EV Bus Boondoggle!

In this conversation, Chris discusses the failures of electric buses in various locations, highlighting the high costs, maintenance issues, and the disconnect between public perception and reality. He critiques the financial implications of investing in electric vehicles, particularly in the context of taxpayer money and government grants, while also addressing the broader implications of public-private partnerships in the electric vehicle market. www.watchdogonwallstreet.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it will have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
The wheels on the bus keep breaking down. Yeah another bus. Yeah,
my state of Florida. Here Miami five five of Miami's
electric vehicle they're electric buses, but by Biden, five out

(00:43):
of seventy five actually work. Broward County, Florida forty two buses. Yeah,
they have their none zeros, zero zilch, nada are work.
Oh it's not just there. We can jump around. The

(01:03):
batteries are freezing up in Chicago. Austin has got its
entire EV fleet stored in a garage. Most of these
buses broke down in under a year maintenance work. Nobody
knows how to fix these bloody things. The company that
you bought the EV buses from another see I told

(01:26):
you so a moment, pro Terra. Yeah, they're they're in
bankruptcy again. Nobody knows how to service them. Nobody knows
how to get parts and listen to this. These EV
buses break down every six hundred miles every six hundred miles.

(01:49):
Remember that joke back in the day, it was with Fiat.
Fix it again, Tony, every six hundred miles the thing
breaks down, Ky, Yeah again, this is funny. You listen
to some of these experts here. Matt Licktasher, New York
based principal consultant for electric transportation. If you're an actual consultant,

(02:15):
you might want to tell people to not buy these things,
just saying it's like, oh, you know, it's like if
Apple goes out of business. If your phone breaks down,
you may be able to get somebody to fix it,
but if the software goes wrong, nobody can get that.
You don't say, I mean, you didn't take that into
freaking consideration when you're going out and buying these things.

(02:39):
But again, they didn't take really much of it to
consideration because it's not their money. It's the taxpayer's money.
And in this case is these local citizens paid for
these They have various different taxes transportation taxes that paid
for it, and they also got government grants, meaning what
they took their federal tax dollars to pay for these

(03:00):
stupid buses. Now, never fear, never fear a lot of
rich elites that were tied into this industry made a
hell of a lot of money. Well, you think the
folks at pro Terra you didn't think. You don't think
that they made out like gang busters with this. Who
cares if the company went bankrupt, they already sold their stock,

(03:20):
they're already out. All the people that were tied to
all of this made an absolute fortune. Again, this is
how these things work. It's basically again it's it's racketeering. Now,
it's funny. I took a look. It's entire column never
compared the prices between like a diesel traditional diesel bus
and an EV bus. An EV bus, like a city bus,

(03:44):
is double double the price of a diesel bus. And
school buses electric school buses are four times as much
as traditional buses. Again, Joe Biden through five point six
billion dollars at this, and again again you get the

(04:08):
lobbyists coming out of there. Here is the electric transportation
director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. Yes, this
was about reinvesting in America and manufacturing to build out
a durable supply. Let me explain to you something, schmucko.
You can't create a market, Okay, you can't create a market. Well,

(04:31):
you can have a made up market that you try
to create, but the reality of the situation, if it's
not going to work, if it doesn't make sense, unless
you continue to throw cash on it, it's eventually going
to go out of business. This is my problem that
I have all the time with the stupid public private partnerships.
This was funny, though, this was funny. They interviewed a

(04:54):
bus driver. Interviewed a bus driver. He's been driving buses
for twelve years. It says, wow, well, he doesn't get
to drive them often when they work. The electric buses
are top of the line, the breaking, the acceleration, it's
a better ride, and it's a lot quieter. It's like
the Cadillac of the fleet. And I read that, I

(05:16):
had a laugh. It reminded me. You remember in Donnie
Brascow when al Pacino's character Lefty is they're having an
argument with Bruno Kirby's character there, and he's like, the
Cadillac has got he's.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
Got more power, it's got more.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Acceleration, it's got better handling, it's got more power. And
any other mafia's like you already said that more power
And then Bruno, Kirby's character says he won the argument
because the Lincoln was a longer car, meaning that it's
going to get there faster again. You can't make this
stuff up, Watchdog on Wall Street dot Com