Over one million people have viewed the Instagram video I made while stranded at a broken Electrify America charging station in my $2000 Nissan Leaf, whose range after 12 years is down to just 20 miles due to battery degradation. A huge portion of those 1 million people are electric vehicle skeptics, and the things many of them are saying in the over 10,000 comments are wild.
In addition, the U.S. arm of the British tabloid The Sun even wrote an article about my situation. It seems I’ve somehow found myself in the middle of a massive culture war. Behold some of the jaw-dropping comments that make it clear just how divided America is when it comes to electric cars.
Let’s show the reel that started this whole thing, and try to imagine you don’t have the context of having read about the car here first:
View this post on Instagram
This video depicts me frustrated that three Electrify America charging stations are broken at the same time that my 2011 Nissan Leaf — a vehicle that I bought for just $2000 and that will end up being $1000 after a rebate from my power company — had pretty much no juice left. This shouldn’t be surprising to a regular follower, since I’d previously noted that the vehicle’s battery had degraded to about 40 percent capacity, meaning it will power the vehicle only about 20-ish miles on flat ground.
The video ends with me stating that I’m likely going to have to ditch the nearly-dead Leaf in that parking lot and take an Uber to my destination, though I actually managed to find a Level 2 charger nearby, and later I drove the Leaf home; I state in the video’s caption that America’s charging infrastructure still needs work.
It’s OK To Be An EV Skeptic
This was enough for anti-EV extremists to go wild and to use my clip as ammo to promote an anti-EV agenda. I want to make clear before I go further: I don’t use the term “extremist” in the headline lightly (also it’s worth noting that there are just as many extremists on the other side, obsessed with Tesla to a degree that’s almost cult-like). It is OK if you don’t like how the government is forcing EVs upon everyone (I myself am not 100% onboard with it), and it’s even OK to hate EVs themselves (though I find that objectively weird given how technologically impressive electric cars are) — if people did just those two things, I would not use the term “extremist.”
It is totally OK to be an EV skeptic given relatively long charge times, significant infrastructure issues (including the grid’s inability to handle it all), high average EV cost (a huge player in dividing EV fans from EV skeptics, as price makes it a class issue), battery degradation concerns (especially not knowing the battery condition when buying used), range anxiety (especially in winter or when towing), concerns about mining of minerals in batteries, road/bridge concerns related to high weight of EVs, concerns over how violently EVs can burn in a crash, and on and on. Some of my closest friends hate that Americans are being forced to buy EVs when we so love our gas cars. I don’t hold that against my friends. That’s totally fine.
But people in the comments of my Instagram reel did not just voice their displeasure over America’s EV push or with EVs themselves or with any of the other issues I mentioned; instead, they went overboard, calling me a “sheep,” frequently mentioning “virtue signaling,” implying that I’m somehow a “sucker” who bought into some kind of government trickery, and bullying me. Hard.
America Is Intensely Divided On Electric Cars
I’ve been in the media limelight for nearly a decade, so this stuff truly does not affect me one bit, but for those of you who are maybe having a tough day, I’d recommend you stop reading. Some of this is tough to see, but it’s indicative of the incredibly volatile place America’s EV transition finds itself in socially — this is a culture war, make no mistake about it:
dave_chungus_connery went absolutely wild with his comment above, stating:
If your dumb enough to buy an EV, you deserve worse than this. I hope your life becomes so miserable that you move to a red state specifically so that you can purchase a firearm and then blast a tunnel through your brain with it.
Yes it is you FUCKING LOSER ! IT’S ALL A BIG SCAM ! WAKE UP YOU FUCKING LOSERS ! ELECTRIC WILL NEVER WORK, PERIOD. END OF STORY ! ????????????????????????????????????????
I can’t get over the fact someone can be so ugly ?
Or you can work on that double chin and walk
Misogynistic Views Towards EVs
This lady needs to call a man
Libtard!!! Lol. Ha ha!!!
Sell car, buy testicles.
Politics And EV Ownership
What does the bullying and the misogyny tell us about the state of Americans’ EV transition? I think it highlights just how vehemently a significant portion of the population detests electric cars; they hate EVs so much that anyone who drives one is no longer an “us,” but rather a “them,” and a cursed, emasculated “them,” at that. Many folks made assumptions about my political preferences, too, and all because I drive a $1000 Nissan Leaf:
“Typical liberal,” writes Instagrammer t1_jossh. “But your being a good little Democrat. Stop complaining and do your part. It’s not supposed to make sense,” saintcloud69 writes, implying here that I’m under some kind of government trance.
“I think these are the same people that voted for you know who, hows that all working out…Trump and gasoline 2024,” writes Instagram-user yorkie_sydney. “It must be hard to be a liberal, like if you get stranded but you also voted for no guns so your’e just going to have to sit there if anything happens,” chimes in Instrammer kev_the_truth.
“This guy probably voted for Biden too …” wrote scooter_diablo_dffd. “You people support lithium and cobalt mines that basically enslave children,” states damniel_gets_lost. That latter comment about mining is echoed throughout that comment chain, as are assertions that electric cars are, in fact, no cleaner than gasoline cars (the best research out there has found that new EVs are, in fact, cleaner than new gas cars).
Instagrammer stupidweekends asks: “do you get to keep your woke patch?” Instagram-user 23_whiteboy_summer_23 says something similar: “The consequences of your choices. Stay woke cornhole.”
