EVs... no one wants them!
Discussion
I'll be the first to admit I don't understand EVs and I have no interest in them. I don't particularly care what anyone else drives as long as it's not at my expense.
There are a few reasons I am not interested, rather than don't want.
Firstly, the running costs or savings aren't a concern. I don't use much fuel (diesel and petrol) so being able to charge a car for a notional quarter of the cost it would cost me to fuel it is a big so what. In return for that, I would have to pay out a substantial amount of money to buy the ICE replacement, with the cost being way more than any cost savings I can envisage in a decade or more. I gather to make best use of the charging I'd also need to lay out money for a charging point.
Secondly, I am a petrolhead through and through. I like the sound, smell, noise and feel associated with ICE. Obviously not the fumes from some knackered diesel but in general. I like that a big engined ICE rocks the car from side to side when you rev it when sitting still. I have travelled in EVs and I don't feel anything that makes me want one. I loved the sound of F1 and although it's no longer spine tingling, I'd still prefer any race involving ICE cars. I would not cross the road to see EVs racing. The idea of a something like an EV Le Mans is about as attractive a a visit to an abattoir. I have a number of high performance cars and in fact all of my cars have more than adequate performance. I too can get up in the morning and drive a very quick car several hundred miles having filled it with petrol last week.
At the same time, I have friends who just own EVs, some who have just ICE vehicles and some who have both. In my circle, the EV owners are a little obsessed with saving money and perceived performance. I say perceived because the cars they own are a little faster than equivalent petrol or diesel cars but not performance cars by any stretch of the imagination. I can see how they see this as a step up and how it must feel good to them, especially as none of them were what I would call real car enthusiasts previously. They also like tech such as the latest phone or wifi enabled fridge. The exclusively ICE owners like me are a tight little band who are just get bored when conversations turn to kilowatt costs and the availability of charging points. I don't know anyone who owns a Taycan and a C63 and it would be interesting to hear why they bother with electric when clearly the cost of fuel should be irrelevant.
I accept that one day there will be no ICE vehicles, just as other things have come and gone in the past and will in the future. It's happening at a pace that's broadly acceptable to me. The cars I like will be consigned to festivals and tracks when I'm dead and gone. I might be forced to drive an EV before I die. Big deal. I don't much care for other people's preferences and I want them to leave me alone. There are far better things to argue about than compare 'your' EV with my RX7 so I'm not interested. It's not an argument either of us would ever win. The one thing that will trigger me is an EV owner getting on their high horse about the environment and having a go at me for my choices. Apart from that, crack on. Am I that unusual?
There are a few reasons I am not interested, rather than don't want.
Firstly, the running costs or savings aren't a concern. I don't use much fuel (diesel and petrol) so being able to charge a car for a notional quarter of the cost it would cost me to fuel it is a big so what. In return for that, I would have to pay out a substantial amount of money to buy the ICE replacement, with the cost being way more than any cost savings I can envisage in a decade or more. I gather to make best use of the charging I'd also need to lay out money for a charging point.
Secondly, I am a petrolhead through and through. I like the sound, smell, noise and feel associated with ICE. Obviously not the fumes from some knackered diesel but in general. I like that a big engined ICE rocks the car from side to side when you rev it when sitting still. I have travelled in EVs and I don't feel anything that makes me want one. I loved the sound of F1 and although it's no longer spine tingling, I'd still prefer any race involving ICE cars. I would not cross the road to see EVs racing. The idea of a something like an EV Le Mans is about as attractive a a visit to an abattoir. I have a number of high performance cars and in fact all of my cars have more than adequate performance. I too can get up in the morning and drive a very quick car several hundred miles having filled it with petrol last week.
At the same time, I have friends who just own EVs, some who have just ICE vehicles and some who have both. In my circle, the EV owners are a little obsessed with saving money and perceived performance. I say perceived because the cars they own are a little faster than equivalent petrol or diesel cars but not performance cars by any stretch of the imagination. I can see how they see this as a step up and how it must feel good to them, especially as none of them were what I would call real car enthusiasts previously. They also like tech such as the latest phone or wifi enabled fridge. The exclusively ICE owners like me are a tight little band who are just get bored when conversations turn to kilowatt costs and the availability of charging points. I don't know anyone who owns a Taycan and a C63 and it would be interesting to hear why they bother with electric when clearly the cost of fuel should be irrelevant.
I accept that one day there will be no ICE vehicles, just as other things have come and gone in the past and will in the future. It's happening at a pace that's broadly acceptable to me. The cars I like will be consigned to festivals and tracks when I'm dead and gone. I might be forced to drive an EV before I die. Big deal. I don't much care for other people's preferences and I want them to leave me alone. There are far better things to argue about than compare 'your' EV with my RX7 so I'm not interested. It's not an argument either of us would ever win. The one thing that will trigger me is an EV owner getting on their high horse about the environment and having a go at me for my choices. Apart from that, crack on. Am I that unusual?
Trigger pulled - why are you driving diesel ?
Unreal said:
I don't particularly care what anyone else drives as long as it's not at my expense.
The one thing that will trigger me is an EV owner getting on their high horse about the environment and having a go at me for my choices. Apart from that, crack on.
The one thing that will trigger me is an EV owner getting on their high horse about the environment and having a go at me for my choices. Apart from that, crack on.
dmsims said:
Trigger pulled - why are you driving diesel ?
I have one diesel. It's an estate used as a lugger between homes here and on the continent. It was bought cheaply during covid and runs well. Unreal said:
I don't particularly care what anyone else drives as long as it's not at my expense.
