Sony Betamax was a far superior technology than VHS. Where is it now? Not all technological advancement is good, or will prevail. Also, not all technology is new. Electric vehicles have been around for over 100 years. It just hasn’t captured the market to any significant degree, even with extraordinary pressure from government.
In its current form, only early adopters have any affinity for EVs. With improvements, it might gain more traction.

 

If Betamax were the superior product it would have prevailed.

EV sales are growing, like it or not. 8% of new cars sold in the US in 2024 are EVs, and 20% of all cars sold globally are EVs, thats not insignificant. On top of that sales are up 28% globally so far in 2025. Certainly they have been tried before but the technology was not there and now it is. Having driven EVs, outside of a sports car or something made for the enjoyment of the engine, I don't see why I would want to buy an ICE vehicle over an EV other than the inconvenience of charging on a trip. There's a question for you, other than your odd political aversion to EVs, outside of charging on a trip what do you see as the downsides of an EV?

To me, the upsides are:

1. Waking up every morning to a car with full range without ever having to stop at a gas station. It charges while I sleep.
2. Dramatically lower operating costs. Electricity is much cheaper than gas, no oil changes, etc.
3. Silent operation, which in a prestige luxury car like I like is perfect.
4. Incredible power. The torque of even the slowest EV is absolutely addicting.

The ONLY downsides I see are:

1. Depreciation, which since I lease is a non issue
2. Charging on trips

What downsides do you see?

 

Hey, if someone is happy with their EV, I am happy for them, and I would not want to talk them out of it.
If someone is considering an EV, they should have their eyes wide open, and be fully educated on all aspects.
Sure an EV has some upside, but in my opinion, not enough. It also has its downside, again in my opinion, far too much.
A lot of my perspective is old school, so I appreciate good reliable mechanics, over not so reliable electronics, doing essentially the same job.
I am very leery of new technology, like driverless cars, AI, and the push for trucks, trains and all forms of transportation being fully automated with no human interface.
I don’t want to die anytime soon, but I hope I never live so long to see un piloted passenger planes.
As for AI, I used to think that automation, miniaturization, and robotics might be a good thing.
Then I made the mistake of watching Terminator. I can easily see, with every growing pain of AI, that it will never be perfect, will always have a bias, and cannot be counted on to be transformative for the better of humanity.
When that movie came out, it was entertaining, and I enjoyed it, and if you asked me about skynet, I would have told you that could never happen.
Now I am not so sure.

As for political, I let my judgment of observation, facts, data, studies, and reliable experts form my opinion. Not politics.
And as for the Betamax, have you ever looked into it? It was a superior product to VHS, in almost every way.

 

But what are those downsides that are “too much”, specifically?

Elelctronics are far more reliable than mechanical systems, that’s just been shown time and time again, and with much less maintenance required. If I never had to get gas or put my car in for service again that would be great.

As for Betamax, if it was superior it would have won out. Betamax allowed for better image quality but production costs were much higher so it never caught on with distributors and equipment was more expensive and it never caught on with consumers, so it died off. Something being superior or not is not only due to its performance, its overall appeal is a big part of it. I firmly believe when more and more people experience EVs with an open mind, they will find that they are in fact superior. When you couple that with all of the excellent EV products coming out in the next few years I think the future is pretty bright.

 

I am seeing a lot of analysis but not a lot of understanding.

Even if every car was an EV, not every EV needs to be charged every day. Even if owners choose to charge every day, the battery may only need a quick top up.

• The average annual mileage per vehicle in the U.S. is around 11,000 to 13,500 miles.
• Dividing by 365 days gives approximately 30–37 miles per day.
• Most new EV’s have a range of 250 to 350 mi which increases as technology improves

The best time to charge an EV is when the grid demand is the lowest and owners can benefit from lower electricity rates. That is over night.

I installed EV chargers in my older Condo building WITHOUT increasing the electric supply of the building by using chargers that are networked together and measure total electric consumption at all times and slow charging if demand exceeds supply.

Different solutions are needed for urban use vs rural. Rural long distances may require more frequent charging and more fast daytime charging. But only 35% of vehicles are in rural areas.

Maybe for a while rural drivers will prefer Plug In Hybrids.

I have a GLE 450e. I use only battery electric when in the city. Never the ICE engine. But on weekends when I drive to the lake the battery gets me only half way there.

It's not an intractable problem.

 

The service dept is a major profit center for the dealership. Just tell the dealer you don't want the extra stuff. Make them show you where the additives and extra stuff is required by Mercedes. I have the prepaid maintenance, my dealer has never mentioned that stuff when I go in for service. So it is obviously not required.

 

There is no need to be condescending. If you love your EV, you should not be at all affected by someone who doesn’t love EVs.
As for recharging, almost all EV owners will recharge overnight, if they have on site home recharging.
If everyone drove EVs, and they all charged overnight, that would become the peak demand time, and then be subject to brown out, black out.

 

100% of Audi TT's (ICE) I have owned caught fire while I was driving on the highway. Had to pull over and jump out of the car, and get far away as it went up in flames. Now I admit that 100% is 1 out of 1. But I have not had a TT that did not burst into flames. On the other hand my PHEV Mercedes GLE 450e has not burst into flames. That is also 100%, 1 out of 1. So I will buy a 450e over a TT any day.