Here’s my video-response to these comments:
View this post on Instagram
Skeptics Circulate Claims That EVs Are Dirtier Than Gas Cars
Electric vehicles should not exist. Their footprint on our planet is SOOOO much more toxic than fossil fuels.
Instagram user cuetlachtli_ writes:
Electric vehicles are a scam and are worse for our environment. People need to stop buying…into this
User ant7t2 follows up with:
Go back to petrol & be normal. you ain’t saving no environment bro.
Then there’s el_chabelo73 who says:
It looks that you didn’t research anything about those cars and the damage that they cause to extraction of lithium WAKE UP
Instagrammer tat2rob73 tells me to stop being a sheep, before claiming that EVs put out more carbon than gas cars (a largely inaccurate claim for new cars when evaluated over lifetime-use, though this article isn’t meant to debunk all these claims, but rather to highlight the extent to which many Americans are critical of America’s EV path). Here’s the full comment:
Quit being a sheep and follow along just a start they will shut off electric at anytime they want to that’s what they won’t so they can control you and besides to make that car puts out more carbon ruins the earth than a gas vehicle for its life of being on the road and that have ass car is going to ruin roads faster so there’s more money out you’re pocket to pay higher taxes to fix the road its going get with it sheep
It’s worth noting the beginning of that comment, “follow along just a start they will shut off electric at anytime they want to that’s what they won’t so they can control you,” because this idea that EVs are a way for the government to control your movement is, by far, the biggest concern that people in the comments of this reel have voiced.
The Biggest Concern By Far: EVs Are A Tool That The Government Is Using To Limit Your Motion
Without question, the most commonly-mentioned concern in the 10,500+ comments is that the U.S. government is using EVs to control its citizens’ movements. It goes without saying that there’s no proof of this, but nonetheless, it’s something that worries thousands of Americans.
“Non reliable energy will make you reliant on those who control it (government). This is how they will imprison and enslave us,” writes Instagram user 81ronin41 in the comment above.
“All by design – a means to control our movements,” shares shane1122469 in the comment above. Instagram user g_mabev1957 wrote something similar, saying “It’s all about control, all they have to do is turn off the electricity. Wake up people.”
Instagram user ronin_skater_138 (a similar username to the other 81ronin41, curiously), writes in the comment above:
It’s by design. They want you to get so frustrated you just give up, move into the pod in your nearet 15 minute city, eat the bugs, own nothing, and like it. It’s the progressive agenda in a nutshell.
Then there’s this comment from Instagrammer phiyaatv, in which they refer to me as a zombie and liken EV ownership to a “plandemic”:
Sorry but I feel no sympathy for any of these zombies. Maybe he should’ve done his due diligence and he wouldn’t be in this situation. Evs and the climate crisis are as big of a scam as the covaids plandemic ????
Writing on the wall. Read it, believe it. ‘They’ want us helpless.
That is the Democratic Communist Swamp terrorists plan by pushing electric garbage has zero to do with emissions and climate change political hoax its about control. They can cut the power and boom nobody is going anywhere. Vote Red
That’s their whole plan to keep people from moving around. You think if everyone drive those things. They would be able to move around freely. hell no, all they have to do is turn of your charging stations at your not going anywhere, ANYTIME
And more from arteims21:
FYI EV”s Are For MICRO CITIES!! WHERE YOUR EVERY MOVE IS MONITORED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THIS TYRANNICAL GOVERNMENT REGIMEjosh_weiland
Wait til they shut your shit down bec your social credit score was low in 2023
Welcome the dystopia of electric car control. Thank your local government, electrical supply company and the owner of that site.
“They don’t want you traveling.”
Jeremy.forget.90 wrote:
Hahahahaha..you drank the kool aid. Obviously you believe what you hear and do no homework. Thinking this was all a good idea until now lol good luck with that electric toilet @davidntracy
Battery cars are the biggest hoax since the election of Pappy Bi-duh-n. Zero market demand and zilch infrastructure support. I dare ya to take one of these ???? piles across the country. And don’t dare take the family with you. Your odds of making it look to be about the same as going west with a wagon train. Farce. Scam. Joke. Swindle. Brought to you by the US govt. Figures.
Almost like your Government lied to you about all the false information making it better than when it’s actually about to offer? Nahhh your Government wouldn’t lie to you…
There’s A Class Component To All Of This
America isn’t awful – you’re just a mindless sheep with more money than sense. Enjoy your uber – fucking tool hahaha.
Spend 100k on a car that doesn’t even work. Liberal logic. Mean while rednecks have a 40 year old pickup that’s half rusted out flyin down the road breathing air and sending fuel while the old degenerate laughs at you liberals stranded with a charger handle in your hand.
It’s also worth noting in response to the above comment that I own a bench seat-having, stamped tailgate-equipped, long bed, regular cab, gun rack-equipped, carbureted, straight six, four-speed manual-having 1985 Jeep J10, and I bought my coworker Jason a 1989 Ford F-150 with a 300-inline six and a T18 four-speed stick. So these assumptions folks are making about me couldn’t be more wrong. I address this in the Instagram reel I made yesterday (the same one I posted earlier).
The Sun Article
He said he planned to head to Pasadena and hoped he would reach his destination with enough charge.
David had only traveled 15 miles but the battery’s range was down to nine.
The driver had to pull over as the battery had reached a “dangerously low level,” but he was met with a long line of electric car drivers waiting to charge their respective vehicles.
