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Anti-EV comments heard on my roadtrip so far

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Having visited 44/50 US states and 250/424 US national parks in the past year in my LR Model 3, I’ve heard a lot of dumb questions.
Here are a few. (Links go to my non-commercial Wordpress blog about my EV parks travels without ads).
“What do you do about rain and puddles? Is that thing even waterproof?” — owner who saw me park in front of his Wyoming hotel in the rain.
“Well, those things don’t have much range” — heard through my EV car window in Teddy Roosevelt ND, Canyon de Chelly AZ, Gila Cliff Dwellings NM, Great Basin NV, Big Hole MT, Sand Creek Massacre CO, Dinosaur UT, Nicodemus KS, etc.
“Costs about the same to fill up as my truck, right?” — guy putting 35 gallons into his Ford F250 at $6 per gallon in California last year.
“But don’t you miss the romance? I love the roar, vibration, and sheer power of my Mustang.” — dude at red light before I hit 60 mph in 3 seconds.
“What do you do when you’re charging?” — discussion at Starbucks, burger joint, rest room, hotel, campground, museum, and while watching base jumpers at Snake River Canyon in ID.
“How do I plug in?” — unfortunate couple at remote TX Supercharger who rented a non-Tesla from Hertz without the slightest clue about EV’s, nor cables, nor adapters, nor PlugShare. But they were Premium Hertz members.
Interested how many of you hear similar comments about EV’s.


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"Tesla Supercharger" by Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine is marked with CC0 1.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
 
Fair point, but then why do those clowns need to install a custom, chrome-plated 8-in after-market pipe in the first place!? (Not kidding—I’ve seen that and worse.) Stock diesel pickup trucks are not so bad. Making them emit that black smut even worse is just plain stupid, IMO.
Why do tesla owners cake on “carbon fibbbbber” alibaba parts and external speakers?

🎶The world may never know. 🎶
 
Having visited 44/50 US states and 250/424 US national parks in the past year in my LR Model 3, I’ve heard a lot of dumb questions.
Here are a few. (Links go to my non-commercial Wordpress blog about my EV parks travels without ads).
“What do you do about rain and puddles? Is that thing even waterproof?” — owner who saw me park in front of his Wyoming hotel in the rain.
“Well, those things don’t have much range” — heard through my EV car window in Teddy Roosevelt ND, Canyon de Chelly AZ, Gila Cliff Dwellings NM, Great Basin NV, Big Hole MT, Sand Creek Massacre CO, Dinosaur UT, Nicodemus KS, etc.
“Costs about the same to fill up as my truck, right?” — guy putting 35 gallons into his Ford F250 at $6 per gallon in California last year.
“But don’t you miss the romance? I love the roar, vibration, and sheer power of my Mustang.” — dude at red light before I hit 60 mph in 3 seconds.
“What do you do when you’re charging?” — discussion at Starbucks, burger joint, rest room, hotel, campground, museum, and while watching base jumpers at Snake River Canyon in ID.
“How do I plug in?” — unfortunate couple at remote TX Supercharger who rented a non-Tesla from Hertz without the slightest clue about EV’s, nor cables, nor adapters, nor PlugShare. But they were Premium Hertz members.
Interested how many of you hear similar comments about EV’s.


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"Tesla Supercharger" by Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine is marked with CC0 1.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
The ignorance can often be staggering :( When someone makes an uninformed EV comment to me and I think it couldn’t get worse, I make myself feel better recalling the time I was in Florence, Italy, in a jewellry shop and overheard another American tourist ask, “Can I get a cross necklace without that little man on it?”
 
I embrace the "cluelessness", & meet people where they are in their life experiences, through using the Socratic method of questioning. I have turned people from calling me an idiot to apologizing, for not knowing, & its okay when people don't know, but in a greater sense from now on makes them think about how they encounter future things that are out of their ordinary.
 
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Don't know what it's like in the US, but here in the UK a diesel which emits any visible smoke from its exhaust is illegal.
Yeah—not so here in the USA. In fact, I’ve never seen a cop pull over a vehicle that is badly smoking. Never seen it. I know they can enforce some law that deals with that, but I’ve never seen it. We have mandatory emissions testing for vehicles beyond a certain minimum lifespan (X years and older must undergo emissions testing). It’s treated sort of like county health inspections. If a restaurant fails an inspection, then they are given a certain amount of time to remedy the violations. Same with emissions. More politically Left-leaning governments are harsher on emissions than most of the Right-leaning governments.
 
