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Energy, Security

July Tesla Sales Crashed in Germany and Norway: Not Even on Chart

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I was surprised to read German news from July about Fiat having a huge win in battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales.

The Fiat 500 electric remains the top-selling all-electric car in Germany, with 2,170 new registrations in July. For reference, the Volkswagen ID.4/ID.5 (counted together) noted 1,600 units, Opel Corsa-e was at 1,406, while the ID.3 was at 1,383.

Fiat is crushing BEV sales in a country known for worshiping cars and skilled driving?

Their 500e model didn’t just have a good month, it ranks highest for the entire year in total German BEV sales with an impressive 13,448.

Can you guess who is notably absent from the July rankings, selling many thousands fewer BEV in 2022 than Fiat?

The answer is an American BEV brand better known as “Worst Electric Car You Should Never Buy“. It couldn’t sell enough cars in July to even make it to the list in Germany.

Tesla sales, like their cars… crashed.

Combine plug-in hybrid sales with BEV and the German numbers get a bit more interesting.

Back in 2021 we saw the “Stellantis NV” group land four models in the European car top 10 list. All four of those top sellers have BEV variants, which is what seems to be happening in Germany in 2022. The Fiat 500 is a perfect example, having a BEV variant for a decade that has achieved clear superiority over its dirty oil burning cousin.

My time spent with the 500e was unexpectedly pleasant. I picked it up expecting it to have some of the same flaws as the ICE 500, but the more I drove it, I realized they had been addressed and the 500e was a much more accomplished vehicle. And since Fiat didn’t mess with the shape of the vehicle too much, it has every chance to be popular, as it should be, because it’s a very good small EV.

Think about the following list like a smooth brand loyalty transition into electric technology, so the total numbers are something of a prediction.

According to the official data, Volkswagen once again sold the highest number of plug-in electric cars – over 7,500 units in July. BMW and Audi were the next two most popular plug-in brands, by the number of registrations, both above 4,000. Plug-in car registrations by brands (at least 2,000) last month:

Volkswagen 7532: 4364 BEVs, 3168 PHEVs
BMW 4608: 1829 BEVs, 2779 PHEVs
Audi 4086: 2307 BEVs, 1779 PHEVs
Hyundai 3866: 2587 BEVs, 1279 PHEVs
Mercedes-Benz 3578: 1090 BEVs, 2488 PHEVs
SEAT 3273: 1012 BEVs, 2261 PHEVs
Opel 2711: 2635 BEVs, 76 PHEVs
Kia 2449: 501 BEVs, 1948 PHEVs
Fiat 2176: 2176 BEVs

Again, Tesla sales are so low they are absent entirely from that article’s list of top brands. It begs whether anyone would even notice if Tesla was banned due to its negligently unsafe practices.

In Wirklichkeit stoße der Tesla zwischen 156 und 181 Gramm CO2 pro Kilometer aus und damit deutlich mehr als ein vergleichbarer Diesel-Mercedes.

Translation: In reality the Tesla design emits between 156 and 181 grams of CO2 per kilometer, significantly more than a comparable diesel Mercedes.

Germans see this clearly.

A refined and improved Fiat 500e sells because it’s so much better than combustion engine versions of the same car, while Tesla’s sloppy and rushed product comes in “significantly” worse than dirty diesel.

Seriously, we’re at a point where Tesla has demonstrated year-over-year such sub-par engineering and safety practices that it deserves to lose access to roads, as California’s Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) has recently suggested.

Extracting only BEV numbers from the article source perhaps makes the point more clear about Germany.

Registrations for a Tesla simply fall too low to make it on the chart, even below Peugeot:

4634 Volkswagen
2870 Renault (includes Dacia)
2635 Opel
2587 Hyundai
2307 Audi
2176 Fiat
1829 BMW
1302 Peugeot

Let’s flip now to Norway numbers for July, where Tesla was reportedly supposed to dominate the country’s plan to be all BEV by 2025.

Here are the July numbers in a country reporting BEV sales as 78% of their car market:

673 Skoda Enyaq iV
649 Volkswagen ID.4
279 Hyundai Ioniq 5
238 BYD Tang
253 Audi e-tron
236 Ford Mustang Mach-E
145 Kia EV6
130 Audi Q4 e-tron
114 Nissan Leaf
113 BMW ix
74 Polestar 2
57 BMW i4

Aaaaand eventually Tesla shows up with just 38 cars registered… it’s a curious thing unless perhaps you read the 57 pages of official complaints to the NHTSA about the 2022 Model Y.

