ASK DR. BOLI.

Dear Dr. Boli: Electric engines are much more efficient and deliver much more torque than gasoline engines. Yet, among my acquaintances, the ones who talk the most enthusiastically about powerful cars are the ones most opposed to electric cars and most stuck on internal combustion. Why is that? —Sincerely, An Avid Bicyclist.

Dear Sir or Madam: Because there’s no fuel like an old fuel.

Comments

  1. Fred says:

    Indeed, I don’t know why more cars don’t run on whale oil these days.

    • Dr. Boli says:

      This is an excellent suggestion. Put the romance back in the oil industry! And the epistemologically metaphorical quests and whatnot!

  2. KevinT says:

    It would seem that the bicyclist is also propelled by internal combustion. An external combustion cyclist would be a sight to behold.

  3. von Hindenburg says:

    If I could play the Petrol’s Advocate: From the perspective of the enthusiast, modern electric cars are even more difficult to work on or modify than other modern vehicles, which are both deliberately locked down by the manufacturer and legitimately difficult for a shade tree mechanic to maintain or modify because of their complexity.

    In addition, the tools and techniques that an enthusiast may have spent decades acquiring are suddenly of no use on an electric vehicle. Is it any wonder that they’d want to continue to cling to what they know and can work on?

    I won’t pretend that there isn’t a cultural/political aspect to all of this, but there’s a practical side as well. Electrical cars of the 2010s and 20s just don’t offer much for most enthusiasts to get excited about.

    • RepubAnon says:

      I get excited about my electric car every time I get a flyer for a discounted tune-up and oil change, or a “minor maintenance” deal … when I take my electric car to the dealer for routine maintenance, all it needs is the tires rotated…

      • Von Hindenburg says:

        Of course! And that’s an entirely legitimate viewpoint shared by the majority of car owners. You want safe, comfortable, cost-effective transportation. But for the car enthusiast who likely prefers combustion, those are lesser concerns. Not only is the financial gap smaller because they likely do much of that work themselves, but absolute cost efficiency takes a back seat to other considerations.

        The same applies to transmissions. Rowing a manual is less convenient and, for the last 20 years or so, less fuel-efficient than an automatic. The enthusiast is fully aware of this. They just prefer the manual driving experience.

        It’s not that the gear head doesn’t understand the trade offs. He just has different preferences.

      • KevinT says:

        I always found that terminology a bit odd. The tires get rotated every time you take the car out on the road.

      • von Hindenburg says:

        And that’s a totally valid preference! What you want out of a car is comfortable, cost-effective, low-maintenance, drama=-free transportation. Entirely reasonable.

        But it’s not that the gearhead doesn’t understand that an ICE will take more time and money to maintain than a BEV. He even understands that (at least for the last 20 years or so) a manual is less fuel efficient than an automatic. But those are tradeoffs that he makes to get a car that provides what he wants: An interesting vehicle that he can maintain and modify himself.

        Different preferences, different tradeoffs.

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