 

So you have no answer to this question:



That's my point. It's not a rational issue, its an emotional and political issue for you and people like you and I don't understand why that is. As we have pointed out the argument about what would happen if everybody drove an EV is a strawman argument. Do you know what that is? That's when you exaggerate the opposing side's argument to the absurd and use that to try and discredit their argument. Everyone is not going to be driving EVs anytime soon, if ever...so what would happen if that was the case is meaningless in the individual decision to buy an EV or not. You have to use a strawman argument because the argument I and others have presented cannot be logically discredited.

To be fair, you don't really have a lot of position to be asking people not to be condescending. You have a long history of being quite dismissive and insulting to people who disagree with you on a wide variety of subjects including this.

 

I love how assumptions are made with no research or facts.

"If everyone drove EVs, and they all charged overnight, that would become the peak demand time, and then be subject to brown out, black out"

I will call BS based on just common sense. Most homes have 100 or 200A service. During the day they might draw peak loads of 60, 80, 100, maybe 120A. A Class 2 charger draws the same power as an oven and cook top which is a fraction of the whole house daytime peak load.

So load up 2 EV'S in every house in America during the night and it will be well under the daytime load not even considering industrial and commercial electrical use...

The concern about black out and brownouts is just uninformed fear mongering.

 

Zealots being dismissive....

 

100%.
My number two reason for selecting any brand is personal or direct experience with the dealership service department.

The number one reason is which car I like, but #2 can override #1 if local or nearby dealers suck.

Good thing you did your duty as an owner by reviewing the work order before you okayed/declined the work.

It's just like exiting any retail establishment: as you enter the checkout line, you're barraged with last minute Got To Have things from candy to National Enquirer.

 

If you mean ICE zealots being dismissive you would be correct. I have no issues with someone preferring an ICE vehicles, I myself chose an ICE vehicle over an EV in June...its the whole politicization of EVs vs ICE which just makes no sense.

 

Others being dismissive....

 

Dismissive of what?

 

Every opinion that's not yours.
Some or most have Merit.

 

Thats not the case at all. People are entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts. There's nothing wrong with simply not liking something with no logical reason, but the whole throwing up of absurd reasons why something is "bad" is commonplace with anti-EV folks and pretending those arguments have any factual basis is not neccessary.

 

Superb example of dismissing opinions. Thank you.

 

If I have an opinion that 5+5=55...thats not an opinion that needs to be entertained alongside other valid opinions.

Your opinion that dealers are best and my opinion that independents are best...thats an example of two people having different opinions.

 

Some downsides of EVs, in addition to ones I have listed.
Range anxiety
Range reduction, an unknown amount, in temperatures outside of moderate temperatures
Excessive weight compared to same size ice cars
Excessive tire wear, which can lead to low tire tread hydroplaning
Low repair ability
Low battery pack life
High cost of battery replacement
Toxicity of non renewable parts
High insurance costs
Rental car companies have retired their whole fleets of EVs
Car manufacturers have scaled back production dramatically
Car manufacturers have completely cancelled current or future production

MTF

 

Now you're misquoting me. I'm a former Independent. I've been specific about my thoughts. You've just dismissed my posts. (or failed to comprehend)

 

**** picked VHS. So, VHS and perverted folks set the standard.

 

Beating a Dead Horse here

 

**** picked VHS. So, VHS and perverted folks set the standard.

 

This is really an issue when traveling, and I also said traveling and having to charge is an issue. It’s why I didn’t get an EV this time. But very few people drive 300 miles in one day, so for day to day travel that’s a non issue.

If you talk to people who have bought EVs overwhelmingly they will tell you range anxiety really isn’t an issue.

We do know what that range reduction is. It’s about 20%. EVs with heat pumps are better in this regard. This too though is mainly an issue when traveling.

This depends on the EV. This is mainly an issue with very inefficient EVs and those that are built on combined platforms. If you look at Teslas or Lucids as an example, they aren’t any heavier.

Lots of cars use tires quickly, including Mercedes cars.

And far less that needs to be repaired. If you look at say my S Class, not much there that you can repair yourself and far more to go wrong.

This is a common fallacy. EV batteries should last hundreds of thousands of miles. This is not a common failure. It’s like saying all cars need engine replacements because some do. Costs are high but when the cars are old and that type of failure may happen you will use used or remanufactured packs at much lower cost, like you would put a used engine or transmission in an old car.

Fair.

Depends on the EV, but also no fuel cost.

You realize why right? Because car rentals when traveling are a poor time to rent an EV. Being able to charge an EV at home when sleeping is a huge part of their appeal. I would have no interest in renting an EV on a trip and trying to figure out how to charge it.

This is not true. Carmakers over emphasized the growth of demand for EVs for sure, but sales are up not down. EVs are growing as a segment and every manufacturer is rolling out more EV models not less.

I haven’t quoted you at all, I have disagreed with your posts but I haven’t dismissed them.