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via JoNova
April 14, 2025 at 02:38PM
By Paul Homewood
Now they want the taxpayer to subsidise the second hand market for EVs!
From GB News:
Labour has been urged to intervene and offer more support for used electric vehicles, with experts warning that without support, the car finance sector risks losing "hundreds of millions" of pounds due to lapsing driver demand.
The need for intervention comes as experts warned that due to interest in used electric cars falling, car finance companies have been forced to pass on higher interest rates and car financing costs to consumers.
Earlier this month, the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA) sent a letter to the Government stating that demand for used EVs is "struggling to keep pace" with supply, which could rise to 178 per cent over the next three years.
The letter stated that the imbalance has meant that EV residual values have dropped by 50 per cent in the last two years, with it expected to decline by a further 28 per cent by 2030.
But the BVRLA warned that weak residuals in the used electric car market have created "financial pressure" on car finance firms, which base their pricing models on optimistic residual value forecasts. This, in turn, has meant that used EVs are worth much less now than expected.
The letter stated: "The difference between the price of the new vehicle and its value on disposal determine the cost of financing, leasing or rental for a customer. This depreciation is costing fleets hundreds of millions and being passed on to new buyers in the form of higher motor finance costs."
It noted that the second-hand EV market remains under pressure, before calling on the Government to provide residual value support across the automotive value chain.
This could help keep new electric vehicle retail sales lagging behind fleet levels, "straining the automotive ecosystem", the letter claimed.
It added: "Without a stronger used BEV market where values are stable, the future of the entire transition to electric vehicles is at risk. Cars, vans and trucks all require used market demand at levels that create pricing stability.
"For the transition to electric commercial vehicles to hit its stride, the current position must be improved. There are no silver bullets, and this change can be delivered only through wide-ranging and aligned policy steps."
Read the full story here.
I have been warning about the looming losses for leasing companies, who are now attempting to sell EVs at the end of leases. As with the new car market, private buyers are simply not interested in the useless things, so second hand prices are going through the floor. Remember that only one-in-ten private buyers went electric last year.
To make matters worse, there will be a flood of EVs hitting the second hand market in the next year or so, and the flood will get bigger year on year. Three years ago, for instance, new EV sales were much lower than they were last year.
But will demand for second hand EVs be any greater than today? It is hard to see why it should be. Indeed as the 2030 deadline approaches there is likely to be strong demand instead for petrol/diesels, as buyers will want to get hold of one before they are gone for good.
Leasing companies have gambled that second hand values for EVs would be as strong as for conventional cars. It is a gamble that could cost them billions.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
April 14, 2025 at 12:58PM
In 1989, NOAA said most global warming occurred before 1919 and declined from 1921 to 1979.
“Analysis of the warming since 1881 shows most of the increase in global temperature happened before 1919 — before the more recent sharp rise in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, said Thomas Karl, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.
While global climate warmed overall since 1881, it actually cooled from 1921 to 1979, Karl said.”
Dec 07, 1989, page 44 – The Tyler Courier-Times at Newspapers.com
Since then they have reversed both of those trends and erased the record heat of 1921.
Global Temperature | Vital Signs – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet
04 Sep 1921, 61 – New York Herald at Newspapers.com
16 Oct 1921, 104 – The San Francisco Examiner at Newspapers.com
TimesMachine: October 3, 1921 – NYTimes.com
“Monthly Weather Review – November, 1922 (Page 589)
The Arctic seems to be warming up. Reports from fishermen, seal hunters, and explorers who sail the seas about Spitzbergen and the eastern Arctic, all point to a radical change in climatic conditions, and hitherto unheard-of high temperatures in that part of the earth’s surface.
In connection with Dr. Hoel’s report, it is of interest to note the unusually warm summer in Arctic Norway and the observations of Capt. Martin Ingebrigtsen, who has sailed the eastern Arctic for 54 years past. He says that he first noted warmer conditions in 1918, that since that time it has steadily gotten warmer, and that to-day the Arctic of that region is not recognizable as the same region of 1868 to 1917.
Many old landmarks are so changed as to be unrecognizable.Where formerly great masses of ice were found, there are now often moraines, accumulations of earth and stones. At many points where glaciers formerly extended far into the sea they have entirely disappeared.
