this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2026
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xkcd #3214: Electric Vehicles

Title text:

Now that I've finally gotten an electric vehicle, I'm never going back to an acoustic one.

Transcript:

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Source: https://xkcd.com/3214/

explainxkcd for #3214

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[–] AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@piefed.social 81 points 22 hours ago (58 children)

As an EV owner, I have recieved an interesting amount of reasons why people won't buy them:

  1. The autonomy is not real (so far it's been in my case and in any case, in italy, for how people drive, the declared consumptions are all fake because people here only drives by pressing the accelerator to the bottom)
  2. What if there's a blackout in the whole city and you can't charge your car? (The whole city, for a long time? I'd be worried about other stuff, but go on...)
  3. What if all the public plugs are occupied when you want to charge and you find yourself without battery to go to "ork tomorrow? (ALL OF THEM? At the same time? And why are you waiting to charge your car until it reaches 1% charge?)
  4. What if you come back from a long trip and have a 10% battery remaining and then you recieve an emergency call and have to leave immediately and you can't because the 50-60km you have in your battery are not enough to reach your destination? (I can get to a quick charge station and get 200km in 15mins or so? The world is not ending? And if it's THAT urgent then I should be calling an ambulance anyway, because I probably need one)
  5. I don't want an automatic car! I love changing my gear! (Thank fuck I got rid of the clutch and the gears... never been happier when I drive!)
  6. Ah... but the speed, the torque of a thermic sports car... (Dude, you can't afford a sports car, what the thell are you talking about? And even if I can't either and I have a pretty average EV, you should just press the accelerator of an EV to the bottom and see for yourself)
  7. But it's all about the feeling... the sound... (oh, I get it now... you want to "feel powerful" making everyone look at you and your noise making machine... yeah, I can't compete there, and I don't even want to anyway)
  8. But the electricity is made by burning fuel! (Most of it comes from green sources and, anyway, what the hell do you think your car run on? Water? Are you not very intelligent?)
  9. But the lithium comes from child labor!! (Says while casually using their iPhone, wearing clothes made in a third world country...)

After this, they usually proceed to make absurd claims like "I don't care, I just don't trust EVs.

[–] SorryQuick@lemmy.ca -1 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (2 children)

The major complaint I hear is that it takes forever to charge. It’s fine for commuting if you charge at home/work, but sounds a bit rough for road trips and the likes.

I often see people at the gas station’s plug just watching videos or reading a book outside, doesn’t make me want one. Hybrid though I could see myself buying.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 9 hours ago

Depending on the car and budget: It totally is.
At work we have a VW eUP.
Charges at a snail pace (¼ = 60-90ish km at 2-3h).

Yes it's fine most of the time but if we swap it between on-site visits one really has to wait or risk not coming home (and don't get me started on the landmine of charging infrastructure).

German news about the whole infrastructure: https://youtu.be/GQ2hbLzfQ54

TLDW: Close a contract with one provider (e.g. your supplier at home), pay tripple the amount because that charging station is from another provider. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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