There’s something unsettling about EV technology. While many kneel at the altar of Elon Mush, others are coming to the stark realization that the electric vehicle trend is just marketing hype and a new profit centre for car companies. It is not the environmentally sound solution to our transportation needs.
In the 1970s, the ‘oil crisis’ caused a dramatic shift in North American car buying trends. For decades car companies offered big, heavy cars with monstrous V8 engines sucking down gallons of fuel. All of a sudden, geo-political forces made gasoline scarce and expensive. Smaller, more fuel-efficient cars (like those in Japan and Europe) best met the needs of the motoring public.
Initial American offerings of compact cars like the Chevy Vega, Ford Pinto and AMC Gremlin might not have been perfect, but Detroit was listening. Domestic manufacturers could make what the buying public demanded. The goal of energy efficiency could be achieved.
Now, 50 years later, the latest shift in car production revolves around reducing tailpipe emissions. The motoring public wants cars that don’t pollute, so car companies sell them electric vehicles. Motorists are fooled into thinking that zero tailpipe emissions means they’ve done the right thing. Plugging a car into an electrical outlet means that planet will be saved. But that’s just a shell game.
According to Reuters, more than 60% of global electricity generated in 2023 was produced by fossil fuels, and in the US, coal, oil and gas are extremely popular due to low cost. Thus, the crux of the argument for electric cars is a smoke screen. Even if an electric car itself doesn’t contribute to greenhouse gasses, if the electricity used to run the car was from a power station that uses fossil fuels, nothing has changed.
The other disturbing trend in electric vehicles is how the fuel efficiency goals of the 1970s have been tossed on the scrap heap of history. Part of an environmentally sound personal transportation solution is the reduction of energy use. But the focus of electric vehicles in not on a cost-effective commuter cars, or even a sporty hot-hatch. Wander around your local auto show, and you’ll notice every company is pushing giant $100,000 SUVs that can outrun a Corvette. Shocking that the motor-maniacs at Demaras Racing would ever say this, but no one needs that kind of power in a road car. Drivers cannot handle it.
During a recent press conference at a Spanish auto show, the Chairman of Stellantis (formerly FIAT-Chrysler) was asked by a reporter why electric vehicles with so much power were even being built. One assumes the question was intended to highlight the excessive energy consumption required for electric vehicles. But the answer provided by the CEO was to improve safety.
There is nothing more difficult than starting to overtake a truck and then having to jump on the brakes because you just discovered that the acceleration of the car you’re driving is not good enough to overtake in safe conditions. So, you jump back on the brakes, and you go back behind the truck. The acceleration capability for us is first a safety measure.
– Carlos Tavares, CEO Stellantis
The old bumper sticker ‘Speed Kills’ is out of fashion. But for the head of a major car company to claim that an SUV driven by someone’s auntie needs 750+ HP to enable it to quickly pass a truck on a windy two-lane road in the Spanish countryside, that’s just a joke. A deadly joke.
But big and fast and expensive is how car companies make money. It’s just disappointing to see that rather than a focus on developing small electric cars, the only objective is to charge a premium price for a vehicle that make motorists believe they’re doing the right thing for the environment.
Man, Chris, you’ve done it again. Hit the nail on the head. I’ve been in favor of hybrid vehicles but have never wanted an all-electric vehicle. I agree with you that having that much power in an electric car seems antithetical. And whoa that Pacer marketing team was trying really really hard to make their dud car look sexy and appealing.
As a motoring enthusiast, it PAINS me.to say it. But EVs are out of hand.
.
I wish there were kultiple cheap, fun electric cars that didn’t break the bank. Instead, everyone is building high-dollar, 1000 HP beasts. Why? Because MONEY thats why.
.
Its like those dairy farms that git caught selling regular milk as ‘organic’ so they could charge more. Car companies trick buyers into thinking these energynhogs are good for the environment.
Very well put, Chris. You summed up the situation perfectly.
It seems the romance between customers and EVs is cooling down now, the automakers are reviewing their EV targets and offering huge discounts to get rid of the cars on the lots. We are witnessing a very interesting period in this industry.
How many of us in Toronto live in apartments and condos with no charging stations? How many live in townhouses or semi-detached houses with only street parking? Where the heck are people supposed to plug in these EVs?
.
Not eveyone is rich enough (or lucky enough by birth) to have a fully-detached house with a double driveway and garage for a charging station. And THAT inequality is what I hate. The electric car may work for suburban motoists to run errands, but not city drivers. I despise that inequality.
.
Car companies are selling EVs like they sold Hummers back in the 90s…just the latest trend to make a buck. Now, hydrogen-powered cars, that’s a different story…
Btw, the piece of… advertising is really something. Whatever it takes to make a French customer buy a 1970s American car.
I was lookimg for magazine ads for the Pi to or Vega for the article. But when I stumbled across that very ‘ooh la la’ French advert…I had to use it.
.
Its just stunning. And can you imagine a marketing form coming up with something like this today?
Whatever happened to a car for the people. Smaller, boxy, with small engine and parts that would be for a car that stayed the same for a decade…this means replacement parts would cost very little. Mileage would double, parking and traffic would be relieved and the spirit of competition would focus on the interior….and insurance would be cut in half because repairs would cost half as much. EVERYONE wins!!
Stop it William. That’s crazy talk!
.
Well engineered vehicles with cheap, readily available parts?
.
Consumers not being conned by marketing dapartments into buying a new vehicle every four years?
.
Energy efficient engines that dont have 1,000 HP or go 0-60 in less than 2 seconds? How would Tesla get people to buy those ugly toaster ovens on wheels?
.
I bet if a supply of cars were cheap and plentiful, people like me could race them to see who’s quickest, not who’s got the deepest pockets.
.
Crazy talk.