I ran out of charge because my EV’s range had depleted. That happened.
But I often see websites hide behind excuses like “The facts are true and from primary sources,” when the reality is that editorial fairness goes well beyond that. Media bias is so much more than just about whether you write a true story, it’s about which stories you decide to cover in the first place. I noticed this at a previous employer; our site was running anti-Elon Musk stories far too frequently, in my opinion (and I’m not a Musk fanboy at all). Every time an Autopilot failure happened we wrote a story. Every time Elon tweeted something dumb, we wrote a story. Were these things real? Yes. Were they technically newsworthy? Sure. But every now and then you have to step back and question whether the whole of your coverage fairly represents a situation, and at the old shop it seemed like the whole of our coverage implied that Elon was a dingus and that Autopilot was useless garbage — neither of which are true.
As for the Sun, the whole of its coverage would lead one to surmise that electric cars are awful, and as a regular EV user and car journalist who covers EVs, I can tell you: This is so far from true. Here are some of the stories The Sun has written recently:
Again, these stories may be 100 percent accurate (I doubt it, but let’s roll with it), but that still doesn’t mean the coverage isn’t deeply biased. Again, it’s not just about whether a publication writes a true story, it’s about what they choose to cover in the first place.
It’s also about providing context, and that’s what both The Sun and the reel commenters seem to be lacking.
My Nissan Leaf Situation Is Hardly A Microcosm For EV Ownership At Large
My Nissan Leaf does not in any way represent a typical EV ownership experience, and in truth, I could have easily avoided being stranded. My reel was meant mostly to criticize Electrify America, a company whose chargers are known for being dodgy. For me to arrive at a station and see three out of four chargers broken, and two cars waiting to juice up, was frustrating. I think anyone would have been a bit annoyed in that situation.
But not only did I get out of that situation unscathed thanks to a local charger that worked just fine (but was a bit slow, partly because the Leaf’s Level 2 charging is limited to 3.3kW), but I could have avoided that conundrum quite easily.
First off, I knew that my Nissan Leaf’s range was severely limited. I should have planned accordingly, and there are a number of apps out there to help me do that. EV Navigation, for example, accounts for elevation change, which was a factor in depleting my Nissan Leaf’s severely degraded battery pack perhaps a bit more quickly than I’d anticipated. PlugShare is a very common app that, had I been more used to charging on the road (I generally charge at home and at work), I’d have already had in my arsenal, and that would have told me that the three Electrify America plugs were broken.
In large part, me being stranded was my own doing. Were there some chargers broken? Yes. Does my EV only have 15 miles of range due to severe degradation? Yes. And if you just reported these facts without context, as The Sun did (for the most part), then sure, EVs would seem like a pretty bad proposition.
View this post on Instagram
But the car cost me $1000 (after a rebate). That’s dirt cheap. And its battery degradation is due largely to poor thermal management, and is not at all indicative of the degradation you can expect from most modern EVs (earlier EVs like my BMW i3 also had issues on this front, to be sure).
The truth is that I got stranded not because EV batteries are crap (modern EV batteries have been shown to last much longer with minimal degradation) and not because our infrastructure is that awful here in California, but because my car is a dirt cheap junker, I did not plan properly, and this particular Electrify America station wasn’t well maintained.
A $1000 Nissan Leaf at one faulty Electrify America charging station does not represent EV ownership as a whole. Not by far. So Instagrammer cwhiten11, you can relax with your comment:
Ya’ll better share TF out of this video before they delete it. This is EXACTLY what we all been saying.
I’m not deleting that clip, as it did happen, though I know it’s being unfairly weaponized to push an anti-EV agenda.
What’s The Takeaway, Here?
I want to be clear that, hidden in some of the rather alarming language, there are some valid criticisms of EV ownership in these comments.
Regardless of what these “experts” are telling the sheep, EV’s are basically only good for shorter commutes… dependable extended range commuting is not a valid option at this time and this happens more frequently than most people realize. I drive by a large charging station a couple times per week and it is full of vehicles without anyone near by… where are the drivers of these vehicles at at 5a??? They are not eating or shopping while the cars are charging…
Electric cars or one of the biggest . You’re not saving any money 25 $30 to charge your car takes an hour I’m gonna blow right past you in my fossil breathing dragon. Under five minutes to put gas in it at the end of the night. I’m home with my family and you’re out there Dicken around. Looking for a charger. Congratulations she just became a statistic of the government.You are now a puppet.
Question: if the government decides to shut off electricity to restrict movement, won’t that shut off the gas pumps, too?
Also, if the government shuts off the electricity to limit your movement, couldn’t you just install some solar panels to charge your electric car? I’m not aware of any technology that allows you to pull gasoline or diesel out of the air.
Also, if the government shuts off the electricity to limit your movement, but somehow kept the gasoline flowing, couldn’t you just use a generator to charge your electric car?
All the preppers are storing gas in 5 gal cans
The best thing about EV’s is the freedom they give people, you can buy solar and you can buy local battery storage. Is it expensive? Yes, however it’s a whole lot less than a gas / petrol station…
Yeah, but gasoline is a physical substance. It can be moved from place to place and container to container, you can siphon it out of another vehicle or even out of a gas station’s underground tank if nobody stops you first
Sure, you can do that for the first little while. But the gas will go bad or run out and those tanks won’t be refilled.
