EVs are Much Better than Most People Think, and Better than They’re Being Told
The Xiaomi SU-7 Ultra: 0-60 1.98 seconds, expected to cost ~£80k Picture: Xiaomi
I’ve been thinking about the difference between owning an electric vehicle (EV) and an internal combustion engine (ICE) car for over 14 years. One has become so superior to the other it confuses me that anyone who can afford to have an EV - and has the potential to conveniently charge it - would even consider an ICE car at all.
Back in 2019 I tried to highlight this discrepancy with my Yuletide Tale of Sally and Simon blog, comparing fictional siblings who had bought Hyundai Konas. It remains amusing to me that the snarling (looking) “Performance” Kona was so slow next to the more sedately packaged and marketed Kona Electric - and there are myriad other benefits (try not to cry when you read what electricity cost back then).
The performance deficit between Kona models is much more pronounced in other comparisons. Typically we expect a middling executive electric car to do 0-60 in 4-5 seconds. The same you’d expect of the high performance ICE cars. Performance EVs accelerate like the most expensive ICE supercars, if those supercars can even keep up. Electric supercars vs ICE? Forget about it. Not even a contest.
And yet, we’re yet to convince most people of the argument, let alone switch their purchase. Why?
Nostalgia and the Track
Again, exempting price and charging (I speak about the latter plenty elsewhere), here is a list of reluctance factors that crop up.
The roar of the engine
I get this. Historically, noise roughly translated to power. So we have an instinctive buzz from a roaring V8 or V12, and feeling the vibration. I am no different here. E.g. the mad “WARRP” of a revving F1 car has been diminished by hybridisation.
But - even as a middle aged man - I’m over it. What cured me? Driving straight past “performance” ICE cars accelerating at their limit, making a huge racket (and smoke plume), but hopelessly falling behind, more so with each gear change. Once you’ve done this a few times, the ICE just seems a really dumb way to power a car. Which - remarkable engineering aside - it is. Noise is waste, not power.
If you think the ICE experience is better and you want something really loud and really slow and really expensive to maintain, get yourself a traction engine. At least then you get max torque at zero revs like EVs do.
Quick refuelling
If you are pounding out trans-continental miles as a professional haulage driver, I accept this is a reasonable complaint (if not insurmountable, in the long run). But, let’s face it, if you’re reading this - you aren’t. You drive your car from home (or near to it), to and from work/school/shops/hobbies/family etc. You rarely drive over 100 miles in a day. You do a handful of long (>250 mile) drives a year.
So - no. Refuelling your EV is probably vastly less time consuming than refuelling a petrol car. You are operating on an incorrect nostalgic assumption.
Latent conservatism
As we age we learn that new fads usually burn themselves out. When a new technology comes along and a bunch of devotees swear blind of its benefits, we tend to disbelieve them. We develop an inherent conservatism that generally serves us well. And certain media make a very fine living by flattering this instinct to stick to what we know. And, if you only like what you already like - that's fine, but you aren't open to reason.
To convince mass opinion immediately you don’t just have to be better, you have to be PERFECT. Since life is all about trade-offs, the new technology can’t be perfect. So instead new technology wins by being better, getting even better and going through The 5 Stages of Technology Adoption.
The lesson here is don’t spend time on the laggards, their vigil will see itself out via critical mass.
Track deficit
This one I will concede remains material - if only to the motorsport enthusiasts. Most track racing takes place over distances that are beyond the limits of today’s EVs operating at the limit of their performance. And light ICE track cars are very light compared to what can be achieved by an EV. This gives handling advantages.
But I wouldn’t sleep on either of these facets. Battery innovation is constantly pushing the limits, higher energy densities are equalising away the weight deficit, and innovations like structural batteries will give EV track cars weight distributions, and low centres of gravity that ICE cars can only dream of.
And if you don’t waste all that energy with noise, you could even use it to suck you to the track.
Automotive Conflict of Interest Holding Back the Narrative
If EVs are really so much better, why isn’t there more of an obvious push from the people selling them? Looking back at the Kona Performance vs Electric example - why wouldn’t you forcefully push the superiority of the Electric variant?
The automotive sector remains sheepish about how much better EVs are than ICE cars, primarily because the OEMs that nominally stand to gain from their sale either have a complicated relationship with EV success, or do not have the means, inclination or platform to have their case cut through.
Conventional OEMs
As their commercial power is ever more precarious in the light of the march to electrification and the pace of innovation coming from China, their brand power remains as potent as ever. Take Audi as an example - we still know they make aspirational cars with magnificent interiors. Their marketing teams still happily utilise this brand value, even as their strategy teams face a profoundly challenging 10-year planning window.
You might think they would run headlong at making the best EVs they can (to be fair, some really are) and promoting them as the best models they make (essentially none are), so as to get ahead of the inevitable curve and retain their market supremacy.
But these OEMs have a fundamental conflict of interest. Their entire business model, supply chain, and dealer network was built around ICE cars. When you've spent a century perfecting engines, when your suppliers specialise in pistons and crankshafts, when your dealers' technicians are trained on oil changes and timing belts, and you know you can’t compete with the innovation out of China - selling their EVs as their best cars isn't just inconvenient, it's borderline suicidal to fundamental revenue streams.
The margins on ICE maintenance are also non-trivial. Dealers make more money servicing cars than selling them. EVs, with their minimal maintenance requirements, threaten this entire ecosystem (hence the move towards subscriptions for in car features).
I am sympathetic to these OEMs' plight. And it's no wonder that they don’t sell their EVs' superiority, or really communicate the benefits of living with an EV. If they did, they’d threaten the ICE (and hybrid) sales that still deliver the core revenues.
Specialist EV firms
There are essentially 3 categories of these firms:
1. Tesla
Sui generis. Tesla defined the role of a specialist EV firm, and have done more than any other to communicate the incredible benefits of EVs - and make bloody good ones. But they have told their story via social media, not advertising. Their reach has been much more to the very online youth than the monied older generations. The pivot to MAGA was probably not a wise commercial manoeuvre, even if Elon familiarised himself to US Boomers.
2. Other western start ups
Rivian is hanging in there, with a handful of others, but this is not a happy tale. As Fisker owners will sadly attest. Of course it would be wonderful if all succeed, but the idea that these firms currently have any purchase on public perception of the automotive space is fanciful.
3. Chinese OEMs
You want to see the cutting edge of white hot EV innovation? You aren’t going to Munich or Detroit. You are headed East. The utter zeal and almost disbelief of experienced industry pals returning from the Shanghai Motorshow last month attests that China is absolutely leading on battery and EV innovation.
So, in time, it is likely that western markets will thirst for a BYD, or a Li-Auto, or a Xiaomi SU7 Ultra (0-60 in 1.98 seconds - yes please!). And there is an increasing amount of marketing spend to that end, but there is a good way to go until these OEMs are seen in the same light as Range Rover and BMW.
The Reality Will Become the Narrative
So yes, EVs are much better than most people think. And yes, they're better than you're being told.
But even if it is not being communicated with the clarity one might expect, eventually reality has a way of cutting through noise. Once enough people experience the genuine superiority of EVs, the dam will burst. We're already seeing it in Norway, China, and increasingly even in the UK.
The truth is - if you can afford an EV and charge it conveniently, EVs are superior in every tangible way - performance, running costs, convenience, reliability. You should switch ASAP.
Oh... they’re much more sustainable too. But that’s a whole other topic...
