I've never been into cars until Tesla, but I've been reading more about cars and watching some YouTube channels that are entertaining. The vast majority of the population see cars as transportation from point A to point B. They want something reliable with at least a few creature comforts. Some people use their car as an extension of their ego, they want to be seen driving their car.
But there is a core group of true car enthusiasts are bonded to everything ICE. They obsess about the specifications of ICE motors, transmissions, performance, and even the exhaust note. Their identity is wrapped up in ICE. A lot of these people gravitated to the car business in one way or another because of their love of the machine. Those who worked for car makers put up with putting out boxes for the masses, but their passions were special vehicles: sports cars, tricked out trucks, etc.
EVs destroy all that sexiness to them. All the parts of the car they love are gone replaced with vastly simpler systems. To rub salt in the wound Tesla went and proved that EVs can be vastly better cars than any ICE. Compare the Model S P100D and the Dodge Demon. The Demon sacrifices everything, including driving in the rain, to be the best stock drag racer ever built. The P100D is just a tiny sliver slower than the Demon, but it also can be an everyday family car too with no compromises except a bit of range loss over the S 100D. As a practical car, the P100D is vastly superior to any car it is competitive with on the drag strip.
This ICE mentality is there with many of the higher performance EVs and PHEVs coming out. The Taycan has fake tail pipes and both the i8 and iPace have fake engine noises. The iPace's noises are more electric in nature, but it still makes fake noise at you. The i8 makes fake large ICE noises like some kid playing with his toy cars.
The gearhead ICE lovers are very threatened by EVs. They know the tech well enough to realize that EVs really are a superior technology, but they just can't let go of their passion. In a weird sort of way they're mourning the loss of the tech they had their identity wrapped up in.
I don't get it with cars because I'm more the get from point A to point B type, but I have felt it with some other technology. My father has a lifelong passion for steam trains. They started phasing out when he was a young adult in the 50s and he was very into model railroading then. There is a restored Southern Pacific Daylight passenger locomotive here in Portland, OR that sometimes rides the rails around the country.
One time when I was in college it was headed to New Orleans for a movie and was scheduled to pass through the Tehachapi Loop east of Bakersfield, CA. It's a famous place for trainspotters to get pictures. In one place long trains will cross over themselves on the winding climb over the pass. My father stationed family members along the track to get pictures from various spots. When the locomotive went by it was pulling the grade and the feeling of those steam cylinders slamming home was primal. I grokked why steam engine fans went so nuts about them. Diesel locomotives are like steam locomotives the same way EVs are to ICE cars. Diesels are superior tech, but steam engines are more varied sounds and feel different.
I also have always been into WW II aircraft and those high power engines can have that same primal feeling. I once was standing on the edge of a runway when several P-51s took off. I couldn't hear very well for a few days, but it was an intense feeling.
Those high performance piston engines are now only used in antique aircraft maintained for museums and air shows because they have been passed up by better tech that's simpler. But they do have character. Even the same engine in different planes can sound different due to differences in exhaust, but a 787 sounds pretty much the same as a 737.
but even with my 190-ish (km/h) top speed it was hard not to get into traffic within a few minutes. Not to mention fuel consumption at those levels. Could just be my smaill 1.6L engine, but my consumption went up more than 2x of 130 km/h (the normal speed limit in most of Europe). I think this is more of an actual problem for those who like to track their cars on the weekends, and an image problem in Germany with normal users. Not that you can`t get into a situation at 1am on a weekend when you *could* do 200 km/h for minutes and minutes, but seriously, that`s not the problem Tesla should focus on right now.
