xkcd #3214: Electric Vehicles : xkcd

[–] AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@piefed.social 94 points 3 weeks ago (63 children)

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

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)
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...)
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?)
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)
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!)
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)
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)
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?)
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.

[–] Tja@programming.dev 41 points 3 weeks ago (14 children)

Very much similar to my own experience. The blackout is the funniest, because gas stations don't work in a blackout, while solar panels do (assuming you disconnect them from the grid).

I would add one:

But I couldn't drive 1.000km without stopping (how often do you do that? It doesn't seem safe anyway....)

[–] AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@piefed.social 27 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Oh, yeah! I forgot that one!

When you ask them how many times they found themselves with a thermic car doing 1000km without stopping they usually tell you: never, but what if I had to?

Bitch, if you need to do 1000km without stopping, you should be taking a train or a plane. Driving 10-12 hours without a single stop is bad and dangerous.

[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 12 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

This was something I realized when we drive to my wife’s parents. It’s 2,000 km each way from our house in the US to where they are in rural Quebec, Canada and we usually drive it twice a year. The charging times sound long, but even with our petrol car most of our stops end up being between 15 to 30 minutes anyways between fueling the car, taking the dog to grass, taking turns going to the toilet so the dog isn’t alone in the car, getting food and giving me a chance to eat so I’m not trying to drive and eat at the same time.

I think the real challenge of electric range anxiety is that it still takes planning, at least in some parts of the US. There are areas on our route where it might be 100 kilometers to the next fast charger, and there’s no guarantee that all of them will be working or compatible with a car’s fastest charging speeds. We don’t really have to think about where we’ll get gasoline; there’s pretty much always a station, often several, within the next few miles. Usually if we’re waiting to stop for fuel it’s because we’re looking for the best price, looking for a place that might have decent toilets, and/or might have an appealing food option along with the gasoline. That’s all manageable in electric but might need some advanced planning, and many American drivers aren’t used to doing that kind of route planning in advance anymore.

How many cars in Europe can drive 1,000 km without stopping anyways? The only ones I can think of offhand are large American pickup trucks intended for towing large trailers long distances. I wouldn’t expect to see them in Europe.

[–] bufalo1973@piefed.social 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Any diesel can drive more than 1000 km with a full deposit. But laws forbid in some countries to drive more than 2 hours or 300 km without stopping.

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[–] elvith@feddit.org 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The only somewhat valid use case for "driving 1.000km without a stop" would be several people in the car taking turns on the driver's seat. While you'd technically need to stop to switch drivers this in itself is way quicker than even a quick charge on paper.

BUT: considering traffic jams, speed limits and such - a 1.000km trip would take around 10+ hours anyway. You're not going to tell me that you do not even stop to pee or stretch a bit for 10+ hours, do you?

[–] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

While growing up my family once a year would take a 20 hour car trip to visit extended family for a couple weeks then 20 hours back. Parents would do five hour shifts and get the whole thing done in one go. Shift changes meant refuel, bathroom, that's it. Other than that there was no stopping unless it was a "the next bump in the road I will 100% shit myself" kind of an emergency

Now personally I'd argue maybe we shouldn't have been taking road trips in that manner because it's like putting your body through a meat grinder. But if trips like that are someone's goal I doubt there are many charging stations in the middle of absolutely nowhere that can fully charge an EV in the time it takes to pee. I'm hoping though maybe a shift to EVs will change the way people approach long road trips to actually force them to take breaks

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[–] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 3 weeks ago

Another point to add for 9, all the EV parts can be recycled. The metal body is recycled in to new cars and battery components are also recycled in to new batteries.

Relevant technology connections video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQ9nt2ZeGM

[–] blauergrashalm@feddit.org 14 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

My reason for not buying an EV: it's still a fucking car. Bit less shit, but still shit.

That should be Number 1 Reason to not buy an EV!

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 11 points 3 weeks ago

Agreed! EVs are certainly superior to ICE cars, but they're a band aid instead of a solution.

Bring back public transit!

[–] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 5 points 3 weeks ago

I mean, technically, an eBike is an Electric Vehicle, and not a fucking car. Otherwise, hard agree.

