I would prefer EV mandates and subsidies didn’t exist. That would remove the “being forced by govt” viewpoint.I hang out on the same ICE car forum as @FloridaSun and I've seen many examples of both EV Hate and Autonomous Vehicle Hate. At least part of that stems, I believe, from the fact that people are resistant to change, especially change that they don't understand. The older we get the more resistant we become. Some ICE drivers hear about the proposed "EV-only by 2035" type mandates and they feel threatened - they assume that once new EVs stop being sold the next step will be an outright ban on ICE vehicles. Similar fears drive hatred of autonomous cars - these folks fear that once AVs become mainstream then human-driven vehicles will be banned. They use phrases like "you'll have to pry my steering wheel out of my cold, dead hands."
Anyway, that's my theory.
But that also applies to removing gas subsidies. If we were paying over $7 per gallon of gas, people would switch real quick.