There were few seal in Spitzbergen waters this year, the catch being far under the average. This, however, did not surprise the captain. He pointed out that formerly the waters about Spitzbergen held an even summer temperature of about 3° Celsius; this year recorded temperatures up to 15°, and last winter the ocean did not freeze over even on the north coast of Spitzbergen.”
THE CHANGING ARCTIC in: Monthly Weather Review Volume 50 Issue 11 (1922)
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via Real Climate Science
April 14, 2025 at 12:49PM
Meanwhile, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has some great projects lined up for 2025, which will likely be more successful without DEI interference.
Posted by Leslie Eastman
Legal Insurrection readers may remember my recent post on Neela Rajendra.
Rajendra once held the Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Officer role at NASA’s famous Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is steeped in the DEI movement, having co-founded the Science of Diversity & Inclusion Initiative (SODI) and advised various organizations on DEI strategies.
The organization retained Rajendra after rebranding her position in an apparent effort to evade President Donald Trump’s executive orders regarding the ending of DEI. She managed to cling to her job, even after 900 others at JPL were terminated.
Less than a week after this evasion came to light courtesy of the Washington Free Beacon, NASA jettisoned Rajendra.
NASA’s jet propulsion laboratory has parted ways with its top diversity officer, Neela Rajendra, after the Washington Free Beacon reported that the lab had changed her title in an effort to keep her.
“Neela Rajendra is no longer working at [the Jet Propulsion Laboratory],” lab director Laurie Leshin said in an all-staff email on Thursday. “We are incredibly grateful for the lasting impact she made to our organization. We wish her the very best.”
Leshin added that the newly formed Office of Team Excellence and Employee Success—intended to replace the DEI team Rajendra had led—would be moved to the Office of Human Resources.
A quick review of Rajendra’s vision for her rebranded role demonstrates that it was clearly DEI by another name.
On Mar. 10, NASA brass sent an email stating Rajendra would now be the “Chief of the Office of Team Excellence and Employee Success” — an office that would be responsible for lab “affinity groups” including the “Black Excellence Strategic Team,” the outlet said.
In a LinkedIn job description, Rajendra stated her job as chief of the newly formed office was focused on “unlocking our potential to Dare Mighty things TOGETHER.”
“I believe this change is essential for [Jet Propulsion Lab’s] future success and aligns well with Neela’s strengths and focus over the last year,” director Leshin wrote to staff at the time in an email obtained by the Beacon.
Rajendra led efforts to diversify NASA, including promoting the “Space Workforce 2030” pledge, which focused on hiring women and minorities.
Thanks to X.com and the rest of the new and revitalized media, “business as usual” will not continue under Trump 2.0. Rajendra was not the first one to be identified as a bitter clinger to the woke ways, nor is she likely to be the last.
However, the swift termination shows that bureaucrats who try to evade the orders of the nation’s Chief Executive are not likely to last long…even under another name.
I would like to point out that JPL has a roster of interesting missions planned, including NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar). This is a joint mission between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to monitor Earth’s surface changes, including phenomena like earthquakes, volcanoes, and ice sheet dynamics.
JPL is also involved with the Moon Rover Trio called CADRE (Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration) project, which consists of three suitcase-sized, autonomous lunar rovers designed to work collaboratively without direct human control. These rovers are part of a technology demonstration aimed at showcasing the potential for cooperative robotic exploration on the Moon and is set to launch sometime later this year.
The Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration, or CADRE, rovers are a trio of suitcase-sized robotic wheeled explorers for which cooperation is the name of the game. They will fly to the moon’s Reiner Gamma region on the second mission by Houston company Intuitive Machines, where they will act as a proof of concept to showcase how robots can work together on another world without the explicit interference of humans.
“We have been in overdrive getting this tech demo ready for its lunar adventure,” Subha Comandur, the CADRE project manager at JPL, said in a press statement. “It’s been nearly round-the-clock testing and sometimes re-testing, but the team’s hard work is paying off. Now we know that these rovers are ready to show what a team of little space robots can accomplish together.”
All of these great projects will likely be more successful without DEI interference.
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April 14, 2025 at 12:08PM
