The electric vehicle era has brought forth a terrifying new hazard on the open seas – unextinguishable fires on automobile transport ships as the EVs on board produce a cascade of runaway thermal lithium fires. Several ships have been lost in recent years, most recently the Morning Midas, which ultimately sank. As I documented a couple weeks ago, ”The next big conversation needs to be on where these explosive ordnance vehicles are allowed and not allowed. Following the Morning Midas’ sinking, it may become tougher for cargo lines to obtain insurance for ships carrying EVs. Insurers would also be well within their rights to deny coverage to buildings with parking garages put at structural risk by EV fires.
Pacific Ocean carrier Matson has come up with a real simple solution. It just announced that it is not going to transport EVs any longer. This prohibition also applies to plug-in hybrid vehicles and stand-alone lithium-ion phosphate batteries.
Transportation services company Matson has suspended shipments of electric vehicles (EVs) and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries – a subtype of lithium-ion battery chemistry commonly used in EVs – over concerns related to fire risks during transit.
More carriers will likely follow, especially when insurance becomes too expensive, or completely unattainable.
[h/t to Scampydog for sending me this story.]
Team EV tried to use the power of government to deny me the right to buy an internal combustion (“ICE”
vehicle, making EVs my only legal option. Thanks to Donald Trump, Lee Zeldin, and the Republican Congress, EV mandates are being rolled back and the $7,500 federal incentive for EV purchases goes away in a few weeks. But the EV bros and their eco-communist allies will never give up on trying to force you and me into their lithium-laden external combustion vehicles. Team EV will just sit tight until the next Democrat is elected President, and then try to once again outlaw ICE vehicles
At this point, I am receptive to an “ICE mandate” in retaliation for the EV mandate they tried to impose on me. Team EV needs to suffer a total defeat in the EV battles, not just a setback. As I wrote https://the-pipeline.org/time-to-put-team-e-v-on-defense/ at The Pipeline a year ago, ”They came after us and we repelled their first assault, but simply repelling an adversary’s attack only sets the stage for their next assault. They must suffer a loss, and they must put all their energy into not suffering any more losses, to ensure that they don’t get the opportunity to come after our gasoline-powered cars again.”
Which brings me to this big, beautiful, tariff-related attack on the EV market:
“U.S. Set to Impose 93.5% Tariff on Graphite from China” [Bloomberg – 7/17/2025]
It is not possible to manufacture EV batteries without graphite, which is almost exclusively sourced from China. EV fanboys are panicking, because this will make EVs much more expensive, further killing off what little demand actually exists without federal subsidies. Spencer Hakimian lamented on Twitter, ”How are we supposed to build electric cars then?” To which our own Comrade Arthur replied, ”That’s the neat thing. You don’t.”
This is effectively an ICE vehicle mandate! When Joe Biden’s EPA mandated unachievable emissions results from automakers, it may not have been labeled an “EV mandate,” but it served that purpose. This is much the same. There will be nothing stopping manufacturers from building and selling all the EVs they want, they just need battery suppliers to mine the graphite domestically or pay the 93% tariff.
To paraphrase Kurt Schlichter, we had three options regarding the introduction of electric vehicles.
- Everyone can buy and drive whatever they want.
- The left denies me the freedom to buy what I want, making EVs the only option.
- People like me deny the left the freedom to buy EVs, making ICE vehicles the only option.
I very much wanted Option #1. My principles are strongly aligned with Option #1. But my principles also state that when someone tries to deny me the freedom of my principles, then my principles become more flexible. The left decided to reject Option #1 and instead jammed Option #2 down the throat of freedom-loving Americans, therefore Option #3 is the default choice. EVs should therefore be banned.
But what about Tesla and Rivian, which only build electric cars? No worries, they can simply obey the “ICE mandate” and start building ICE vehicles if they want to survive. That is really no different than what Team EV tried to impose upon traditional auto manufacturers when blue states starred banning EVs and Biden imposed his mandates.
Related…Tesla fanboys and stock promoters rejoiced when California passed legislation banning the sale of ICE vehicles by 2035. Well, they are now learning that cozying up to California leftists is like cozying up to a rattlesnake.
“California Set to Ban Tesla Sales” [Electrek – 7/21/2025]
The State of California is moving to ban the sale of Tesla cars amid claims that the company and its CEO, Elon Musk, have misled buyers about the self-driving capabilities of their cars.
It may just be a one-month suspension of Tesla’s license to sell vehicles in California, but that is one month of sales in Tesla’s largest market. Ouch.
I am conflicted about Elon Musk. I am profoundly grateful to him for buying Twitter and saving free speech from the censorious left. I am also profoundly grateful to him for his work on DOGE, which is defunding the left. Regarding his business endeavors, I am in awe of his space program, and likewise Starlink.
But then there is Tesla…
Had there not been a widespread effort to deprive Americans of the freedom of gasoline powered cars, I would not have as much animosity as I do toward EVs. But I would still be incensed by Tesla’s business model, for which it receives about $9,000 in revenue per vehicle sold from non-customers.
There is the $7,500 per unit tax incentive which is paid by all of us taxpayers. Almost as objectionable is the regulatory (carbon) credits awarded to Tesla by governmental agencies, which are then sold to ICE manufacturers to allow them to build and sell ICE cars. Tesla sold $2.76 billion in regulatory credits in 2024, which amounted to (approximately) an additional $1,500 profit on each new Tesla it sold.
Think about it. When you buy an ICE vehicle, the purchase price includes a premium so that the manufacturer of your car can pay Tesla for the right to sell you a non-EV. I don’t know what economic model that is, but it darn sure isn’t capitalism or a free market.
Well good news! Thanks to the Big Beautiful Bill that eliminated the $7,500 tax incentive, it also eliminated all fines for auto manufacturers not achieving Biden-era emission regulations. Without fines, they won’t have to pay Tesla any longer for those government issued chits.
“A Big Problem for Tesla Isn’t Getting Much Attention” [CNN – 7/22/2025
For years, Tesla has earned billions of dollars from its competitors just for selling electric vehicles. But that windfall is about to go away, just when the company may need it the most.
According to a recent note from analysts at William Blair and Co., the automakers “that fail to meet standards no longer incur fines, eliminating market demand for Tesla’s credits.” The analysts expect Tesla’s regulatory credit revenue to fall by 75% next year and disappear completely by 2027.
Tesla is about to lose about $9,000 per unit of revenue that is being paid by you and me. If Teslas are as amazing as all its fans keep writing me, they shouldn’t mind paying $9,000 more so that I don’t have to keep subsidizing them.
[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]