After watching Jason Fenske’s recent YouTube video entitled ‘How To Ruin Your Electric Car’s Battery – LFP Edition!‘, and after writing a piece my own blog which can be found here (LFP batteries – revised advice), I decided to read a large percentage of comments about Jason’s video and came across one that got me a bit tweaked. Here’s the specific comment (without reference to who wrote it):
“EVs aren’t ready, EVs are too complicated, etc. So, I can either get additional education in mathematics, engineering, and chemistry, and read these studies with only a mild hope of understanding them. . .or I could “just own an internal combustion-engined vehicle until they become illegal” (or maybe a hybrid, because their batteries don’t cost >$20.000 to replace)? I’m 57 and I drive like a grandpa, so I choose option 2. Have a nice day. Thanks for posting this video, and helping me make the decision.”
To unpack this comment, let’s start at the top:
- “EVs aren’t ready” – I’d rather look at EVs as an evolutionary process, and depending on your needs, EVs are very much ‘ready’. What needs the most work at this point is charging infrastructure buildout and battery recycling facilities.
- “EVs are too complicated” – what are you talking about? I got rid of my plug-in hybrid because it was too complicated (mechanically). There is nothing less complicated on the road than my 2023 Tesla Model 3 RWD – nothing! Battery, electric motor, computer – that’s it.
- “Get additional education in mathematics, engineering, and chemistry (to) read these studies with only a mild hope of understanding them” – then don’t. An ICE (internal compustion engine) car is REALLY complicated, but most people don’t care about the alloys used in cylinder walls, lubricant and cooling fluid science, nor everything about the fuel that powers our cars, from where it comes from, how it’s processed and where it goes when our engines are done with it. We just buy the car, drive it till it falls apart then buy another. We can treat EVs the same if that’s what we want to do, or take a little time to understand the technology. It’s a choice.
- Or “just own an internal combustion-engined vehicle until they become illegal” – OK, now I think we’re treading on political thin ice. I see where this is going…
- But there is hope – “or maybe a hybrid” – hybrid automobiles really are a good choice for many consumers who just want to buy and drive and not really worry about the tech at all. So there is that…
- But then he drops the ageist ‘grandpa’ reference, and that’s where I came unglued. This is a 57 year-old whipper snapper suggesting that ‘older people’ have impaired driving abilities. As a card-carrying older person (I’ll be 70 this year – sheesh) I have always loved driving, am a safe driver, but am in no way impaired, nor would you know it by the way I drive when I’m out and about. Take also my Mom. She’ll be 100 this month and my whole life she was (and still is) a driving maniac. She’s a safe driver, but in my mind she has always driven too fast for my comfort. In my teens, I remember how joyful she was driving our ’65 Corvette Stingray Fastback (with 3 kids tucked in the back). I think she too would be offended by the ‘grandpa’ reference.
Anyway, EVs are for grandpas too. EVs are simple, reliable, safe, efficient, AND FUN. And this grandpa wants to leave behind a better world for my grand kids than my parents left for me, and EV technology is a more sensible way to begin that process than if I put my head in the sand and continued to invest in ICE and fossil fuels. Add to this the fact that EVs last a really long time (for my car 200,000 to 250,000 miles or more), which means my car will easily last 30 years and is probably the last car I’ll ever need to buy. Not sure I like that thought.
I’ll stop my rant here, but just want to reiterate EVs are for Grandpas too! You can quote me on that…