Incredible number of serious safety issues and recalls for the car only a few months old. Source: NHTSA

Look at the stark difference in those numbers! Many of these complaints in 2022 are in fact a serious safety problem called “phantom braking”.

Tesla in late 2021 rushed out a recall due to massive brake failure causing fatalities (violent stops, abrupt speed changes)… and the problem seems even WORSE in 2022 after the “update”.

Let me say that again, because surely there is no other car company in history this awful.

Buying a Tesla in 2022 after they rushed out an emergency safety recall last year seems like an even worse decision than before.

Tesla quickly rolled out an over-the-air update to address the issue, yet, since that recall reports of phantom or unintended braking are higher than ever. In fact, the single highest reported cases of phantom breaking analyzed by the Post occurred just one month after the recall.

As a footnote to brand comparisons, while Stellantis surges ahead in the European clean vehicle market they’re also running dead last in America grotesquely flogging big and dirty oil burners.

Stellantis ranked last among major U.S. automakers in corporate average fuel economy in 2021, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. U.S. regulators earlier this year said they would increase penalties for failing to hit CO2 emissions targets, a decision that could cost Stellantis as much as $572 million.

So Tesla maybe is like Stellantis in America, an electric expression of the American DGAF buyer brutally flaunting danger to self and the planet: an overly hyped status object for “collectors” and “posers” like firing a gas flamethrower during a gas shortage with no real practical or safe application in society.

While Stellantis obviously gets such stark market differentiation across an ocean by offering completely opposite models to drivers on either side, Tesla clearly does not.

That being said, the ice in America (pun not intended) may be thawing finally. Idiocy of wanting to waste even a minute in a Tesla (e.g. registering complaints about wheels falling off, smoke pouring out of the vents, destroyed in a fire days after delivery) may finally be over.

Tesla fires in cold and wet Norway are especially stupid. Source: vg.no

The 500e has in fact been a cult favorite with Bay Area track heads and car nuts for years now, who offered a simple phrase to describe why 100s of them were drawn to it.

How does Wetzler feel about his 500e, given his own racing pastime? He says the 500e “is very torquey, and from 0-30 spoils you with instant throttle response and a good belt of acceleration. The regen braking to actual braking transition is very smooth and natural feeling, something many lower priced EVs can’t claim. It cruises nicely on the freeway, and is decently fun to drive… I can drive the Fiat and not hate life.

It’s a car for people who don’t hate life.

Sounds like driving such a brilliant car designed for actual living, helps them fall in love (again) with the most important reasons for driving.

Or as Fiat themselves put it ten long years ago in a 60 second advertisement about their BEV track times…

Energy, Security

Egypt Government Tells Citizens to Stop Using Energy so It Can Sell to Germany Instead

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Something seems very wrong about a story of taking energy away from domestic use in order to sell it abroad, almost like it’s a moral story for children about what not to do.

Egypt has introduced new austerity measures…. The government wants to take the natural gas locals don’t use and sell it at higher prices. It’s a simple solution but experts doubt it can work.

There’s a little problem with that phrase “gas locals don’t use” if you dig into what really is going on.

A whole set of new austerity measures leaves streets, squares, shops and malls without lighting after 11 p.m. The maximum temperature for air conditioning in shopping malls and stores has also been limited to 25 degrees Celsius… customers will have to walk home in the dark, long after the street lights have been turned off.

People in Egypt typically are very active late at night when it’s cooler, so such an austerity plan cuts energy use during a peak economic period.

It sounds kind of like Egypt sells its fine watch to make enough money to buy a hair brush for its citizens who cut their hair to buy a chain for Egypt’s watch… or something like that.

And how is this story not also about someone in Egypt realizing if they cover the pyramids with solar panels they don’t need any gas or diesel?

Gas they don’t use should be more like gas they don’t need; as opposed to taking away gas they really need while they haven’t really started (unlike Norway, which runs clean and exports its gas) to switch to clean sources to power their actual economy.