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I'm in the deep south and don't see many Tesla's around. When I told them I had a Tesla on order, I got comments like

- The steering wheels fall of on those things
- Batteries explode
- Autopilot will kill you
- Need to replace your battery every 3 years and pay $20,000
- We are not installing a charger for you to charge at work (my manager)
- Tesla turned off the supercharger feature and you have to pay extra to use it now.
- Elon is a douche
- Charging takes hours

And some more I can't remember now.
 
I'm in the deep south and don't see many Tesla's around. When I told them I had a Tesla on order, I got comments like

- The steering wheels fall of on those things
- Batteries explode
- Autopilot will kill you
- Need to replace your battery every 3 years and pay $20,000
- We are not installing a charger for you to charge at work (my manager)
- Tesla turned off the supercharger feature and you have to pay extra to use it now.
- Elon is a douche
- Charging takes hours

And some more I can't remember now.
Yeah, that’s all media hype, media manipulation, and blatant ignorance on their part (the commenters)—all of which can easily be proven to be false.

I actually agree that employers should NOT provide FREE EV charging for employees. If I were a co-worker who could not afford an EV (or chose not to drive one), then I would see that as my potential wages paying for your FREE EV charging, which I don’t think is cool. I am selective when it comes to reduced cost or FREE parking for EV’s because in my state, I pay an extra $151 per year to register my EV because I am not paying the gas tax by driving an EV.

I did some research and discovered that the combined gas tax (state + federal) in my state is 15.5%. My state also assesses a flat fee for ALL EV’s each year that gets tacked on with the vehicle registration at the DMV, which flat fee is $151.71. (This is because EV’s don’t pay the gas tax at the pump—which is weird, because I’ve driven my TESLA to several gas pumps now and did NOT see an option for me to pay that gas tax! LOL) Since the vehicle I would otherwise be driving (if I didn’t own a TESLA) gets 22.0mpg, then that means I am getting the better end of the deal with my vehicle registration “EV fee” if—and only if—I am driving my TESLA more than 5,821mi/yr, which I should have no trouble achieving. If I drive fewer miles than that per annum, then my state is making me pay more than my fair share of the gas tax (by way of that “EV fee”).
 
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Last summer I did a road trip from California to New York and back. On the way east, I drove much of Historic Route 66 from Barstow CA through Missouri. Somewhere in a 4-lane section in Eastern Oklahoma, I was behind a Prius when two big Diesel pickup trucks drove by me on the left. When they drove past the Prius, they blasted him with black smoke! So my Tesla got Respect, with California plates no less, but the Prius didn't. 😄

A couple days later, at the Sommerset PA Supercharger, a fellow walked up to me and remarked "I hear those cars are not good for road trips...".
 
Yeah, that’s all media hype, media manipulation, and blatant ignorance on their part (the commenters)—all of which can easily be proven to be false.
People trust their preferred media sources, while you and your silly claims of "proof" can be safely ignored.

For me, the amazing bit about the Tesla story is that the company would have failed long ago if their vehicles weren't the phenomenal things that they are. It is only their tremendous capabilities that caused so many people to be so vocal about them, countering the media with simple word of mouth. If the cars had been only modestly better than a gas car, or if social media didn't exist to serve as a bullhorn for word of mouth, the traditional media push would have succeeded. I guess that underscores how out of touch all the entrenched vested interests are. They were blindsided. Probably still are.

I had an older gentleman approach me about my Tesla. His immediate concern was what happened when the 12V battery died. They die on gas cars, so it was logical to want to know what happens with an electric car. I pointed out that the 12V is a lithium battery fed by the car's main battery, so it's not going to die, but had to concede that if the battery dies, you can't get into a locked Tesla (you can get out, of course). I'm a little surprised that the media hasn't added that to their litany of facts about electric cars.

After googling a bit, I found that the car will notify you through the app if your 12V is starting to fail. It's not as ironclad and familiar a solution as having a physical key, but I wish I had been able to let that gentleman know.
Last summer I did a road trip from California to New York and back. On the way east, I drove much of Historic Route 66 from Barstow CA through Missouri. Somewhere in a 4-lane section in Eastern Oklahoma, I was behind a Prius when two big Diesel pickup trucks drove by me on the left. When they drove past the Prius, they blasted him with black smoke! So my Tesla got Respect, with California plates no less, but the Prius didn't. 😄
That was just a "two-fer" (two for the price of one).
 
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Let them bask in their ignorance.

