How to Handle EV Haters

• I recently was in a discussion with some good friends who have been reading way too many posts by the oil industry that is trying to save its butt from an EV takeover. They totally put down all my EV enthusiasm with unfounded propaganda. It got to the point I had to walk away. I don’t “think fast on my feet” but after the fact, when I had time to reconnoiter, I composed this rebuttal:

(I know this is preaching to the choir but maybe you’ll also need to defend EV’s someday?)

To the Debbie-Downers,
All new, emerging technologies start out high-priced until they get perfected, mass-produced, and streamlined. For those of you who are old enough to remember, did you get a cell phone back when they were the size of a shoe box and super expensive? The cell network was limited, and plans were high-priced. I had a young family and could not afford them. 5 years later my husband and I shared a flip phone. A year or two after that we each had our own smartphone. Now everyone has a cell phone (mostly). I didn’t have the means to be a pioneer for cell phones. 

Just like cell phones, computers, or even the original gas engines, we are in the Wild West days of EV’s. You nay-sayers sound like what I imagine the old horse teamsters said about those darn, new-fangled gas engines.  If we’d listened to them we’d still be driving buckboards and buying hay.

• Myth: EV batteries pollute when they die.
  • Fact: Materials used in EV batteries are the new gold mines of today. Check out these videos:
  • What *Really* happens to used Electric Car Batteries? – (you might be surprised)
  • Inconvenient Truth
• Myth: Electric cars pollute more than ICE (internal combustion engine) cars.
• Fact: This goes back and forth, but overall they are cleaner and air quality has improved measurably where EV adoption is the highest.
  • Yes, they have zero emissions.
  • Yes, they use tires faster, putting more particles into the environment than ICE cars.
  • No, they don’t use brakes as faster because much of the breaking is regenerative, depending on how  you drive, meaning less particles from used brakes
  • Yes, Lithium-Ion batteries are dirty to produce but we are moving away from that type of battery. GM’s Ultium platform batteries use nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminum (NCMA) which is a little better and the future is bright for better battery tech.
• Myth: Charging an EV uses electricity created by dirty coal or other dirty generation methods. Making them dirtier than ICE vehicles.
• Fact: While there is still “dirty electricity” out there, many EV owners have solar on their roofs and charge mostly at home, which is completely green. Different states have bigger percentages of clean power generation. This is only going to improve with time.