There is a secret that journalists are being very careful not to tell you about electric vehicles. All of them. All the technologies, all the brands. There is a very simple reason they are not telling you this: it would be harmful to their careers.
So what is this secret - this intentional concealing, this cover up if you will? Simple. All EVs sell out. For over 10 years, no EV has built up inventory. There are literally no fields full of unsold EVs anywhere. Dealers have so few that you can almost never test drive them. People are buying them sight unseen, and waiting months for the priviledge of owning one.
Why is this a secret? Because that is only one story. It isn’t interesting - or at least not as interesting as the notion that people are staying away because of range anxiety, or that people are waiting for more evidence, or lower prices, or more variety, of for their favourite manufacturer to produce one. The evidence as it stands is, that if you build it, they will come.
Now that isn’t to say there isn’t a reason for journalism around EVs - there definitely is. I for one am very interested in reading about what manufacturers are doing - what new models there are, what specs are available etc etc. Just like I used to be about ordinary petrol cars.
What I and for that matter ayone else do not need, is the endless breathless reporting around “what electric cars need to have before they can become mainstream”. The oh-so-tiring questioning of battery replacement prices (they are huge but never happen), the fake sincere worries about that once a year road trip (90% of the US market have two cars - so one electric car will always be a smart choice). Not to mention that people are you-tubing their cross-america trips every day.
Then the bulls**t claims that EVs have just as big a carbon footprint overal (they don’t - unless it’s just a driveway ornament). Or the canard that the electrons are made using dirty fossil fuel so it doesn’t matter (even where they are, the power plants are so efficient that the EV comes out ahead in the long run), and in many juristictions (like Ontario where I live) most of the electricity is carbon free.
Here is what every single EV owner will tell you about their experience.
- They don’t miss going to gas stations, standing in the freezing cold, getting back into their cars with smelly hands, buying overpriced gas station snacks.
- They don’t miss going for oil changes, and being hit up for the quarterly service routine that costs $3-500.
- They don’t miss the anxiety of being stuck in traffic on a low tank (if you aren’t moving, you are barely using electrons).
- They don’t miss the constant drone of tiny explosions happening 3 feet from their heads.
- They don’t miss turbo lag when they put their foot down to pass a truck.
Hear are a few of their highlights:
- Talking at a conversational level at any speed.
- Hearing the quiet bits of a Pink Floyd album without turning it up.
- Getting up every day to a full charge.
- Paying less than a quarter in fuel costs.
- Paying for a mid-level car and getting a performance car at no extra.