Every time I drive by a gas station without stopping I still smile a little.

Yes, Tesla isn’t perfect but overall I’m pleased with mine and wouldn’t consider going back to an ICE car ever.

I do believe EVs are a stopgap until something better (like hydrogen fuel cells) is made viable. I seriously considered a Mirai but the dealbreakers for me were (1) infrastructure - it doesn’t exist outside of southern CA - what if I want to drive outside this region? (2) regulations - many places still prohibit compressed H2 tanks on bridges and in tunnels. Again, very limiting and more constraints I’d rather not have to deal with in case I ever move or want to take a trip - never mind the new fuel tanks developed by Toyota are darn nearly indestructible, (3) Cost - even more than Tesla, with less performance.

I think their time will come but it isn’t now. The time for EVs is now and they’re only going to get better (aside from getting rid of the ultrasonic sensors… sorry, had to). 😁

The M3 does everything I need it to very well. I’m not disappointed in the purchase and intend to keep it for a long time.
 
- Autopilot will kill you
Worst thing about these cars in my opinion. I don’t have it (couldn’t stomach it after the free week trial) and it still tried to kill me about a month ago.

I was on a highway with road construction and very close, uneven concrete K rails in the center divide. Morning, low sun ahead, strange shadows and lines on the pavement. Rounding a bend the car decided I was going to hit concrete (I was not) so it activated emergency lane departure and swerved sharply away from the divider… and towards an 18 wheeler that was close on my right. If I hadn’t been quick enough wrestling the wheel away from the car I’d have been under that semi. In 80k miles this has happened exactly once but I will never fully trust the car again (though the feature can be fully defeated in the menus).

I reported the incident to the NTSB, in part because I found no way to report directly to Tesla. I don’t know if they pushed a new software version or what, but I do know they are beta testing with the lives of their customers. Remember that ABS braking issue a few years ago, where magazines found that repeated ABS stops would dramatically hurt braking performance? It’s great that they were able to push an over the air software fix, but other manufactures would have done the testing to insure that bug never got into the wild in the first place. My car’s been great, but when it goes HAL 9000 on you how can you not consider selling?
 
I do believe EVs are a stopgap until something better (like hydrogen fuel cells) is made viable.
Hydrogen’s well less than 50% round trip efficient when you consider making it, compressing, storing and transporting it and then turning it back into electricity (electric > H2 > electric) vs closer to ~85% most battery plus distribution systems. That alone should see it reserved for applications like jets where weight really matters. Then you get to storage (pressurized tanks are impractical, matrixes are not there, etc) fueling safety, etc. In thus light sustainable fuels make far more sense for applications that can’t use batteries, while better batteries will work for those that can. Double the range with half the weight and charge time is a matter of time, at which point whey would you bother replacing batteries/ electricity with a whole new infrastructure that’s inherently roughly half as efficient in H2?
 
For very large amounts of people this is not simply lack of knowledge. There are vast populations that have a real, intense, foaming-at-the-mouth, spittle flying HATRED of all electric vehicles.
all of which can easily be proven to be false.
People trust their preferred media sources, while you and your silly claims of "proof" can be safely ignored.
Exactly--that doesn't work. I've seen way too many people just laugh and call you a liar, dismissing your own firsthand experience.

This forecasting of how quickly we will reach 50% sales of EVs is going to take much longer than some people realize. It's a double edged sword. There are already people angry and resisting. To try to make this shift faster, as EV fans want, they are trying to get state legislations to force these moves. People don't like to be forced and controlled like that and have their choices taken away, so now additional large portions of the population who were maybe only skeptical before, are now becoming antagonistic toward EVs and getting more stubborn and digging in their heels to resist it. There are actually movements in a few state legislatures in the opposite direction: banning electric cars. Way to go, y'all!!

If they would have been left on their own, to increase market share on their own merits by performance, fuel saving, and reduced maintenance then they might have even gained acceptance quicker, but the aggressive push is shooting yourself in the foot.
 
I'm in the deep south and don't see many Tesla's around. When I told them I had a Tesla on order, I got comments like

- The steering wheels fall of on those things
- Batteries explode
- Autopilot will kill you
- Need to replace your battery every 3 years and pay $20,000
- We are not installing a charger for you to charge at work (my manager)
- Tesla turned off the supercharger feature and you have to pay extra to use it now.
- Elon is a douche
- Charging takes hours

And some more I can't remember now.
So in other words....Twitter headlines. The ignorance is astounding.
 
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