Going Electric
I was recently driving back from a nice mountain bike ride in North Vancouver, perfectly at ease knowing that I’d had a fantastic ride and was heading home while the sun set behind me. With some Greta Van Fleet cranked, I accelerated onto the highway and was reminded of why I love the internal combustion engine. It creates a nice, feel good noise while generating its power smoothly and gradually. All was well, until I hit traffic and saw a Tesla in my rearview mirror. Then, I was reminded of the fuel I was wasting while idling, and that the future is potentially passionless, lacking excitement and electric.
While I may enjoy the idea and indeed look forward to purchasing an electric vehicle in the near future, it makes me sad that soon all internal combustion engines will cease to be manufactured. Now you might be asking “but you said that you don’t enjoy the wasting of fuel and electric cars would make it so that wouldn’t happen”. Good point, in fact that is why I would like to own an electric car in the future. Plus, they’re actually practical now. It used to be that electric cars weren’t really even that great around town, they’d lose all their battery power on just a simple trip to the store, a jug of milk would set you back hours. It’s just not worth it.
Today, though, you can travel over 400 kilometres on one charge and be completely charged up again in about 30 minutes. In town, the regenerative brakes charge your batteries when your foot isn’t on the accelerator, therefore, charging at home is cost effective, and completely justifiable.
There’s more too. Because there isn’t an engine you don’t need to get an oil change. In fact, the only thing that really needs to be changed are the brakes, tires, and every 160,000 kilometres you’ll have to get the battery coolant changed.
This all sounds lovely. No fuel cost, low maintenance cost and an environmental footprint that’s bound to make Elizabeth May the happiest person in Canada. So what’s the hangup?
Theatre and drama. They’re the two things that are missing from the electric car. I’ve driven a few. Don’t get me wrong, they’re amazing. Unbelievably quiet, comfortable, well made and due to the design of the electric motor they all have an acceleration that will rip your face off. But, there’s no noise and therefore no sense that the vehicle is really doing anything. There’s no gears, which means you can’t have the satisfying building of the revs and if you happen to own a manual transmission vehicle, the satisfaction of a well executed gear change. These qualities are what make internal combustion engines so fantastic, they make you relate to the car and learn to drive it, and even have some fun. It gives them a character, drama and theatre if you will. When electric cars come, the theatre and drama may cease to exist. A concept that makes me, as someone who loves to drive cars, a bit sad.
