Electrification is inevitable; economically, it is more efficient and will be the cheapest option for everyone. It is irrelevant what people think about climate change or "drill, baby, drill"; it is simply cheaper to produce energy from renewables. On top of that, electric vehicles are arguably nicer to drive.
Discussion
Do you know how much the world gets polleted from lithium mining to create all of these electric car batteries? Also their shelf life is fairly limited, they likely won't last more then 5-7 years before needing to be replaced. And then there is the issue that electric car batteries are not recycliable.
In my opinion this hype of electric cars are here to change the automotive industry will not last. There are even some autotive pioneer such a Porsche which are scalling back on their electric production and actually reinvesting into developing combustion engines.
Lastly there is no way an electric car is more fun to drive compared to a roaring V8 or V10 gasoline engine.
Just my 2 sats. 😉
True.
I agree with you that a V8 or V10 car can be more fun to drive. When I wrote that EVs are nicer to drive, I was thinking more about the ease of one-pedal driving; it's a very relaxing drive.
I don't know where you heard about this 5–7-year battery life. I know that with some of the early EVs, like the Nissan Leafs and the i-MiEVs, they hadn't quite grasped battery thermal management, so the batteries degraded quicker than expected. Maybe some horror stories about those cars? Since then, all the car manufacturers have followed Tesla's lead with battery cooling and management. For most EVs on the road now, the batteries and motors should outlive the chassis. A few years ago, I bought a 9-year-old, high-mileage i3, and I can confirm the battery is performing very well.
Regarding lithium mining, I agree this is not ideal, but at least once extracted, it can be used repeatedly as batteries are recycled, unlike oil. With oil, you must drill for it, pump it, refine it, and then burn it in your car at around 20% efficiency.
Personally, I believe in the market, and I think people will be more interested in saving money. If they are not already, EVs will be cheaper to buy than equivalent ICE vehicles as they have fewer moving parts and less manufacturing complexity. On top of that, once someone owns one, it is usually cheaper to run, as electricity per kWh is less than gasoline. For people with solar power, it is essentially free to drive.
Can't produce enough batteries to replace every car in use now. We either have fewer cars or we don't have EVs.
The environmental destruction caused by EVs is far worse than fossil fuel cars, and the energy used to produce them and dispose of the batteries outweighs the energy savings during the vehicle's life time.
Perhaps with some as yet uninvented battery tech and doing away with renewables and using fusion this will change.