If you’ve followed my Facebook at all you’d know my posts about electric cars are largely positive. The comments not so much. As the HMFIC of The Lowered you can imagine I catch a fair amount of shit for my Electric car positivity. I dont expect that to change and I am OK with that.
Why is a primarily classic car guy also into electrics? Well we are all products of our environments. At this point some background is important so let me confess I am someone born in the mid 70s. Who grew up in the 80s and 90s. So I have literally grown up with the personal computer. By chance as a kid I ended up playing Oregon trail at a school with an early personal computer lab full of apple IIs. Because of my age I was part of the transition from wall mounted rotary phone, to pager to cell. From cabinet sized tube TVs to projection to flat screen. I was an early adopter of the internet, though sadly not smart enough to capitalize on it. So I have grown up engrossed in technology. At the same time parents are both retired NAVAL aviation. Hearing stories of flying and working on aircraft as well as late night street races, motorcycle rallys and runs as well as Rods and Customs from both of my parents past. We attended races at Sacramento Raceway, The Sacramento Autorama, Reno air Races and on and on. So in an effort to be totally up front, I am primarily a car guy but also a fan of technology in general. I am also the generation that watched the optimism of my parents and grandparents Jet Age inventions making the world better for all morph into technology bringing about humanities downfall.
Another fact about me. I’ve worked in the Tech/Cellular industry for over twenty five years. As such the parking lot at my day job is full of Prius, Telsa and now a few Rivians. As the resident car guy and someone folks lean on for internal support, to my fellow co workers my not owning an Electric car doesn’t make sense. Even though I am always interested and cool with checking out their new rides I can tell they doubt my interest in their electrics. And I get why.
To prove my sincerity, first let’s talk about the Pro’s of going electric.
Not paying for gas thats the easy one but as an enthusiast I am betting thats not enough of a reason for you either. So let’s look at it from an enthusiast standpoint. When I was a kid as I am sure many of you will attest. One of the major the measurements of what made any new car cool was its 0-60 times. Part of my excitement of each new year, was how each manufacturer was going to fair in the great American drag race. Chevy vs Ford Vs Dodge. Honda vs Nissan Vs Mitsubishi. Ferrari vs Lamborghini and Porsche. Car Magazines relentlessly plastered with exciting images of the current years dream cars and flashy headlines alluding to their performance. Oh man I couldn’t buy those magazines fast enough!
Some of my favorites were in the late 80s and 90s. Who doesn't like an underdog story!?! If you’re my age or older you might remember when Buick Grand Nationals were so fast Enzo was scared. Rumor was, Enzo Ferrari wouldn’t even allow Motor Trend (or was it Car and Driver?) to have a test car to put up against the Buick GN! So the editors had to borrow one. If memory serves me the guy they borrowed the Ferrari from even got in trouble for it from Ferrari. That would happen again in the 90s with the GMC Cyclone and Typhoon.
Let’s be real, these days though, no matter which mark you prefer, if it’s an internal Combustion engine under that hood. It's going to have to be something extremely custom or special to hang with an electric. I am not even talking about higher end electrics either. Pretty much anything rolling out of old uncle Elons garage is a beast. And it’s not just Tesla. Rivian, Lucid and even our beloved big three are coming out with their own electrics each one fast enough to put our classics to shame. To a one their performance is on par or better than what Elon is putting out.
How fast are they? Well, electric cars are so fast Dodge is retiring the hellcat! They are so torquey that Ford offers one as a version of the F-150. General Motors is well on their way to switching over their whole lineup recently announcing the end of internal combustion engine production in alignment with Californias 2035 date. To wrap up this particular train of thought all of them even the trucks are white hot fast as fuck! How could I not be interested in electric cars?
Let me paint you a picture. Think your self esteem is in pretty good shape? Picture yourself sitting at a light in a 2020 mustang GT? Ahhh the bark of a Coyote, a better sounding engine you’d be hard pressed to find. Well if your on your game your stock ride will put down a 4.2 0-60 time. Not bad, not bad at all! “Wait James! But I’m a chevy guy!!” you say. Ok I got you, maybe its a similar spec mid range v8 Camaro. Well according to the Ol inter webs, you’re lookin at 4.3 seconds to 60. A hair slower than the mustang GT but still pretty damn fast! Let’s get crazy. Let’s say you’ve done well for yourself. You graduated from dental school with straight c pluses. You’re making that filling kids cavities money, lucky bastard! You find yourself at that same light, in your 2021 Porsche 911 targa. Well as my dad said, cool costs money and that pricey lil rocket has netted you 0-60 in 4.0! Are you ready? Feellin good about yourself? Well if a 2022 GMC Hummer pulls up, after your eyes adjust as its size has blocked out the sun. You better roll up them tinted windows. Slouch down in those bucket seats and act like your playin with the radio. Why? Because when that light turns green... That electrified military grade looking monster will straight up walk your ass! No joke and not by a little bit. That Beast will lay down a computer controlled 3 second flat 0-60 with an 11.7 quarter mile! With the wonder of computer programing, electric motors, instant torque and all wheel drive. You'll be watching those taillights and all terrains disappear from the seat of that shiny Porsche my friend. Tail lights mounted over the top of Goodyear all terrain 35 inch or optional 37 inch tires. Yup a vehicle the size of a two bedroom apartment just disappearing into the sunset. All from the seat of your once proud Mustang, Camaro or Porsche. That shit is gonna hurt deep in the feels. How could I not be interested in this level of insanity? Yeah electric vehicles are not just fast they are HOLEEEEESHIT fast.