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[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Blackout

Eh? What if there's a gas supply issue? Can't fuel up. I've experienced this after a natural disaster disrupted gas deliveries. Lines for blocks. Days to wait.

[–] purplemonkeymad@programming.dev 7 points 3 weeks ago

Not to mention what if someone does something silly like start a war and push the price of oil up. Solar does not increase in price after it's made.

[–] PixTupy@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 weeks ago

With point 2 you can now use a real life case. Last year the Iberian peninsula had a blackout that lasted more than a day. The combustion engine cars could not pump petrol because guess what: pumps need electricity.

[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 5 points 3 weeks ago

What if there's a blackout in the whole city and you can't charge your car?

They couldn't refuel their ice car either or how do they think the fuel is made to flow "uphill" from the tank in the ground into their car.

[–] Jolteon@lemmy.zip 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

My argument: When I can get a decent used EV for $5k, I'll do it. Until then, I'll just get a decent used ICE car for $5K.

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[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 32 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

A car powered by gasoline? It'll never take off. I mean, what will you do if it runs out of gas? Start a war in the middle east?

[–] saimen@feddit.org 16 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Also imagine the logistics! You would have to refine the oil, get it from places all over the world and distribute it to all the gas stations all over the country. With electric cars you can just tap the already existing power grid.

[–] kossa@feddit.org 5 points 2 weeks ago

Not to speak of the fact, that you cannot fill up at home or every other lamp post. You have to drive to designated stations to find gasoline. Ridiculous! What if the next station is too far to reach it, before you run out?

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[–] elucubra@sopuli.xyz 15 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

For the blackout concerns: if you have solar panels, irrelevant, actually you'd be in a better place than with an ICE car. Also, if you have a garage, a fairly powerful generator cost peanuts compared to the price of a car, and some can run on gas cilinders and gasoline. Way safer to store gas cilinders than gas.

Long drives. Decades ago I drove with my ex and my in laws from Madrid to Brussels in one go. 2 of us taking turns.I swore to never do more than 800 Km in one go. We did it in a largish car, pretty comfortable. Yeah, no.

[–] SippyCup@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

My next car is going to have physical fucking knobs and buttons.

I'm not buying another car with a tablet to control the media and the climate, regardless of power source. If I have to buy a 10 year old rust bucket I will. I'm not going back to the tablet until there's literally no other option available.

[–] waitmarks@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

People conveniently forget that gas pumps are powered by electricity also. A person with solar panels and an ev is going to be in a much better situation in a large scale power outage than someone with a gas car.

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[–] NottaLottaOcelot@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

It’s a valid argument if you don’t live near good charging infrastructure. I have an EV in an area with ample charging. But when we went to visit my in-laws who live in a more rural area, it was a big challenge. The only chargers around were so slow that it would take 24+ hours to charge the car. And if you run out, you can’t get someone to bring a can of gas.

In an urban area, I love the reduced maintenance and not getting gas. On a road trip with kids, I don’t love killing half an hour in a grocery store with my kids amassing armloads of candy faster than I can put it back.

EVs are great, but we can’t automatically dismiss any complaint a hesitant person has.

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[–] kalpol@lemmy.ca 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

In all seriousness, the transition of small devices away from AA/AAA batteries is very annoying. I always had batteries charged, now I have to constantly plug some junk in and wait?

[–] pnelego@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago (10 children)

I invested in some rechargeable NiMH AAs, and AAAs. Now sometimes I think i prefer some things with old school batteries just because of how convenient it is. Granted, that system wouldn't work well for my headphones, or my phone. But seems just fine for the odd remote control, kitchen gadget or portable lamp.

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[–] El_guapazo@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

These are the vehicles to have in the Apocalypse. Carry your own solar panels and charge it. No need to get fuel since gasoline only stays fresh for 6 months.

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[–] SethTaylor@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago (10 children)

I only drive acoustic cars. They sound even better

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[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 weeks ago

Costco: 4000 pack of kirkland brand AA batteries...

[–] llii@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 3 weeks ago

I got an EV last year and I woulld never go back. It's just so much better.

[–] Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

I will get an EV when the range/charge speed will allow me to make it 7 miles in 24 hours. And maybe if they're small enough to fit in a passenger train.

[–] NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.world 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I think you want a donkey.

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[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You toss it out and get a new one of course!

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