Energy, History, Security

Cyber Yankee: U.S. Cyber Marines in Cyber Team Cyber War

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Cyber War. It’s long been used to scare Americans into spending money. The military is again talking about protecting the country from disasters by training on cyber (information technology).

Who can forget, for example, the 2022 NYT opinion piece alarmingly titled:

I’ve Dealt With Foreign Cyberattacks. America Isn’t Ready for What’s Coming.

It’s been crickets since then, and rightfully so. In fact, Cyberattacks have been the exact opposite of such predictions with Russia losing badly and nobody really talking about it — a blog post for another day.

So let’s take a look one again at allocation of risk resources versus reality of disaster in America.

First, to properly set context, we should review a non-military operation meant to prevent fireworks on Independence Day.

Bay Area firefighters this year partnered with law enforcement to run a huge “zero-tolerance” policy.

Last year, authorities promised to crack down on the use of illegal fireworks by issuing a “zero-tolerance policy” in counties where fireworks were already illegal, The Chronicle reported. This year, authorities were expected to do the same. [Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jon] Heggie said Cal Fire departments were coordinating with local, state and federal agencies to create task forces intended to prevent the use of illegal fireworks. Anyone caught with illegal fireworks could be fined up to $50,000 and sent to jail for up to one year, according to Cal Fire.

Boom.

It seems to have been a great success as I’ve found exactly zero fires reported due to fireworks.

In fact, I’ve seen and heard almost zero fireworks.

Independence Day fireworks are a widespread tradition and zero evidence of them is actually quite peculiar. The only other time I imagine it’s been this quiet was in southern American states that lost their Civil War when they tried to spread vicious propaganda that the 4th of July is only a holiday for Black Americans.

Second, such success in suppressing personal fireworks lies in stark contrast to basically constant news about commercial fires running out of control.

I mean everyone surely knows how a privately-run power utility Pacific Gas and Electric (PGE) in California has been very weakly regulated, and continues to flaunt safety with massive repeated disasters.

Starting fires all over the place for decades, seemingly all the time killing Americans, hasn’t been stopped by local authorities and the military certainly hasn’t been called in.

The Wall Street Journal (subscription) reported that investigators attributed more than 1,500 fires to PG&E power lines and hardware between June 2014 and December 2017. CAL FIRE attributed 12 fires that started in Northern California on October 8 and 9, 2017 to PG&E power equipment.

It’s unbelievably just how constant disaster has become, literally synonymous with critical infrastructure in the U.S.

Is there an oil rig or tanker around somewhere?

Then you might as well expect a devastating breach of safety.

Did a power line run through some remote wilderness?

Then you might as well expect a devastating fire.

And no military response.

The biting analysis could go on for years, there’s so much evidence of critical infrastructure being a giant dumpster fire with little to no real safety.

Over 1,500 California fires in the past 6 years — including the deadliest ever — were caused by one company: PG&E. Here’s what it could have done but didn’t.

It has a real and present danger (including but not limited to wrongful death, personal injuries, property loss, and business losses), which is so very much worse than anything cyber.

Here’s a headline you WON’T see…

U.S. Marines Deployed to defend California from companies there running critical infrastructure — threat to national security is from the “business” of ignoring risk.

Third, in other words, it seems like on the 4th of July in the Bay Area you would need only to drive a big truck with PGE logos full of fireworks and you could launch all you want wherever you want. Just make sure you don’t put the word “cyber” on anything. It will be seen as business as usual for critical infrastructure.

In fact under the logos you could write “Go ahead and fine us again, we don’t care” as the motto of the privately-run power utility; nobody is going to call the Marines in to defend America from obvious and present disaster… unless of course (again) you put that word “cyber” on anything because that could get some attention.

Did I mention PGE is privately-run?

The wealthy owners faced upwards of $30 billion in fines from its disasters over just three years (2015–2018) and all they did was declare bankruptcy for ONE YEAR.

This is like Cyber War destroying PG&E ability to distribute power (even killing people and destroying homes and businesses) and the company announcing it will simply pay some fines and declare bankruptcy for a year then declare everything back to normal.

Does the US military have a training program for responding to that? Army of lawyers perhaps?

How bad can any Cyber War really be compared to ongoing existing disasters, seriously?