The one thing that will trigger me is an EV owner getting on their high horse about the environment and having a go at me for my choices. Apart from that, crack on.
The one thing that will trigger me is an EV owner getting on their high horse about the environment and having a go at me for my choices. Apart from that, crack on.
Unreal said:
I'll be the first to admit I don't understand EVs and I have no interest in them. I don't particularly care what anyone else drives as long as it's not at my expense.
Imagine you have a choice of travelling on 1 of 2 spaceships. One of them contains a Tesla 3 powered on, the other contains a 2006 Ford Transit diesel, constantly idling. Which would you choose to be trapped inside with as you travel through space for the rest of your days?Now imagine the spaceship is called planet Earth.
gmaz said:
Imagine you have a choice of travelling on 1 of 2 spaceships. One of them contains a Tesla 3 powered on, the other contains a 2006 Ford Transit diesel, constantly idling. Which would you choose to be trapped inside with as you travel through space for the rest of your days?
Now imagine the spaceship is called planet Earth.
so the Tesla is silent. I would also like a good soprano singing away for an hour or so, but not 24/7. Then maybe a Pavarotti recording.Now imagine the spaceship is called planet Earth.
followed by a V8 starting up for a minute. There's good sounds, bad sounds and silence. So?
Unreal said:
The exclusively ICE owners like me are a tight little band who are just get bored when conversations turn to kilowatt costs and the availability of charging points. I don't know anyone who owns a Taycan and a C63 and it would be interesting to hear why they bother with electric when clearly the cost of fuel should be irrelevant.
You should broaden your mind a little. It's entirely possible to own enthusiast ice cars and EVs and to understand the appeal and merits of both. Personally I can't imagine how anyone gets any pleasure out of driving a diesel unless it's about boring people with range between fill-ups, but it doesn't bother me enough to post on diesel threads about it.I used to like engine/exhaust noise.
I took the baffles out of my 2 stroke motorbike, thought it was cool to make loads of noise.
My Westfield had almost straight- through pipes.
I opened up my 964 911 whenever I could. Same with the Boxster S.
Loved the supercharger whine from from my Cooper S.
The pops and bangs from my stock 595 Abarth were mildly entertaining.
Nowadays I prefer the silence of electric. I can go as fast as I like without annoying other people, or attracting attention from the authorities.
Some may call me an old fart, I call it growing up.
I took the baffles out of my 2 stroke motorbike, thought it was cool to make loads of noise.
My Westfield had almost straight- through pipes.
I opened up my 964 911 whenever I could. Same with the Boxster S.
Loved the supercharger whine from from my Cooper S.
The pops and bangs from my stock 595 Abarth were mildly entertaining.
Nowadays I prefer the silence of electric. I can go as fast as I like without annoying other people, or attracting attention from the authorities.
Some may call me an old fart, I call it growing up.
gmaz said:
Unreal said:
I'll be the first to admit I don't understand EVs and I have no interest in them. I don't particularly care what anyone else drives as long as it's not at my expense.
Imagine you have a choice of travelling on 1 of 2 spaceships. One of them contains a Tesla 3 powered on, the other contains a 2006 Ford Transit diesel, constantly idling. Which would you choose to be trapped inside with as you travel through space for the rest of your days?Now imagine the spaceship is called planet Earth.
Even closer to the real world, if driving three miles to the supermarket, I don't care what I'm driving, but I'll be damned if I'm going to chuck a perfectly good ICE car away and spend at least £10K extra on an EV, probably £30K to get the same spec.
clockworks said:
I used to like engine/exhaust noise.
I took the baffles out of my 2 stroke motorbike, thought it was cool to make loads of noise.
My Westfield had almost straight- through pipes.
I opened up my 964 911 whenever I could. Same with the Boxster S.
Loved the supercharger whine from from my Cooper S.
The pops and bangs from my stock 595 Abarth were mildly entertaining.
Nowadays I prefer the silence of electric. I can go as fast as I like without annoying other people, or attracting attention from the authorities.
Some may call me an old fart, I call it growing up.
I call it choice. I respect yours. In return I expect respect for mine.I took the baffles out of my 2 stroke motorbike, thought it was cool to make loads of noise.
My Westfield had almost straight- through pipes.
I opened up my 964 911 whenever I could. Same with the Boxster S.
Loved the supercharger whine from from my Cooper S.
The pops and bangs from my stock 595 Abarth were mildly entertaining.
Nowadays I prefer the silence of electric. I can go as fast as I like without annoying other people, or attracting attention from the authorities.
Some may call me an old fart, I call it growing up.
dmsims said:
So you would buy a Golf - what would Spock say ?
Have an I4 M50 as a company car (which is a superb car), we also have a Macan GTS for my partner or if we ever need to do a long trip and a used 68 reg e-Golf for my partners sister to use. Was cheap as anything on a PCP (£160 a month) and has VW extended warranty. South tdf said:
To be fair, I would not buy an expensive or new EV with my own money but used they look good value.
These threads always seem to deal with extreme comparisons only. Comparing EVs to a 27 year old Micra, or V8 powered sports cars etc. In reality I think the majority of EVs on the road have replaced something like a 320d, or some other dull generic 4 pot. Are we really going to miss those? Aside from range an EV is better in every way, by a long long way.
These threads also seem to ignore the fact its possible to own more than one car. Most EV owners I know also own an ICE car. It's fine to like and enjoy both.
These threads also seem to ignore the fact its possible to own more than one car. Most EV owners I know also own an ICE car. It's fine to like and enjoy both.
Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff