Title text:
Now that I’ve finally gotten an electric vehicle, I’m never going back to an acoustic one.
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3214/
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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?
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.
Batery longevity: I read an article that reviewed longevity, now that there is enough data, and most cars had better longevity, by far, than expected, except for some early models, like 1st Gen leafs. These had lower longevity, attributed to lower capacity batteries that had to be recharged a lot more. Higher capacities, coupled with way better charging circuits and logic, make for way more durable batteries.
Public charging costs is a valid concern.
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.
Recyclability: most of ICE cars are recyclable, even much of the plastics, which are used to make floor mats, soundproofing, etc. Most of the car is metal, copper and aluminum being especially valuable.
Joy of driving. Once you experience the insane torque and acceleration of EVs, even the smaller ones, you won’t want a stick, unless you have a true sportscar.
I drive a 26 year old car, which I will keep until it has a catastrophic failure, love the thing. Not a major failure ever. Next will be an EV.
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.
The majority of people who happen to be in cities aren’t helped by your setup.
Ok, so they are fucked either way. The gas pumps will still not work in cities either.
Recyclability: most of ICE cars are recyclable,
There’s no reason to expect this will be any different with EVs. There are already companies claiming better recycling rates, but they can’t scale up yet because there are not enough retired EVs
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.
funniest thing about 2: If there’s a prolonged blackout you SPECIFICALLY want an EV, because it’s literally a battery pack with wheels! Just drive somewhere with power, charge, and come home with electricity to power the most vital appliances in your home.
2: I wonder what those people think a gas pump runs on?
If there is no electricity, then those won’t pump either.
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?
It sounds crazy, but I’d sit and wait the five minutes, much like I’ve done for pumps on occasion.
- 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.
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.
Solar does not increase in price after it’s made
YET. Elon’s working on it.
You can’t refuel a gas car without electricity anyway, the pumps are electric.
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…)
The best argument against the blackout bit: Ukraine
Every single used budget EV was bought up by Ukrainians when the war started. Nissan Leafs, older Hyundai Ioniqs, Renault Zoes
Gas stations were bombed and the whole logistic chain for delivering gasoline and diesel was disrupted or prioritised for the military
But everyone had power at least for a part of the day, so they could charge EVs.
have a 10% battery remaining and then you recieve an emergency call and have to leave immediately
I actually have been in similar scenario, but one hour charging at home will get me to any such place (or I could have, you know, hit up a supercharger on my way)
The complaint may be that it’s an emergency but how often can you not even wait an hour? Especially since it’s half gone by the time I unload the car, use the rest room, etc
I feel like some of those points are slightly more valid in rural areas (especially in the US, where a power pole being knocked over means that the power is out for hours) where the people making those points are more likely to have grown up. Then again if you are not in a rural point of the united states you are less likely to need a car.
If I lived in rural US where the power is not guaranteed I would install PV and use my car as a power backup.
That sounds rather expensive (if PV is photovoltaic). And I was not aware that cars were built to supply power like that.
Yeah, I meant photovoltaic with PV. At least in Europe it’s gotten really cheap.
There are mutiple ways to use the energy that is stored in electric cards. There’s “Vehicle to Load” (V2L) for plugging appliances directly into the car, “Vehicle to Home” (V2H) for connecting your home to the car and “Vehicle to grid” for connecting the car to the power grid and selling the stored energy.
“Vehicle to load” is also useful when going camping or when you need power when there’s no outlet near you. You just need a car that supports it and a small adapter.
In America it’s gotten cheap too. You can buy panels at harbor freight these days
- I don’t want an automatic car! I love changing my gear!
This is me. I have a hybrid car and I miss the stick every time I drive it.
The problem is those days are gone, even without EVs. Between modern automatics more efficient and longer lasting, and cheap reliable CVTs (also more efficient), manual transmissions have no future. I also prefer driving a stick, and frequently complained about limited availability in the US, but technology has passed it by
cheap, reliable CVT
I may be out of date but Nissan’s CVTs self destruct very effectively and Subaru’s don’t handle the torque of the H6 so well. They’re still unpleasant to drive. Give me an EV every day.
My experience across three 2014+ Subarus with CVT has been flawless. Not the H6 though, all flat 4
Here’s a financial argument. The initial purchase price is too high for me, and the depreciation of electric vehicles is also very high. Overall cost of ownership per distance driven is lower if I drive a small gasoline-powered car.