Gasoline lasts a year and there’s a pretty significant amount of it sloshing around at any given time, how long are you expecting this hypothetical no operable gas pumps scenario to last and over how large of an area?
Well, if it’s intended to stop people from being able to travel, I’m assuming it’s a long-term thing. But I suppose it could be limited time/area travel stoppages.
That’s the problem with undefined hypotheticals, you can have everyone starting from different assumptions and reaching disparate valid conclusions.
The only time I’ve heard it mentioned in anything close to a serious manner is during, say, storm evacuations, in which case, my car gets over 600 miles on a full tank of fuel and is almost always full or nearly full, if that’s not enough to get out of the way of whatever’s coming without having to stop and scavenge for fuel, then I guess I just die.
Yeah, that’s a very different situation than the conspiracy nut assumption EVs are a plot to stop people from traveling. We definitely were looking at very different hypotheticals.
Oh well, that other thing is likely only really a concern in totalitarian societies, like China, and, even then, isn’t really a concern in the context of those societies, since they exist only with either the acceptance or indifference of their populations. So, if the people allow it to happen, that means the people are OK with it happening, so no point in getting worked up over it on their behalf
Yeah, it’s an absurd conspiracy for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the amount of money traveling pumps into the economy. Why would they try to stop us plebs from spending money?
I don’t doubt that there are countries that do or will – North Korea requires an internal passport to leave your home village, for instance, but I don’t see it as a realistic threat basically anywhere else.
Not to stray too far off topic, but you should look at the recent bills and laws that attempt to prohibit and/or punish certain groups of people traveling out of their state for medical care.
And *we* are the *commies*.
My eyes have rolled back into my head more times than a Nissan’s odometer at the local used car lot.
Yet a certain totalitarian country spent trillions to build a high-speed passenger train network that is bigger than the rest of the world’s, combined.
Can MAGATs guess which country that is?
Good for them. Hope they used decent concrete this time or they’ll be building it again in a few years
So… stealing?
Not if it’s from one of your other vehicles
These are all legitimate questions, which is why no one on instagram asked those.
Not nitpicking just wanted to add that oldschool diesels will run on a diesel – sunflower oil or diesel – vegetable oil mixture, with some modifications even on neat vegetable oil.
And really oldschool hot bulb engines will run on almost anything, crude oil, petroleum, vegetable oil, gas or ethanol mixed with diesel, or nearly any combination of these.
I feel like the people screaming “gas cars are uncouth, noisy and dirty” and the people who say things like “fossil breathing dragon” are the majority. I don’t run into a lot of people who are like “yeah…they’re both cool”. I regularly drag my car and I love the “DSG farts” and the engine sounds, but I absolutely love watching EV’s wax the floor with Chargers, Vettes and Mustangs because all anyone can do after that is whine about how quiet it is or make a remark like “something something energizer something charge haha battery car bad”.
Or they just say dumb stuff like being able to accelerate without a bunch of noise and smoke shows you/your car has no soul.
Apparently the anti-electrics haven’t learned the difference between your and you’re. At least no one called you a looser.
I don’t know what possesses someone to threaten another based on their choice of automotive fuel.
Anyway, hope you made bank on the viewership. Stay safe!
My biggest takeaway: the correlation between using the wrong your/you’re and people who are asshats on the internet is undeniably strong.
It is pretty damn reliable.
We should call it “Webster’s Law” The likelihood someone has their head up their butt is determined by their ability to use your/you’re, they’re/their/there etc.
As a former social media admin, yes, this absolutely tracks. It’s not a perfect law, but it’s a pretty frequent combo.
Gotta love how hyperbolic people become.
I’m not anti-EV, but I do see there are still problems with them. Cost, minerals, time, infrastructure. But that doesn’t mean I think EVs are going to destroy the planet.
P.S., I own a 2015 Chevrolet SS (Holden RIP Commodore SS-V Redline) with the C6 Corvette’s LS3 – 6.2 liters of gas swallowing fun! (I’m an expat Aussie, so the GTO/G8/SS hold special places in my heart).
I can be hyperbolic also….. Civilization has been destroyed – Too many folks are completely uncivil. Reading those posts just proves that civility is a thing of the past.
But the comment section at the Autopian is very civil. So civility is not a thing of the past. Some people are just assholes, as they always have been.
“The association between EV ownership and femininity is totally absurd, and as someone who lives in California and is surrounded by macho men in matte-black-wrapped Teslas, it also seems inaccurate.”
I can’t stop smiling at this line. It feels like top tier satire and has brightened my day.
Yea, in my universe matte-black wrapped Teslas are not the archetypal vehicles for macho men.
I am pretty sure I recently read an article about how men are a large majority of early adopters of most any technology. So if anything, driving a Tesla is apparently MORE manly? 😀 Freaking silly arguments.
Tesla’s customer base does skew heavily male, FWIW.
Firstly noone should read the Sun.
Secondly while I am right leaning and I’m not fond of batteries I think these people are idiots on this subject and have no clue about who you are or your background.
If you want a simple, reliable, durable new automobile you have to buy a BEV. Modern ICE vehicles are so heavily reliant on proprietary sensors and emissions systems you won’t be able to buy new in 25 years, you’d be lucky to find them NOS in 25 years, and unlike older car parts they’re not built to be rebuilt, they’re made in massive batches in factories.
