.jpg)
The only constant is change – a smart person once said that.
And adjusting the way we think about sustainable and renewable power sources is part of an inevitable societal attitude shift in response to climate change.
We’re also having to rethink our entire notion of transport, how vehicles are powered, as well as vehicle emissions.
While EVs aren’t the cure-all solution to climate change that they’re often made out to be, they’re a very important part of a wide-ranging solution.
And yet some people are still vehemently anti-EV. But it’s fruitless to hate EVs and I’ll explain why.
There will be more and more EVs on our roads in the coming years whether you like it or not.
There are already plenty of EVs here and they continue to flood the Aussie car market. When they are, at first impression, well built, with a premium look and feel, and the onboard tech works well, and the calculated savings in terms of power rather than energy expenditure look to be achievable then it’d be silly for car buyers not to consider them as their next potential vehicle.
.jpg)
And just because someone sees the value in an EV as their next potential vehicle rather than a vehicle with an internal combustion engine does not mean they necessarily dislike traditional engines including V8s* – they simply see the inherent value in purchasing something that will help reduce emissions and be cheaper for them to run over the term of their ownership.
(* I for one love a V8 but I can still recognise the benefits and cost-savings built into EV ownership.)
Hating EVs is like hating the weather – they’re here to stay whether you like it or not, so we all may as well accept their existence. There’s greater variety now and prices are taking on a more mainstream market feel with all budgets and tastes seemingly catered for.
Sure, there are some persistent issues around EV ownership in Australia that irk some people (see below), but EVs certainly don’t deserve your hatred.
There is simply no EV available that can recharge as fast as you can re-fuel a diesel- or petrol-fuelled vehicle.
A whole lot of extra weight onboard a vehicle – whether that be people, gear, pets or a load on a truck – places far greater demands on that vehicle than if it was unladen. If that vehicle is an EV, the extra weight means an increase in energy usage, and even more general wear and tear on components than the vehicle would sustain during an unladen manufacturer-conducted energy-usage assessment.
Again, there are no suitable EVs available – yet – that can cope with all of the high demands and extreme stresses that diesel- or petrol-powered vehicles are forced to endure every single day.
EVs aren’t yet capable of taking on the sheer volume of work or leisure duties that petrol or diesel trucks, utes and 4WD wagons tackle matter-of-factly every day.
But that doesn’t mean EVs can’t be an integral part of Australia’s commuter and transport network – because they already are. They’re well suited to short-distance commuter trips to and from work, and for area-based courier or grocery-delivery services.
Charging your EV remains an issue outside of metropolitan areas.
Service stations are everywhere; EV charging locations are not. At the moment, there is still a paucity of reliable charging stations on major routes and there aren’t enough of them on minor routes. The situation is improving all the time, but there aren’t enough operational charging stations in Australia to take the guesswork and anxiety out of a long road trip.
There’s another serious issue around charging locations: they’re often broken or otherwise non-functional, offline (for maintenance purposes) or, worse still, the parking space allocated to an EV for charging has been taken by a conventional vehicle.
Also, in terms of charge times, an EV is far from ideal and nowhere near as convenient as knowing that there’s a service station on pretty much every street corner, highway or regional road in Australia.
For now, a plug-in hybrid – one in which the electric motor runs the show until its battery is depleted enough that the internal-combustion engine kicks in as back-up – offers a compromise between helping to reduce the volume of climate change-induced woes our planet is being forced to suffer and still being able to get to and from your favourite campsite.
You can’t argue with a hybrid’s main drawcards – more power and better fuel economy – and a hybrid does seem like a happy compromise between going full EV or staying with your combustion engine.
And hybrids currently have a better chance of tempting people than EVs, because the fuel option always offers plenty of appeal for people who need reliable work vehicles that can use readily available fuel sources.
And, sure, hybrid drivers are not slaves to range as EV drivers are (no matter what they tell you).
But still haters should back off on EVs.
No-one’s expecting you or I to become a full-blown EV advocate, but it’s an absolute waste of your time and energy to hate EVs just because … well, you can’t even figure out why you hate EVs.
EVs can co-exist with diesel- or petrol-fuelled vehicles – they already are – so why not crack on with your life, whether that’s in a V8 Nissan Patrol or in a BYD Atto 1? There’s no need for the owners of either vehicle to hate – or even strongly dislike – the other. Unless they don’t like the original Mad Max movie, in which case they do absolutely deserve your scorn.