I really don’t want it to be that way, but that’s the reality I have to deal with. Cheaper EVs are coming, but they still aren’t in my price range.
Update: Yes they are. Needed to update my data. Used EVs aren’t expensive trash any more. Some of them are actually quite reasonable.
Must be a Europe thing. I ran the numbers in America and avoiding gas cost (vs electric cost per mile) means the car paid for itself after 30k miles. And that’s ignoring that it needs no maintenance.
I thought European gas was expensive. Is the electricity over there also really pricey?
You toss it out and get a new one of course!
“It said E for end, so I threw it out” - Patrick Star
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.
I think you want a donkey.
Also I want it to be rechargeable with hay bales! …wait
You know electric motor assisted bicycles exist, right?
So do donkeys
Yes, but recharging those is messier and requires extra steps.
Plus I’m pretty sure that they’d be greeted with little enthusiasm on most passenger trains 😄
Oh come on, most people like a little ass.
Sure, but donkeys big enough to ride aren’t exactly little 😁
I got an EV last year and I woulld never go back. It’s just so much better.
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.
I have had some issues with my electric car in rural areas between FL and GA and I will say the charging infrastructure has gotten much better in the past year in that area. Especially since most cars can also use the Tesla chargers too if you need to.
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?
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.
Ideally we could just have the best of both worlds, if a device can charge a built-in battery i see no reason it couldn’t just be built to charge a removable battery instead.
Rechargeable AAs and AAAs have finally been perfected, I am kind of annoyed by things that have only internal batteries now, I don’t want them going to the landfill just because the cheap device died. Let me keep running the batteries for a decade in other shit.
The internal batteries often aren’t that hard to replace. If you can get the device open the batteries are standard sizes you can order and often just plug in. Except phones, phone manufacturing relies on pure evil
For decades we had battery packs that could be replaced. we have lifepo4 that’s super safe to handle, i don’t know why we don’t have replacable battery packs anymore :/
Plugable hybrids are a good compromise, when people remember to actually plug them in and run on electric when they don’t need to travel long distances.
They also have the worst of both worlds shoved together
They’d be the best compromise for me. I usually drive short distances in the city, but maybe once or twice a year I want to do the 800km journey back to my home city in the next province. Train travel isn’t an option.
I have a similar situation and I just rent a car for those twice a year trips 🤷 Still cheaper than paying for gas
I’m hesitant to get an electric vehicle because I don’t currently have anywhere to charge near my condo. My condo parking spot isn’t near a building, so it would probably be a pain to charge from there. I’d be interested if my office had some charging stations.
Until then, I’m quite happy with my old Prius. It goes, stops, and steers as needed, no complaints. Catalytic converter has only been stolen once.
A friend of mine did it. Parked at his condo then went to a supercharger every weekend. It can be done. I’m not that dedicated but some people are.
Unfortunately charging at work may not be the answer if there are not enough. My office has 8 chargers, so I can charge for free. However there are more than 8 people who want to use them. In theory we can share so 16 cars get half a day each but it can be tough to get a turn.
Chargers, both high speed and destination, really need to scale a lot for this to become convenient and reliable. It’s unfortunate that this also has become political and attempts to improve this have been blocked
Being able to charge at home is a game changer, and I live on the east coast where superchargers are commonly available but sometimes it’s easy to get discouraged at this infrastructure being so delayed
I’m sure charging stations exist, but I’ve only ever seen one with my own eyes once (Brazil, major city)
Drove home today from the countryside in Finland. A station every 30km at least.
Gas costs ~2€/litre.
Meanwhile in Europe I take off for road trips with my EV that has very mid range, fully trusting there’s gonna be a station when I need one, at first I used to plan the trips around charges but quickly figured out it’s not necessary. If you have a newer model with big range then it’s really a total non-issue. Sucks to hear Brazil isn’t there yet but I’m sure the infrastructure will catch up soon.
That’s something I’ve noticed in the US as well; gas stations are all over creation, easily visible, they have giant signs along interstates. I’m familiar with several long stretches of major highways and interstates, I could not take you to a charging station off the top of my head, nor do I think I could find one by highway signage like I can a gas station. I’m sure they exist but they haven’t called my attention to themselves.
As far as I can tell, car chargers are all over the place but often hidden away in the back of parking lots. And a lot of chargers require you to make an account or download an app.
I only drive acoustic cars. They sound even better
yaabadabadoooo!
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.
Personally I’d go with an electric bike since it needs significantly less time to charge given the same number of solar cells.
