“You will love this car! It costs 30% more than a comparable gas-powered car. It runs on electricity from cheap fossil fuels, saving you money (but not saving the planet). Best yet, the battery might catch on fire!”
I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume your comment was an attempt at humour and not a serious reflection of your attitude to EVs because, *really*, the situation on our planet and especially in our urban areas WRT air quality is *not* a subject for levity!
Apart from that everyone of your ‘points’ is at best inaccurate and at worst completely wrong.
The US (I’m taking a wild stab here and assume you are an American) may still generate most of its electricity from fossil fuels but more broad-minded nations do not. And besides, there is now absolutely no reason why, if you can afford a new average-priced car (EV or no), that you could not also afford to extend your home mortgage to include PV and battery storage that could mean your EV would run entirely on renewably generated electricity (not to mention your home, too).
Lastly, as the article rightly points out in the 2nd paragraph, car fires are hardly confined to EVs! What it doesn’t say is that about 400 people *die* every year in the US, alone, due to petrol tanks rupturing and the contents catching fire in road traffic collisions instantly immolating the vehicle’s occupants (and anyone else unfortunate enough to be in the immediate vicinity).
As yet, there has not been a single death solely related to an EV fire and this is principally due to the fact that EV batteries do not ‘explode’ as so many moronic journalists state, but catch fire usually over a period of some minutes and only then after very serious physical intrusion to the battery pack.
So, in conclusion, my advice would be to educate yourself and, at the very least, arrange a test drive of an EV (I’d recommend a Tesla… any Tesla) and then reflect on your comment and see if you still feel it appropriate. What have you got to lose?
How many gas cars that are parked catch on fire every year? The question is that because the case in the Chevy Volt, two of them caught on fire parked. One Tesla in China recently did the same thing in China parked in a parking garage – setting the garage on fire. Those are more serious concerns than the fires caused in accidents.
Those VERY few “broad minded” nations that generate most of their energy from OTHER than fossil fuels are very, very few. And those that do use . . . nuclear power, which is anathema to the Climate Crazies.
So my advice to you is to educate yourself and then speak the truth.
And I have driven a Tesla, the Performance 3. It is fast, but the Daimler steering and suspension are pretty mediocre, not to mention the boring Chevy Malibu quality of the interior.
And the ONLY reason I drove it is because I didn’t want to miss out on the disappearing subsidies from my fellow taxpayers for non-competitive home solar systems, and I figured the overpriced Tesla might be justified by solar tax discounts subsidized by middle class and poor energy buyers.)
I really like my BMW 530E plug in hybrid. This vehicle only costs about $300 more than a fully gas powered model. This is the technology of the future. There will always be problems to solve on any vehicle. Have all recalls stopped on fully gas powered cars?
Electric Car Salesman:
“You will love this car! It costs 30% more than a comparable gas-powered car. It runs on electricity from cheap fossil fuels, saving you money (but not saving the planet). Best yet, the battery might catch on fire!”
I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume your comment was an attempt at humour and not a serious reflection of your attitude to EVs because, *really*, the situation on our planet and especially in our urban areas WRT air quality is *not* a subject for levity!
Apart from that everyone of your ‘points’ is at best inaccurate and at worst completely wrong.
The US (I’m taking a wild stab here and assume you are an American) may still generate most of its electricity from fossil fuels but more broad-minded nations do not. And besides, there is now absolutely no reason why, if you can afford a new average-priced car (EV or no), that you could not also afford to extend your home mortgage to include PV and battery storage that could mean your EV would run entirely on renewably generated electricity (not to mention your home, too).
Lastly, as the article rightly points out in the 2nd paragraph, car fires are hardly confined to EVs! What it doesn’t say is that about 400 people *die* every year in the US, alone, due to petrol tanks rupturing and the contents catching fire in road traffic collisions instantly immolating the vehicle’s occupants (and anyone else unfortunate enough to be in the immediate vicinity).
As yet, there has not been a single death solely related to an EV fire and this is principally due to the fact that EV batteries do not ‘explode’ as so many moronic journalists state, but catch fire usually over a period of some minutes and only then after very serious physical intrusion to the battery pack.
So, in conclusion, my advice would be to educate yourself and, at the very least, arrange a test drive of an EV (I’d recommend a Tesla… any Tesla) and then reflect on your comment and see if you still feel it appropriate. What have you got to lose?
How many gas cars that are parked catch on fire every year? The question is that because the case in the Chevy Volt, two of them caught on fire parked. One Tesla in China recently did the same thing in China parked in a parking garage – setting the garage on fire. Those are more serious concerns than the fires caused in accidents.
Those VERY few “broad minded” nations that generate most of their energy from OTHER than fossil fuels are very, very few. And those that do use . . . nuclear power, which is anathema to the Climate Crazies.
So my advice to you is to educate yourself and then speak the truth.
And I have driven a Tesla, the Performance 3. It is fast, but the Daimler steering and suspension are pretty mediocre, not to mention the boring Chevy Malibu quality of the interior.
And the ONLY reason I drove it is because I didn’t want to miss out on the disappearing subsidies from my fellow taxpayers for non-competitive home solar systems, and I figured the overpriced Tesla might be justified by solar tax discounts subsidized by middle class and poor energy buyers.)
I really like my BMW 530E plug in hybrid. This vehicle only costs about $300 more than a fully gas powered model. This is the technology of the future. There will always be problems to solve on any vehicle. Have all recalls stopped on fully gas powered cars?