A few weeks back, you might remember, there was a terrible storm in Ontario, which knocked out electricity for a few days.
While the power was out, some raconteur posted a meme saying, in effect, “aren’t you glad you invested in that electric vehicle now?”
Which was funny. Except for one small fact that they let slide. Which is this: gas stations? Also run on electricity. So if the power is out, you’re not charging your electric vehicle, nor are you getting gas from the gas station.
But wait, you say, you can plug in a generator and run the gas station that way.
To which I reply, the same goes for electric cars.
To which you reply, yeah, but you’re using gas to power your electric vehicle.
To which I reply, so?
You see, electric vehicles are being touted as these mean, green, driving machines, which they are, but what they also are is a magic vehicle that will run off anything. As long as you can transform the power to electricity, you can use anything to run an electric vehicle.
Got a bunch of coal? Guess what? You can run an electric vehicle off that, using a coal fired power station.
Got a fist-full of plutonium? Again, you can convert that to electricity and run an electric vehicle off it. Unless you have a special Delorean, you can’t do that with an internal combustion engine (ICE).
Got a solar panel? You can charge an electric vehicle. Your ICE vehicle? Nope.
Got a bunch of wind turbines? Try plugging one into your ICE vehicle. Not a lot will happen.
Electric vehicles are not (just) green energy vehicles, they are magic devices that will run off nearly anything: wind, gas, coal, hydro, nuclear…heck, get enough lemons and enough copper and zinc, and you could probably power it with that, too. Remember that scene at the end of Back to the Future, when Doc comes back and starts tossing banana peals and coffee grounds into the car?
(Speaking of which, Delorean (or rather, the company that bought the rights to the Delorean name) just announced that they are going to be building new Deloreans, the first in nearly 40 years, called the Alpha5. They are about the sexiest vehicle you ever did see and will be, as befits their futuristic design, all electric vehicles.)
So, no, electric vehicles aren’t all clean and nice and play well with others, they are a transitional device that can be powered in a variety of ways, from the dirtiest of coal fired power to the cleanest of clean energy sources.
I wonder if the discussion were changed to emphasize this aspect of electric vehicles if people would be less dismissive. If we reframed the argument from one of environmentalism to one about the multi-purpose-ness of EVs if some people might start thinking twice about owning an electric vehicle. Or at least about bashing them. Sure, right now, the infrastructure for charging them is not universal, but it’s coming. Indeed, the northeast—long one of the worst places to own an electric vehicle—is starting to shift. Tumbler Ridge will be getting a couple or three new fast charging stations sometime this year.
And while finding places to charge north of Fort St. John are few and far between, the people who are making fun of electric vehicles are both missing the point and fiddling while Rome—or at least the fossil fuel industry—burns.
Check that. Probably not the best metaphor. But ICE vehicles? Have a definite life span. While I can’t tell you when it’s going to end, it will come to an end. Probably within the next 30 years.
While there is an established infrastructure of gas stations across the country and around the world, the same is true for electricity. Indeed, the electrical grid is even more prevalent than the petroleum grid. And building a new charging station is simple compared to building a new gas station.
Now, don’t get me wrong; I’m not some pie-eyed optimist, thinking David Suzuki will come riding in on a golden Tesla to carry us all to a carbon neutral the future. (And yes, I know about his flying about the world, and how he, too, has a carbon footprint, and how it is probably bigger than yours…it is indeed ironic.) But people keep throwing up all these spurious, often outdated and usually erroneous arguments about why electric vehicles will never succeed.
Hey, says one person. What happens if you get stuck in a blizzard in an electric vehicle? You’re going to freeze to death.
A trip to Vancouver will take twice as long because you have to stop and charge, says another.
Still another photo shows a line-up of Teslas in Hope, BC. “Teslas trying to flee the fires lined up for charging,” says the headline (in actuality, it was a bunch of people celebrating the opening of the new Tesla charging station in Hope.)
Meanwhile, people in the North are starting to drive electric vehicles and stress test them. One person—Mark Vejvoda, out of Prince George—is documenting his experiences: good, bad and other, on his Tesla Prince YouTube channel. (He got stuck in a snowstorm. He survived.)
I’m not trying to argue you out of your ICE vehicle here. EVs aren’t yet at a point where they can replace all ICE vehicles. But it seems to me that a lot of people are getting real worked up over something that doesn’t really affect them. You wanna drive a Ram 1500? Great. Guess what? That’s what I drive, too. (I’d love to be able to afford a Rivian, but whatever.) But if someone wants to drive a Tesla? Can we avoid the name calling and rock throwing (sometimes metaphorical, sometimes literal).
That isn’t the way it’s supposed to work. Whatever happened to live and let live? Let a thousand flowers bloom? Electric vehicles? Totally have their weaknesses. They are not for everyone. I get that.
But while we are having this discussion, the world is changing, EVs are changing, and the discussion is being reframed, even as we are having it.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
