging is widely available. Then they won't be ripe for social media fodder.