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Input requested: Bonnie's Top Ten List / EV Urban Legends

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#21
Some more:
1. There are multiple charging standards. It's better to wait until things are more standardized. (This is much like an excuse I received from a former employer when I was advocating for workplace charging.)
2. If you get stuck in a traffic jam for hours you'll run out of charge and be stranded.
3. We can't make enough batteries for everyone to switch to EVs today so hybrids are better. (courtesy of John Petersen)
4. If everyone switched to EVs, we'd have massive job losses and an economic downturn. (can't remember the source, likely a shill for oil companies)
 
#22
My favourites:

1. Safety advantage of bev
2. Performance advantage of bev
3. Cool factor - Technological advantage (control panel, over the air updates):cool:


If your list contains FUD talking points, then the above points must be inverted:


1. Ice cars are safer than bev cars
2. Ice cars outperform bev on the track
3. Bevs are not cool - 'golf cars'

Good luck
 
#24
Shortly after getting my car I had a guy ask about it -- but his question would be good to cover: are there enough places to charge? He was surprised that I did nearly all my charging at home and that public chargers were not used all the time. People are so used to the gas station concept that they some may not realize that you can charge at home...
 
#25
The top #1 thing that people believe (without actually researching it) is that their home electricity bill will skyrocket and there will be no savings.
When I tell them it's $2 to fill up and drive 100km, and then note that they would spend $10 for the same commute in a gas car, they can't believe it.

100km is because I own a Smart ED with 140km summer range, and lower in the winter, so I average it.


The top #2 item is that our Ontario Canada grid couldn't accept a million electric cars. But then I remind them we need to throttle Nuclear plants at night by over 800MW because demand is so low. If 400,000 cars were recharging overnight 2KW for 8 hours (16kW is enough for the average 50km commute), that would have ZERO effect on the grid. Really opens their eyes!


I then tell them that refining a Litre of gasoline consumes as much electricity as it would take an electric car to drive 10km, about how far a gas car can drive with 1 Litre.

Cheers!
 
#26
ZBB said:
Shortly after getting my car I had a guy ask about it -- but his question would be good to cover: are there enough places to charge? He was surprised that I did nearly all my charging at home and that public chargers were not used all the time. People are so used to the gas station concept that they some may not realize that you can charge at home...
Click to expand...

Since these will be primarily college students, I thought I'd show the PlugShare results for where the talk is - and they can download the app for themselves and play around with it. But of course, the obvious comeback will be ... where do your charge your cell phone?

- - - Updated - - -

SmartElectric said:
The top #1 thing that people believe (without actually researching it) is that their home electricity bill will skyrocket and there will be no savings.
When I tell them it's $2 to fill up and drive 100km, and then note that they would spend $10 for the same commute in a gas car, they can't believe it.

100km is because I own a Smart ED with 140km summer range, and lower in the winter, so I average it.


The top #2 item is that our Ontario Canada grid couldn't accept a million electric cars. But then I remind them we need to throttle Nuclear plants at night by over 800MW because demand is so low. If 400,000 cars were recharging overnight 2KW for 8 hours (16kW is enough for the average 50km commute), that would have ZERO effect on the grid. Really opens their eyes!


I then tell them that refining a Litre of gasoline consumes as much electricity as it would take an electric car to drive 10km, about how far a gas car can drive with 1 Litre.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

While I won't go that detailed (have time constraints), if there are more questions will definitely break it down. The rule of thumb I use when talking to people is that 'whatever you spend on gas, your electricity increase will be around a quarter of that. If you spend $200/month at the gas station, instead you'll be spending an extra $50 on your elec bill. And even better results if you're smart about when you charge blah blah blah blah."

- - - Updated - - -

meloccom said:
Not the most frequent comment but fun for a laugh is the concern that electric vehicles create dangerous electromagnetic fields that will give you cancer or stop a pacemaker.
Click to expand...

And there is no warning sticker on the car, even in a Prop 65 state like California. That should be enough to shoot it down.
 
#27
Bonnie, I presume you will make a PowerPoint or other presentation format slide deck for this event. Even if we will miss the audio track and Q&A (unless it's recorded in some way), can you post the final slide deck here for our future reference?
 
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#29
SteveS0353 said:
Bonnie, I presume you will make a PowerPoint or other presentation format slide deck for this event. Even if we will miss the audio track and Q&A (unless it's recorded in some way), can you post the final slide deck here for our future reference?
Click to expand...

