Why Electric Vehicles?

Electric Vehicles, or EVs, are a charged (ahem) space. There is a spectrum from ‘Tesla fanboys’ to ‘oil company shills’ and everything in-between. Propaganda and misinformation for and against EVs are broadly shared online. I attempt a balanced, rational and critical look at the space to enable informed and intelligent decision-making. I’ve provided links to useful resources along the way, including primary sources and studies, videos, and articles to allow you to go as deep as you’d like.

This is a long series of posts! I dove into the research and tried to cover all the important aspects of the conversation. If you're interested in a particular area please just skim directly to it and consume in bite-size chunks.

I take pride in my work and want to improve it over time, so if you find mistakes or have suggestions please let me know. Note that things are constantly changing and may be out of date below. Last major review of numbers and facts was on February 24, 2021.

In these posts we will compare electric vehicles with traditional gas and diesel-powered vehicles. We look at economics, performance, safety, maintenance, environment, cool capabilities and future potential.

Much of the discussion on electric vehicles comes down to ‘cost vs. environment’. People tend to accept the potential for environmental benefit long-term but are worried about the high cost of buying now. In reality, there are many more factors competing between EVs and ICE vehicles. We’ll dive into each in detail below.

Here's an interactive map of the post for the visual learners. Click to expand any section, or use to navigate to the post you want.

Economics

We look at the total cost of ownership, resale value & depreciation and subsidies & incentives to build a full understanding of the full economics of going electric.

Performance

We pit EVs against ICEVs on efficiency, range, acceleration, top speed, power, torque, towing, payload, charging and cold climate operation.

Safety

We dive into safety ratings, traction control, center-of-gravity, structural rigidity, battery fires and misleading safety claims.

Maintenance

We compare simplicity of operation, number of parts & fluids, battery life & degradation, brake longevity, ease of repair and right-to-repair.

Environment

The big question for many. We discuss air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, electricity generation, and battery materials, disposal and recycling.

Cool Capabilities

EVs have a bunch of rad features. We look at regenerative braking, aerodynamics, noise, storage, electricity on the road and software upgrades.

Future Potential

EVs are improving very fast, with grid stabilization, supplementary solar, car-to-car charging, and even road charging. We also don't neglect that ICEVs have the chance to improve too.

Conclusions

If you don't have the time, you can also skip straight to the results.

We don’t go into as much detail on fuel cell electric vehicles as they have many special considerations when discussing advantages and disadvantages. This will be covered in a separate post.