People who make these kind of declarative statements have not been informed of all the advanages of driving electric. And undoubtedly they have never driven a Tesla.
I agree, VFX. I'd like to expand on this a little bit.
Plug-in cars, as a group, don't have ANY disadvantages over gas cars, because plug-ins include PHEVs. This may seem an obvious point, but constantly gets missed by detractors.
BEVs do have one disadvantage over gas cars: they take longer to refuel. Detractors harp relentlessly on this point because they want an excuse to not buy one. They don't want to buy one because they don't
want one. They don't want one because they
assume all sorts of disadvantages: they are slow and no fun to drive; they are terribly expensive, they are poorly built and unsafe, and when you are driving to the grocery store you unexpectedly have to stop and charge for 8 hours. When they come up and ask questions, they will not ask you if their assumptions are incorrect. They will just ask about range and recharge time because they're trying to figure out how much they'd have to put up with to own one.
Not only are the disadvantages not there, but there are many advantages they are not considering - because they are all invisible. You can't see instant throttle response, 100% torque, low COG, or low operating costs while looking at a car. As VFX notes, detractors are unwilling to compromise on anything because they don't see what's in it for them.
Many proponents unwittingly make things worse. Rather than show the advantages by letting them drive the car and then explaining other personal benefits like convenience and low costs, they lecture people on the societal benefits: less pollution, better for the economy, better for national security. Like anything else, if somebody starts lecturing you about how something is good for you, then you assume it's no fun. And these arguments rarely work anyway; few people will pay more for a lesser car to benefit everybody. If you want to those societal benefits come about, you have to sell the cars based on the personal benefits.
The best argument is to (as VFX often says) take them for a ride - better yet, let them drive so they can feel the throttle response. That will be enough to interest them; though they will still have questions about long-term costs (few people know how to calculate how much electricity will cost them) and convenience (plugging in at night seems easy to those of us that are used to it; but really is a change for gas drivers and they need time to figure out how they can really make it work. Pointing out they can still use gas - via another car in the household, or by buying a PHEV - helps. Another obvious point they often miss).
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A parallel story that may help put it in to perspective.
Remember when Apple first introduced the iPad? Others had tried tablets, but they never sold. And the iPad was subject to much ridicule:
- it cost more than a Windows laptop, but
- it had a smaller screen, and no keyboard
- it couldn’t run essential windows apps
- it didn’t have all the same opportunities for hardware expansion
Most people I talked to said that you’d have to be complete idiot to buy one, because it couldn’t completely replace your desktop computer – it cost more and did less. It was a device without a market. Jobs had gone off his rocker. Some people lined up to buy them anyway; they were dismissed as fanatics to the brand.
The skeptics were correct that the tablet cost more and didn’t do everything the laptop did. But there were a number of things they were overlooking:
- Most of the first tablet buyers didn’t replace desktops; they added another device to their household. (Now some people are indeed buying tablets to replace laptops, for reasons below)
- Computer use is changing. There is a lot less data entry, and lot more more-or-less passive consumption of content.
- Apps are changing. Many apps were moving from the desktop to the web or for mobile devices; and in fact now some apps are ONLY for mobile devices because Apple made marketing and distribution easier
- Hardware expansion doesn’t happen often anymore – people tend to upgrade to a new device instead (lowering costs and the market moving from early adopters to mainstream makes that more desirable than it used to be)
- It had a number of very significant advantages that they were completely ignoring, because they were all invisible until you tried one:
- 3x battery life
- much faster boot times
- ability to hold in front of you with one hand, and use in a variety of cramped conditions where you can’t always use a laptop
- more natural (and much simpler) gesture interface
Windows computer makers are now justifiably concerned about tablets completely taking over their market (they won't disappear completely for a long time; but it could be a very short time before the market is small enough that most manufacturers can't make any money). This sales increase – from almost nothing to a near-majority in a short period of time – came about simply because people saw the tablets being used in real life by their friends, and quickly recognized the benefits once they saw it in use. It will take longer with cars simply because they are way more expensive, but it will likely happen the same way.