The Infrastructure definitely needs improvement. 240V outlets everywhere with the proper hardware so everyone can bring a charging cable and L2 charge makes a ton more sense than installing a bunch of expensive L2 chargers with proprietary software, terrible UI, and questionable reliability at the best of times. Energy generation for charging is also an issue.
I hate batteries (don’t trust them or the spicy magic they produce) and my next new car will be a BEV (if I get a new car).
To be fair to the idiots though you did move to LA, which while it is better than where you came from it’s still pretty crap, it’s just not humid and salted roads crap. Still plenty of potholes, crime, etc. LA probably has worse traffic and worse air pollution than where you came from as well. If you had moved to Nevada or parts of TX you would have gotten the dry climate without the state income taxes at the minimum.
I don’t understand the thinking that EV’s are “technologically impressive”, its just 1000s of batteries and some electric motors. An RC Car which has existed for 50yrs x 1000.
I was thinking the other day, why do EV’s need a whole new platform & such. Couldn’t we of just removed ICE engine, put giant EV motor there and connect it to existing drivetrain, battery pack goes where the gas tank was, most things in ICE cars were already by wire. Didn’t really need all the manufactures to reinvent all their models.
Packaging for ICE takes a lot of unnecessary room when making it a BEV.
You need a bigger battery pack then the size of a gas tank for 400 miles of range, and people like Torch complain about no frunk.
Having driven EVs that are repackaged ICE cars and EVs that are ground up engineered the latter are better cars, particularly from a driving dynamics perspective. The evenly distributed weight across the floor of the vehicle makes it a lot more sure-footed.
Yeah, but I was coming from a more simplistic thinking. More about the rush & cost of creating all new platforms that all the manufacturers complain about, when actually turning an ICE car into an EV could of been done. Especially when the result is a $50k EV.
Gotcha, appreciate the clarification. I’m not really sure there’s much cost savings though – the EVs engineered around gas cars (the Kona, etc) were always around the same price as the ground up EVs they competed with (the Bolt and the Leaf).
> Gotcha, appreciate the clarification
Aren’t we supposed to be calling each other terrible misspelled names? Wtf is this civility?
Such weird takes. It’s impossible to know how much content creation factors into David’s decisions. Did he think the Postal Jeep would be fun? Did he also think it would make great grist for the mill? Does it matter to us?
Auto journalists do lots of things that readers can’t, but want to read about. One of them is looking closely at what used EV cars are like, and I appreciate it. Somewhere there are young people who work late and don’t feel safe on the bus, and a $1000 net cost car with 25 mile range that charges at home might be a great solution for them. David’s experiment is informative and worthwhile.
Thanks, and don’t let the turkeys get you down.
*assuming said person has somewhere to charge it….
That Leaf might be repairable to some extent for not a whole lot of money. Take that pack apart and benchtest all the cells. If a significant percentage of them deliver, say, 75% of original capacity, and only a few of them are at, say, 30%, find some used cells of the exact same type in at least as good of a shape as the better cells, and bottom balance everything, and swap them back in. Spending $XXX-1,XXX is a LOT better than dropping down what Nissan charges for a new battery. Albeit, the “lizard” battery will give you a lot more life than what originally came in the car, upwards of 200k miles should you decide to drop that sort of money that Nissan charges.
It’s sad that EVs have become a political football in a culture war. I’m very pro-EV, rabidly so and was angry at the automakers and government for doing everything they could to stall/delay the adoption of the tech 20 years ago when it started to show signs of technical viability. But I’m completely and totally AGAINST forcing everyone to buy one. And while many of the problems associated with these vehicles are solvable with technology that’s decades old, building the cars in such a way and the infrastructure in such a way to where everything just works and it is affordable to the masses is never going to happen overnight, even if excellent progress has been made.
As far as the culture war goes, I don’t support either cultural zeitgeist, and both “sides” hate me because of it. In the end, they’re both working for the same people. It’s a textbook case of the “divide and conquer” strategy having bared fruit in real time.
A new pack is $7500 for a leaf, the problem is its passive battery thermal management.
The “lizard” battery that replaces the battery of the 1st gen Leaf is not nearly as prone to failure due to the resistance to degradation at high operating temperatures.
As someone who a) likes cars and b) had owned an EV since 2017 the response to your video surprises me not at all.
As someone who has road tripped a freaking Bolt from NC to Florida and back and puts about 20k miles a year on our Mach E (2-3 2k mile round-trip drives a year to visit family), I can confirm that as long as you spend 20 minutes with A Better Route Planner and Plugshare before you hit the road you’re wildly unlikely to get skunked.
On the other hand if you don’t spend that 20 minutes on ABRP/Plugshare you are indeed asking for trouble. Is road tripping an EV plug and play? Nope. Is it just fine with a small amount of prep? Hell yes.
I roadtrip an EV and spend no time on ABRP. Tesla route planning is unsurpassed which is the part of Tesla that other makers should be trying to copy. Roadtripping an EV is plug and play assuming that EV is a Tesla.
I have also road tripped a Tesla and yes fair, though I no longer own one because our local service center was quite so fucking incompetent we swapped our Y for a MachE and have zero regrets.
That said if it wasn’t for the Raleigh service center repeatedly fucking up basic repairs we’d still own it probably.
I am super looking forward to the forthcoming NACS to CCS compatibility however.