Is it any wonder we hear about “22 mayors, including San Jose’s, pushing to make PG&E customer owned” so it can be less of a threat to security.

And so (fourth), now let’s dig in a bit more to a National Interest story at hand about the U.S. Marines gearing up to defend America from “disaster”.

During a conflict with the United States, an opponent could try to disrupt power and water supplies by knocking regional power supplies off-line or cutting off access to running water. In response to this challenge, the Marine Corps is working with National Guard units to prepare for this challenge. […] “They vary in levels of sophistication from a cyber-criminal or hacktivist that is doing nothing more than low risk access attempts that can be mitigated by very simple security controls and elevate all the way up to the most advanced threat act or using sophisticated means of initiating access with stealthy movement throughout the IT enclave and into the operational technology enclave where the critical infrastructure is located,” [cyberspace operations chief of the Marine Innovation Unit, M Sgt. Mike] McAllister continued.

Oh no, a hacktivist! Wonder if that includes a mayor who would be trying a hack to protect his city from PG&E-led dangers.

Can you image the U.S. Marines being called in on behalf of a morally and literally bankrupt privately-run utility, to stop citizens and their leaders from defending against national security risks posed by those utilities?

Sounds like Guatemala, or Hawaii for that matter.

This is a topic I’ve worked on for ages, even inside the world’s leading response teams, and I have seen the worst of it. There’s even a post I wrote in 2019 about real cases of insider threats taking out water and emergency services. Nobody ever suggested a military response.

That’s probably why I see cyber much like Eisenhower described things in the 1950s: a funding sinkhole (congressional-military-industrial complex) begging for massive cash and time allocations when other areas of safety and security are in far greater need.

When the president’s brother asked about the dropped reference to Congress, the president replied: “It was more than enough to take on the military and private industry. I couldn’t take on the Congress as well.”

If firefighters and police can completely shut down fireworks to protect the country from disaster, let them go after the utilities too. The military probably wouldn’t even have to be involved in Cyber (just like they aren’t involved in fires) if American civic action to stop harms from giant private companies like bulk energy was in any way effective.

Related: “Was Stuxnet the First?”

Energy, History, Poetry, Security

Cryptocurrencies are digital blood diamonds, driverless cars are loitering munitions

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For many years now I’ve been telling people cryptocurrency is a modern form of blood diamonds.

One of the important lessons from Nazi Germany and its derivative regimes like the South African apartheid government (e.g. two countries where Peter Thiel is from) is that money laundering can be a powerful means of evading global sanctions against rights violations (e.g. how Peter Thiel made his fortunes at PayPal).

It therefore should be obvious from history lessons that cryptocurrency serves a well-known anti-humanitarian pattern. Or maybe it’s easier to see the problem as popularized in “fascist pig” movies and books.

He has vices. He doesn’t have any real virtues. If you think James Bond is a fascist pig then Fleming seems largely on your side.

A very long time ago a bank that ran a large regional power company (common in America) called me to consult on security as ethics. Their risk team asked me if they should approve a plan for excess power generation during idle production to be poured into an on-site Bitcoin mining operation.

My answer was a simple question: “Do you really want to fund ICBM development in North Korea?” I guess I could have asked if they wanted to generate more fascist pigs.

The bank seemed genuinely surprised, which reminded me of the Sierra Leone lyric…

I thought my Jesus piece was so harmless
’til I seen a picture of a shorty armless

They asked a few questions, thanked me for explaining international history, and said they had to reject the plan.

Fast forward to today and more and more proof of the problem finally is reaching the news.

North Korea Used Crypto to Hack Its Way Through the Pandemic. The isolated country continues to find ways to evade sanctions and generate income while operating on the fringes of the global financial system.

To be fair blood diamonds for money laundering are just the start of the problem… the laundered money is used for laundered technology sold by Americans.

That’s why I often remind people the American NRA played an essential role in South Africa by importing guns to prop up the illegal white police state in direct violation of international sanctions.

Now who is the digital NRA?

So maybe think of crypto even more as digital blood diamonds to buy digital arms, such as access to algorithms in a Tesla to kill people by weaponizing cars.

As I’ve said in my presentations for at least a decade, it’s far easier these days to direct 40,000 loitering “driverless” vehicles (really munitions) to destroy a city than to launch missiles from far away.