I'd be happy to - maybe it would be good to have an area of the forum where 'member produced' material (like some of the event posters, for instance) are kept, so that people can find and modify for their own use at other events. We could say the main requirement for posting material there is that it isn't copyright protected & is free to be reused and modified.
 
#31
bonnie said:
You all are AWESOME! Making this easy for me :)

I'll probably do a top ten, along with honorable mentions. I'm on the panel with Andrew Frank, who has already warned me that his talk will be why PHEVs are better than EVs. And I, of course, warned him that I'm always up for a healthy discussion :). (And told him that I recognize there are times that EVs won't work & that hopefully, he was open-minded enough to acknowledge that PHEVs weren't always the only answer ... I received a very friendly reply. Should be fun.)

Then I looked him up online ... still, I've got this one. Andrew Frank
Click to expand...

Andy Frank is a neat guy. Only a little out dated. He was developing hybrid pickups for Ford, GM, Dodge, etc. that would get greater power with better mileage ( like, much better mileage) 15 or 20 years ago, and surprise, the truck makers totally ignored him. I would call him a leader and innovator, but even though he has been around, I think he's stuck. Of course, if you hybridize all the trucks, we could save millions of gallons of gas every year, as they use more than cars, but for regular car work, I think Tesla has a better idea. And possibly the truck makers would come closer to adding a hybrid set up to a truck than going totally electric. Also, the general truck driving public would probably accept a hybrid sooner than an electric -- until they see Tesla's truck.

- - - Updated - - -

omarsultan said:
1) Maybe part of #5 is the long-tailpipe and wheel to well arguments
2) Another aspect of #8 is lack of L2 and higher chargers -- the searching for a charger argument, usually addressed by pulling up plugshare
Click to expand...

Make sure you show all the homes with 220 50 amp! I never need to "look for a charger", because I already charged, and since I figured out a bigger battery was important, I always have tons of charge.
 
#32
bonnie said:
I'd be happy to - maybe it would be good to have an area of the forum where 'member produced' material (like some of the event posters, for instance) are kept, so that people can find and modify for their own use at other events. We could say the main requirement for posting material there is that it isn't copyright protected & is free to be reused and modified.
Click to expand...

Just a comparison -- one of the Porsche forums has a "Files" section: Downloads - Planet-9

Perhaps you mods could use that for inspiration ;-)
 
#33
I wonder how Dr. Frank's presentation would go if he were provided a Tesla to drive for the week prior to the presentation. After the first couple days of range anxiety fade away, the benefits of Tesla vs. ICE are obvious. Well, to me anyway.

Good luck with the presentation. Please do let us know how it turns out -- perhaps a show of hands for how many students are going to go home and ask daddy for a new Tesla!
 
#34
My short exchanges via email with Dr. Frank have been friendly - all indications are that we will have a fun time on the panel. Even though he has a deep technical background on his subject, I have a very broad practical experience, coupled with a lot of years of dealing with the fud. I know the counter arguments (how can you moderate this forum and NOT know this stuff??). I respect the work he's done.

I really appreciate everyone's input. I knew I was forgetting a couple of things, you all got them on the list for me. :) It will be a piece of cake to put the slides together later this evening. And yep, I'll report back. If students aren't asking for a Tesla, I'll be happy if they're asking for a used Leaf. Heck, I'll be happy if they settle for a PHEV, because then (like so many others) they will start to see how long they can go without buying gas & will learn they really don't need that much range on a daily basis. There is no wrong answer.
 
#37
 
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#38
omarsultan said:
So, Tesla could not make it to the National Drive Electric Week event in our neck of the woods, so a bunch of owners gave test rides--I gave a dozen+ rides and the first question, every time, was how far I can go on a single charge.
Click to expand...

Pretty typical, but again, I am not there talking up Tesla - it's about electric vehicles, not just those of us lucky enough to own the amazing vehicles that we have. :)

With all the events I've done, that is usually the first question from people who aren't sure what to ask ... and then I usually follow up with 'How far do you drive in a day?'. But this isn't an event, slightly different twist ... and while I'm sure I'll get that question, I want to move them past that pretty quickly. I expect this audience to be a little better informed (or why else would they be showing up for the talks to begin with?).
 
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