Tesla service is not great, luckily I have had good service but I am in Northern California, but the charging network kept me. I agree, the NACS push and more vehicles able to use Tesla’s supercharging network will make things much easier. The one thing with Tesla route planning is that if a supercharger is full it routes to another in range. I wonder if other makers will be able to see demand and adjust. It could really smooth out the problems.
The routing to alternate chargers thing is the one feature I really, really miss in Ford’s built in nav. We usually road trip as a family so I have my wife check the chargers app when we’re about ten minutes out to spare us a line which works pretty well but unless you have a second person to do that it’s a pain in the ass.
I have a friend who’s X seems to be at that Raleigh service center very very often. That experience (amongst other reasons) is scaring me from considering a Tesla.
A friend of mine swapped his X for an Ioniq 5 after 6 months of trying to get his rear hatch fixed and has zero regrets.
Or a Polestar. I’ve roadtripped a Tesla and I currently lease a Polestar 2, and the ease of navigation and charging was equivalent. Sure, I’ve found more non-working chargers when roadtripping the Polestar, but I’ve never been stranded or not been able to find a working one very close by. Tesla undoubtedly has the best charging system, but Polestar+integrated Google Maps is the equal of the Tesla navigation software in my experience.
(to clarify, I don’t use any additional apps when traveling with the Polestar – just the Google Maps that’s fully integrated into the car)
I applaud you for wading through all the troll comments and then categorize and analyze them.
Totally impossible to think that EVs are the future , yet not 100% ready yet apparently.
I’ll be honest, I read maybe a third of the article.. all I learned, nay confirmed, before heading down here is that people will be terrible about anything and everything, this is just an automotive example.
EVs have their place but their place is not ‘everywhere’. I don’t like it being pushed as the solution to a bunch of problems when it realistically just moves problems around. For a HUGE amount of the population they are not a feasible option in range, capability or even affordability. It’s the all or nothing mentality (on both sides of the argument) that’s the real problem here.
I also read about a third of the article, only because “stay woke cornhole” seared itself into my brain and it’s all I could think about. It’s such an absurd thing to type.
David Tracy, a man with rust in his veins and engine oil in his dishwasher; now a woke cornhole.
What a world…
MH called you an EV soyboy in the Morning Dump. I really hope he goes back and changes it to woke cornhole.
What do these people have against vegetables?
I won’t like, woke cornhole is hilarious. And also not.
Time to update the sticker offerings in The Autopian store!
What a world that vegetables are now sentient and have awaken.
My guess is that the median age of the majority of those who commented negatively on your reels is pretty far south of 30. I’d also guess that the majority of those who commented negatively are closely tied statistically to the total amount of people who play video games online and use headsets to talk vile shit to strangers while killing Orcs or some other fantasy nonsense. The amount of those people in this world is surprisingly vast.
You’d be surprised what kind of vitriol older folks spew.
(Source: Nextdoor)
I live in Florida. I’m aware, lol.
Haha, yeeeeeaaaah.
Doubt, I’m seeing strong maga boomer energy there. The former majority watching demographics, climate change, and technology make the comfortable world they thought was theirs slip away.
The US Sun–when NY Post is too fair and balanced.
This is a case of social media weak areas (and cancer to society). One single point of view, one single situation that was a combination of unique things that happened, and its viewed by millions of people that don’t have the whole picture behind it and believe it.
My neighbors keep asking me questions about my EV and most of their questions are coming from bad social media anti EV propaganda.
Based on the pictures and names used for some the Instagram replies, it looks to me like a ton of bots are also posting some of those things. Social media is great, but also such a broken system.
I was going to suggest exactly the same. I would say much, if not most, of that absurd noise is trolls and bots. I have interacted with similar accounts a few times, and it does not take long to realize that quite often they are not real people. Many times they are just pulling from what seems to be a set of generic replies designed to stir the pot.
Generative AI (artificial idiocy)
But is that really all that different from the accepted talking points from that particular extreme of the political spectrum?
It is different in that it amplifies the noise and creates the perception of conflict. David would have not written this piece if ha had received only a handful of nutty replies. And now, people don’t even have to look at those replies or read the Sun, they just have to come across (well intentioned) pieces like this one, and in the idea of the topic being controversial starts growing in their minds.
Go to Harbor Freight and hook up a range extender 😛
They have an engine for $100 that can be used to recharge the battery LOL
Also, Nissan needs to add a cooling system to the battery. Heat is the reason they lose their capacity so bad! 🙁
That means grilles on electric cars are not obsolete!
I’d say that a portion of this pushback comes from a place of fear. Not necessarily of EVs, but of a world that’s changing in ways they don’t understand or want to keep up with.
They see vehicle prices rising, hear about the transition to EVs, and see that those prices are even higher. They don’t want to spend more on something that they don’t know as much about and foresee more problems with. They also don’t want to be left behind if gas stations start to become more expensive and less frequent. So they rail against electric vehicles because they don’t want to change or be left behind.
It’s too bad fear often manifests as anger, and worse yet that they point that anger toward people who are not to blame for any of what’s happening. I get the anger at companies, governments, whatever, but the person buying an EV isn’t the problem. Certainly not the person buying the shitbox EV no one else is going to buy.
This. And they see EVs like Teslas and the Hummers that cost as much as a small house (used to) and they wonder what will happen to them when the only source of transportation they can afford isn’t viable anymore.
