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Guest Essay
By Ezra Dyer
Mr. Dyer is a columnist for Car and Driver magazine.
We are at an inflection point in the optimism towards electric cars. In recent years, as EV sales rose particularly and automakers announced a wave of new battery-powered models, it seemed like electric cars were inevitable in the near term. But in Despite all those heady promises, E. V. it turns out to be waning.
Ford recently announced that it will cut its production targets for the Lightning, its electric truck. Tesla, which brags and brags, has predicted that sales expansion in 2024 will be “significantly lower” than in recent years. There are many apparent hurdles to electric vehicles: cost, range, and charging infrastructure (or lack thereof). But there’s also a more sophisticated challenge at play, which may not be simple. Solve: Electric cars are too boring.
I know this sounds like an absurd complaint and I agree. On the list of things that are wrong in the world, “electric cars are boring” is not in the Top 5. I’m excited to be able to rate my plug-in Chrysler Pacifica. In hybrid with my solar panels, and electric cars are the answer to humanity’s long-term transportation needs. However, I also believe that the anesthetic experience of driving an electric car is a real barrier to the widespread adoption of this technology, given that almost all possible electric vehicles can be used on a large scale. The consumer grew up with the rich sensory experience of internal combustion.
Driving, as we all knew it before the advent of electric cars for customers just over a decade ago, involved family rituals that have carved out a place for themselves in our collective psyche. You’d turn a key or press a button, you’d feel a rumble. vibration through the seat and idler, put a transmission in gear and pay attention to the revs going up and down with the up and down gears. Maybe you’ve learned to drive with a manual transmission, with your feet dancing between the wheels. Clutch and accelerate as you shift gears, choppy at first, but eventually digging a groove in muscle memory. Possibly there will be smells, oil, fuel or diesel, not pleasant but not entirely unpleasant.
For other people who love cars, and even those who don’t, this onslaught of visceral sensory feedback is related to freedom and road trips, first dates and shopping.
Electric cars mark a pause in all of this. When you get into an electric car, there’s no key to turn or push button start – it’s just on. There’s little noise, unless you hear the legally required pedestrian warning tone, which sounds like Trent Reznor composing a creepy Nine Inch Nails synth song somewhere behind the front bumper. Some of them have a “one pedal” mode that doesn’t even require you to touch the brake pedal most of the time. It’s like driving a sensory deprivation chamber. For passengers, it’s a luxury. For drivers, it’s annoying.
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