Chaos in the Comments: Your (stupid) EV questions answered
Debunking fantastical tales from the comment section
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EVs in evacuations, being ‘forced’ to buy an EV, and EV fire hazards
Buckle up kiddos, we’re about to take a trip through one of the foulest places on the entire internet: the comment section.
Specifically, I’ve been scouring the comment sections of loads of EV-related articles, posts, and videos to see what folks are talking about. Along the way, there’s been no shortage of commenters getting all salty about bogus facts and scenarios they made up themselves. Confirmation bias is a strange animal.
Below, we’ll take a look at the misinformation, the arguments and the perspectives presented, and learn a thing or two along the way.
“I will not be forced into renting or buying an EV! “
I first encountered a post like this one on Facebook, where someone used it to stomp their feet and publicly announce that they wouldn’t be forced into renting an EV, much less buying one.
Another version used the word “tricked” instead of “forced”.
I know that whenever I finish an EV review like this one or this one, I always threaten readers as aggressively as possible to buy one — or else.
Just kidding, I made that up.
Not to unleash any radical new concepts or anything here, but some people feel victimized by new things they don’t understand, even when those things are things they neither want, nor are in any way obligated to buy (or rent).
If you think EVs are a newfangled hoax you don’t want to be a part of, just remember you’re literally allowed to go out and buy any type of vehicle you like. Like an adult!
“But EVs will leave you stranded during mass evacuations!”
Sometimes, people have strong opinions about things that they don’t understand. That’s especially true on Twitter whenever the topic of evacuations and catastrophic weather events pops up. With recent hurricanes causing damage and loss in various parts of the continent, the comments section experts were quick to offer up their assessments of the dangers of driving an EV during an evacuation.
“Good luck charging all those EV’s when the power’s out!” is a common one. The thing is, gas pumps need power to work too, whereas some EV models can literally power your house during an outage.
As one commenter put it “if gas the tanks are full, the EVs are charged.”
There is no shortage of tweets and comments wondering how many EV drivers will run out of charge and become stranded mid-evacuation, or be stranded by puddles they can’t drive through.
“You’d better pray that lifted F-250 with mudders comes!” she adds.
“Better pack a gas generator so you can charge your EV when its battery runs out!” is another common sentiment.
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@Plug&PlayEV had some answers to these rectally-sourced points, including that (like owners of gasoline vehicles), EV drivers plan for evacuations by filling up their batteries ahead of time, most often at home in their driveways while they sleep and not in long, pre-evacuation lines at gas stations.
Also, EVs can drive through puddles. In fact, with no engine or conventional air intake, they can drive through at least as much water as a gas-powered machine of a similar size. Take your Accent or Suburban through water that’s too deep, and its engine could take an accidental drink, causing instant hydro-locked death.
Various commenters also pointed out that in the sort of crawling ‘stop-and-go’ driving characteristic of mass evacuations, idling gas-powered vehicles are at their least fuel-efficient, while EVs are particularly energy efficient. In a long and slow lineup of stop-and-go traffic, gas-powered vehicles will therefore tend to rip through their energy source at a much higher rate than an electric.
The original post seems to have been deleted.
“But EVs catch fire!”
Sometimes, cars catch fire. Sometimes, cars that catch fire are electric. Sometimes, people make posts like this one.
The post questions the fire safety of EVs based on a YouTube video where a survival celebrity stabs a lithium-ion battery to start a campfire. Based on information that would be convenient if it were true, this makes EVs more likely to burst into flames, right?
The top comment is a sick burn — and also true.
Though some folks seem keen to be the thread’s resident experts on EV flammability, the actual experts (being the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics and National Transportation Safety Board) already have the answer: you’re about 61 times more likely to experience a fire in a gas vehicle than an EV (per hundred vehicles), and weirdly, about 139 times more likely to experience a fire with a hybrid.
Of these three vehicle types, statistical data shows that the lowest fire risk per hundred vehicles is the EV — and by a large margin.
Here’s some more information.
Though comparable data for Canada isn’t readily available, nobody can prove the rate of EV combustibility is any different north of the border.
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