By “they”, I sort of mean “me.” I don’t rail against EVs and use stupid talking points, by any means. I just worry that I’ll be priced out of car ownership someday and living in a rural area (my neighborhood is surrounded by cornfields and the closest metropolitan area is 2 hours away by interstate), I can’t depend on public transit. Plus, inflation means I’m making more money than I ever have and still living check-to-check. If and when EVs become affordable and useful to the non-rich, I won’t be as iffy.
That’s aside from the fact that my lifelong hobby and borderline obsession (cars) is basically going away. That’s an existential crisis I have to solve on my own. I’ve made it 34 years now with my central interest being cars. It’s scary to think of having to find something else to occupy my mind and time and give me fun and a hobby.
You have a realistic outlook.
It doesn’t have to be that way, but that’s what people who you probably didn’t vote for have decided for you.
IMO, the smartest thing you could do is to find a reliable, well-built, long-lasting car with good parts availability, convert it to electric, and do what you can to make it as efficient as possible(aerodynamic modifications, low rolling resistance tires, ect). Learn to work on it yourself and repair it yourself. Get some solar panels to charge it with. Be as independent as possible for your transportation needs, because EVERYONE is out to extract your money for having the audacity to need to go somewhere. I don’t see this getting any better in the USA.
Two books I highly recommend:
-“Convert It” by Mike Brown
-“Build Your Own Electric Vehicle” by Bob Brandt
They’re both grossly out of date regarding components and statistics, but the technical information contained within is still highly relevant.
I’d highly recommend a 1st generation Honda Insight with a bad battery or a destroyed engine as a donor chassis.
If that all sounds too daunting, start with an ebike.
Thanks for the book recommendations and commentary on them. I do hope to build an EV out of something old in the next few years as prices hopefully come down some, but I only have limited knowledge right now. I do read builds on openinverter periodically though.
As a wise individual once said, “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
“I will not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death which brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will allow it to pass over me & through me. And when it is gone, I will turn my mind’s eye to see its path; where fear has gone, there will be nothing—only I will remain.”
-Litany Against Fear from Frank Herbert’s Dune.
I’ve been reciting that since the ‘80s, and it quickly became a very useful calming mantra
*fistbump*
I abbreviate it to the first two sentences, but emphatically yes.
It’s from a group that lives in fear. Fear of foreigners, fear of LGBT, fear of elections not going their way. Fear of wokeness, fear of science. They just don’t understand the world anymore and they are scared of it.
And that fear is stoked by those who profit from it. And the more the fear is stoked, the easier it is to profit, so they keep it up.
I look at my dad. He’s always been a conservative, but he used to say things about not carrying a gun because he would be afraid he’d use it in anger. Now he takes one when he visits my sister, where he stays in the same motel every time, is known there, and has never had a single issue. He won’t go to Portland because he heard it’s some sort of lawless hellhole. He wasn’t a Jan 6 supporter, but he’s certainly not the person he used to be, and I fear he’ll go farther into it. I educate him whenever practical, but he’s around too much of the fearmongering.
I’m not a fan of EVs in their current form, but I like to think that people like some of these commenters will look back in a few years and cringe when they realize how stupid they made themselves seem.
Also I’d like to reiterate my comment from another thread, that if/when society collapses, it’s the fault of the inventor of the internet comment section.
It’s funny because the internet basically started as a comment section– a forum. But only a few super smart nerds who were really excited about the internet were on it. Once the unwashed masses gained access to forums where they could spew their vile idiocy to the world, the decline began.
While I’m largely with you, in times like this I think back to some of the heinous graffiti found in Pompeii (Roman city entombed—and thus preserved—by volcanic ash while still an active city), and remember that many people are basically just attention-seeking arseholes. The internet just became a larger megaphone, and the algorithms perpetuate the echo chambers.
I find it somewhat amusing – and at the same time tragic – that people who cannot grasp basic grammar, spelling, and punctuation are so insistent they have everything figured out, especially when the discussion is as involved as the EV issue.
Like most topics, this one has devolved into the sportsball mentality: my team vs your team.
At first I was disappointed that you reproduced some of the extensive idiocy that was sent your way: no point in giving the mouthbreathers more attention. But by the end I was sort of glad you did it: even if they retract their comments on social media (which seems unlikely) their jackassery will be preserved here.
These are the same people that didn’t get COVID vaccines because they “did their (there) own research”.
Yep. Kudos for not redacting the usernames. They posted it! If you’re gonna be mean, live with the consequences.
One issue I find hard to argue is when they say the government wants to control our movement. Because as a fact it is more challenging to go a long distance in an EV than an ICE car. And the government IS pushing EV sales. But they also seem to be doing nothing to grow the electric grid. So while I don’t specifically believe that, I also just don’t see this working in the near future like EV optimists think it will..
Like any good conspiracy, there is just enough truth to it to make it plausible.
I don’t think any government will actually force people at gunpoint to “live in the pod” or “eat ze bugz” either, but more density and less meat consumption really are being encouraged.
What people are really afraid of is being forced to lower their own living standards while others continue to live high on the hog. That goes for EVs also, for many they really are a step backwards.
The solution, of course, is abundant clean energy and better technology.
I find it easy to argue: You can limit movement extremely easily without a shift to EVs. Limit gas supply, change tax rates, change transport regulations, so on and so forth. It doesn’t take a shift to EVs to limit movement, it takes a desire to limit movement.
The thing with government conspiracies is that they assume governments are a hell of a lot more competent than they are anyway.
