I don't like to discuss EVs in public because things quickly devolve into an inquisition if one doesn't fully embrace the messaging, but I'll bite.
From an enthusiast perspective, I have no issues with an electric powertrain. The concept has a lot of promise once the implementation matures. The current issues I have with electric _powertrains_ (not vehicles) are: Relatively short battery lifespan, high replacement cost. Unrealistic range estimates. I live in Germany and the range is pathetic when traveling at actual Autobahn speeds, which is further worsened during the times of year when heating or cooling is required. Poor high speed performance, except in higher price brackets.
The thing that these enthusiast-directed EV articles always seem to miss is this point.
> Most car companies are adopting use of modern operating systems in their new cars. Most companies seem to couple this generational leap in in-car systems to their EV launches. If you, like me, want the best UX of the in-car system the quickest, it’s an EV you need to get.
I'm not interested in an iPad on wheels. The ideal UX in a car should be as unobtrusive as possible. I should set my destination, select my playlist, and never have to interact with a touchscreen until I arrive at my destination. I have yet to see an EV that sticks to this philosophy. The new Porsche Taycan climate control vents are controlled via touchscreen, for example. This is insane.
As for the environmental aspect, well, I'm probably going to regret saying this openly. We live in a fully industrialized world. Unless we're all willing to go back to using wind power to transport cargo and carriages to transport people, while simultaneously getting the world population back to pre-industrial levels, it's a bit too late. I don't think you're going to be saving anything with your EV. The messaging around this topic is akin to a man who burned his house down and is now discussing smoke alarms. It's too late, my friend.
>As for the environmental aspect, well, I'm probably going to regret saying this openly. We live in a fully industrialized world. Unless we're all willing to go back to using wind power to transport cargo and carriages to transport people, while simultaneously getting the world population back to pre-industrial levels, it's a bit too late. I don't think you're going to be saving anything with your EV. The messaging around this topic is akin to a man who burned his house down and is now discussing smoke alarms. It's too late, my friend.
It's definitely not too late, this sort of defeatist attitude is not only wrong but dismissive of the dangers.
> I don't think you're going to be saving anything with your EV.
This is also dead wrong, a quick switch to EV will substantially reduce the amount of carbon pollution, no need for mass killings.
We simply need the government too provide right incentives to switch to cleaner and less energy usage
> It's definitely not too late, this sort of defeatist attitude is not only wrong but dismissive of the dangers.
I'm not suggesting _nothing_ be done and we carry on as usual. But there are 7.6 billion people on this planet and nearly every single one of them either has, or is working towards a modern standard of living. You can't go from 600 million people in 1700 to 7.6 billion people in 2021 without severely harming your ecosystem.
11,000% more people, and each one of them uses _far_ more resources than their 1700 equivalent. They didn't travel except by muscle or by sail, they consumed locally produced food or food imported by sail and muscle power, and the most technologically advanced good available to the average person was an oil lamp.
There isn't an electric car, reusable bag, ethically produced wool sweater, or synthetic burger that can get you back to anywhere near that kind of resource usage.
As for the dangers, I'm aware of the worst case scenarios and the best case scenarios. They're all terrible. At worst, we die out, at best we end up struggling to maintain a comfortable existence due to shortages and a fragile ecosystem while reminiscing about the good old days. But we need to look at the problem clearly and realistically and work towards feasible, realistic _mitigations_ (solutions are impossible) rather than passing nonsense populist laws like banning plastic straws or electric car subsidies and hoping the next generation figures it out.
> This is also dead wrong, a quick switch to EV will substantially reduce the amount of carbon pollution, no need for mass killings. We simply need the government too provide right incentives to switch to cleaner and less energy usage
I'm not opposed to this, and I certainly don't advocate mass killings (see above re: realistic mitigations). I do realize that the lifetime emissions of an electric car are lower than most ICE vehicles. But again, this isn't a solution. You still need a lot of infrastructure and a lot of emissions to manufacture, install, maintain, and eventually replace that infrastructure. Sticking a solar panel on every roof and a wind turbine in every neighborhood isn't going to solve the fundamental problem of "organism is using resources in an unsustainable way".
A quick, forced switch to EVs is going to win the "carbon emissions" line-graph competition so we can all virtue-signal to each other about how well our countries are doing, but it's not going to get us out of the hole we dug, even when combined with _all_ the current popular emissions reductions proposals.
Thank you for this. I don’t see how we make any significant changes to our trajectory without accepting a “lower” quality of life than what we have now. We need to localize, we need to rid ourselves of continuous consumption of useless junk, and we need to reconnect our resource use to the planet that sustains us.
None of that is accomplished by the virtue signaling you mention of replacing one luxury item with another different one.
>a quick switch to EV will substantially reduce the amount of carbon pollution
An even quicker switch to "drive less" will do as much good, and save you a load of money too! (As well as consuming significantly less of the world's resources)
That's been my approach so far, I bought my Ford Ranger used with low mileage and its a 2003 with less than 90k on it. I don't use it for commuting since I've WFH for years.
I'm interested in the EV trucks they're starting to produce, although I'd like the truck to be smaller and for vehicles to be less phabletey and certainly not to come with subscription O/S upgrades.
I still can't get over the fact that every (haptic!) button is replaced by some touch screen interface. I think it is pretty normal to change the air conditioning while on the road. Now it is kind of dangerous to change it because I need to look for the touch button.
Yeah it looks nice, but until I get haptic feedback from a touchscreen, please don't remove buttons/knobs which are often used while driving.
From an enthusiast perspective, I have no issues with an electric powertrain. The concept has a lot of promise once the implementation matures. The current issues I have with electric _powertrains_ (not vehicles) are: Relatively short battery lifespan, high replacement cost. Unrealistic range estimates. I live in Germany and the range is pathetic when traveling at actual Autobahn speeds, which is further worsened during the times of year when heating or cooling is required. Poor high speed performance, except in higher price brackets.
The thing that these enthusiast-directed EV articles always seem to miss is this point.
> Most car companies are adopting use of modern operating systems in their new cars. Most companies seem to couple this generational leap in in-car systems to their EV launches. If you, like me, want the best UX of the in-car system the quickest, it’s an EV you need to get.
I'm not interested in an iPad on wheels. The ideal UX in a car should be as unobtrusive as possible. I should set my destination, select my playlist, and never have to interact with a touchscreen until I arrive at my destination. I have yet to see an EV that sticks to this philosophy. The new Porsche Taycan climate control vents are controlled via touchscreen, for example. This is insane.
As for the environmental aspect, well, I'm probably going to regret saying this openly. We live in a fully industrialized world. Unless we're all willing to go back to using wind power to transport cargo and carriages to transport people, while simultaneously getting the world population back to pre-industrial levels, it's a bit too late. I don't think you're going to be saving anything with your EV. The messaging around this topic is akin to a man who burned his house down and is now discussing smoke alarms. It's too late, my friend.