I work for the government; I laugh whenever someone talks about some big conspiracy like it could be kept a secret today and that government is competent enough to pull it off.
This is always my thought on government conspiracy. Our government isn’t really capable of being that incredibly focused and efficient.
Conspiracy theorists have this weird Schrödinger’s government thing where the government is both incapable of accomplishing anything AND capable of vast, highly coordinated, secretive and successful attacks on our freedoms AT THE SAME TIME.
Meanwhile 221 people can’t even agree on a figure head. Sigh.
Just have inflation and shortages, nobody can afford to go anywhere or do anything. even if you could.
When freight carriers start going out of business and big carriers start to look to get rid of pilots as there’s not as much freight being moved, I think that is a sign of a downturn for the economy.
You are blaming government when that is driven by astronomical corporate profits.
Nope, I assigned no blame to either government or business. You did that all on your own.
Now you ask though. I think neither are innocent parties, one may have created an environment that the other took advantage of. Neither is correct.
The government has funneled billions into building infrastructure for electric vehicle charging.
And into indirect oil subsidies, so what?
Alex said the government was doing nothing to grow the infrastructure to support EVs. They were using that as “evidence” that the purpose of EVs is for the government to control our movement. I was just refuting that point.
Don’t get me started on oil subsidies or we will be here all day. 🙂
I should have read the lead in.
Wow. Just wow. On the bright side, it probably brought a lot of traffic to the site??? Hopefully from most of those comments they come and go immediately, and don’t stick around and ruin this place but still. One time massive influx has to help keep the lights on
I hate people.
I am the biggest racist around. I hate the human race.
Just as long as you hate all people equally, then it is okay.
Neighbor insists that no electric car gets more than 100km of range and they all need their batteries replaced at a cost of $40000 every 2 years, this guy is an engineer but also an anti vaxxer and probably flat earther too
News flash… These people exist. They used to sit in the corner, or in their clubhouse with the others. But some wack-jobs validated their craziness so now we get to deal with them out in public.
I just laugh and ignore them. On both sides. Eventually they are just noise.
The problem is they vote, and a few even get elected to Congress. As long as the numbers on each side stay relatively equal we’ll be OK, but I worry they won’t.
What happens when all we have left is fools on both sides?
We’ve been there for decades. The clusterfuck that is the present day is the result.
I’ve found the “both sides” argument becoming more and more of a cop out lately. I’ve seen a lot of violence being promoted by one of those sides – the side that is making the vitriolic posts in a video about a lack of charger maintenance.
The far left can say dumb things sometimes, but they don’t typically threaten your life.
And I’m not exaggerating here. My boyfriend is on lists that some people on the far right compile of their enemies. That’s not an exaggeration or a thing I’m saying for internet points – I genuinely fear for his safety while also being proud that he’s not allowing that to keep him quiet.
Tell your boyfriend that some internet rando said, “Keep the faith—and your head down when possible!”
I hate that there are lists like that out there. And, it strengthens my faith in humanity that there are people who persist despite being on those lists. We desperately need more people who speak up even if they are not necessarily the target that the ‘they’ are coming for
We have to be be very careful not to get unknowingly stuck in echo chambers (I’m not saying that you are or your boyfriend are). Although I suspect we all are to some degree. Those that control the flow of information benefit from dividing people for clicks and money. Always follow the money…
I would advise caution or maybe wisdom about those who are threatening and those who are actually committing acts of violence, and those who are supporting acts of violence and those who are reporting on acts of violence. The waters are very muddy and neither ‘side’ has clean hands.
Alas we’ve lost the ability to have debate and disagreement without thinking we have to extinguish the opposing point of view by whatever means necessary. I lay the blame on biased news (always follow the money) & social media and it’s comments sections.
I fully support your boyfriends rights to say what he believes, whether I agree with him or not, we do have to remember that we are not free from the consequences of that though.
Those making death threats should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Those threatening people they’ve never met about something that has zero effect on them need serious mental help. I have to wonder how many comments the David got came from bot accounts.
I think you’re making some assumptions about how he’s raised the ire of the right wing, because it isn’t actually that extreme.
I think you’re missing my point that there is extremes on both sides. Neither of which are correct in my opinion.
You are welcome to disagree with my opinion I won’t hate you for it. It’s just an opinion formed by what I see / hear / read.
I refuse to believe that everyone on one side or the other are all wrong all the time. It’s statically impossible.
I detest labels with a passion as they get used incorrectly. And it’s easy to say right wing nut job or left wing lunatic, however nobody wants to be called either (whether or not they deserve it is a separate issue). It certainly will not bring people together so rational conversation could happen.
And, as mentioned, one side is putting people with reasonable opinions on lists of enemies and send death threats. The non-committal “both sides are bad” position ignores the legitimate danger that one side poses.
You’re acting like the other side is blameless.
Both sides have groups that align their beliefs on one side of the aisle or the other whose actions have caused death of innocent people.
K Harris supporting the fund to bail out protesters, who then went on to commit murder, or the SPLC labeling groups as hate groups as their belief’s don’t align which led to 3 people being killed in the lobby of one of the so called hate groups.
Then Stephen Paddock the Vegas shooters was probably a RWNJ
Or Omar Mateen a registered democrat that killed 49 in a nightclub in Florida.
Both sides have blood on their hands.
It becomes hard to laugh when people call for your death.
Remember, his vote counts as much as yours does.
Except he has seven kids who can vote too, they won’t let my dogs vote