Yes again, there are ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) cars that can hang. But they are limited production and out of reach cost wise of most of us mere mortals. So we’ve established when it comes to electric, the performance is there, it’s undeniable. And as an already established child of technology and the 0-60 and quarter mile wars. An inductee of the numbers dont lie group, electric should be my new object of desire. So what’s the problem? Turns out in my less than humble opinion well, theres a few.
The big one, range and charge time. Talk to any Tesla fan boy. They’ll swear on a stack of rechargeable lithium batteries that that its charge time issue is all but fallacy. That the standard range is more than enough to get most people to and from work and any light side errands. All on a single charge. Simply unplug at home after charging all night, get your shit done, return home and plug it back in, easy peasy. And for the most part they are right. Even if you dont work in the industry like I do chances are, theres a few Teslas and their fan boys in the lot. And like Vegans, they cant wait to tell you all about their superiority. Hell where I work we have chargers on site so I get it, it makes a ton of sense especially as a commuter. Admittedly. Objectively, as a straight commuter car, electric is hard to beat.
So were’s the problem?
Let’s start off light. Well if you’re like me and enjoy several long road trips a year. The limitations of an electric are going to dictate what you can and cant do. When you’re on a road trip do you like to wander? If so electrics aren’t for you especially don't happen to have a Tesla. Finding a charger on the road at least currently can be a challenge. If you’re not aware when you get in your electric the first thing it wants you to do is tell it where you’re going. That way it can chart you a course that includes charging points. You dont have to search hard to find the stories. Written by both automotive and regular journalists alike detailing the frustrations of charging stations. Arriving at stations that plain dont work at all or are under powered. At best causing massive delays and wait times before continuing with a road trip. At worst, leaving you stranded in a sketchy location with not enough power to leave. How long does it take to get gas, five maybe ten minutes? What about waiting thirty minutes to a few hours for a full charge? If you like making time on a road trip sitting in a parking lot, 30 minutes to several hours might not be for you. Personally the wait time alone would drive me crazy but if the station didn’t work? I'd loose my shit.
If you listen to Matt Farrah on his The Smoking Tire Podcast, which I highly recommend. He’s detailed many such experiences with several non Tesla electric cars. “But James” you say, “as more people adopt Electric cars the charging stations will get better!” Will they? Will they? Not likely if you live in America, at least not in the near future. The state of our infrastructure is dismal. In California, where I live, the alleged home of innovation and technology. We get warnings to turn our homes AC off because the grid cant take the load. No it's not super regular. But several times each summer for as long as I can remember we’ve gotten similar alerts and outages. California isn’t alone either. Even Texas with its own independent grid has major issues in both cold and hot weather. Despite being in total control due to a completely separate from the rest of the country power grid Texas has been building and “maintaining” their grid to weather standards that dont seem to exist any more. Any time it gets to hot or to cold they have just as many if not more issues than California. has issues. Not so shockingly it turns out people that dont believe in science can be greedy bastards too and it bit them in the ass. You might remember that when it got cold, the natural gas and oil based power generating plants froze. Their Solar and wind had also not been designed to handle the cold but caught the lions share of the blame despite being 33% of the power generation. These over sites left hundreds of thousands of people without power and in many cases water or access to natural gas to heat their homes.
https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2021/02/17/texas-energy-wind-power-outage-natural-gas-renewable-green-new-deal/6780546002/
If you’ve got an electric car no power No car. With more and more electric cars being produced and no states plans by either party to improve our infrastructure its only going to get worse.
When it comes to the dark side of the switch to electric I could go on and on, and smarter folks than me already have. Do quick internet search and detailed accounts of the issues with electric cars green image are easy to find. The strip mining and pollution caused by battery manufacture. The fuel consumed by cargo ships first carting the raw materials to be turned into batteries. The pollution caused by the actual manufacturing. Then theres the shipping the finished batteries to other manufacturing facilities. All before actually making the cars. What to do with the batteries when they wear out? Like a blood diamond theres a lot of issues that that dim the shine of this new technology.
So let’s get to the tin foil hat bit. The bit I haven’t heard anyone else talking about and the reason for this whole exercise.
As someone that has spent over 20 years in the tech/cellular/telephony service industry, I’ve seen some shit. And while that shit may not currently apply to electric cars as a whole theres no reason to think it won’t. What am I referring to? In short, control. I know, I know I said tinfoil hat stuff didn't I? Hear me out. Are you aware that the government both federal and state has ordered Carriers to turn off cell towers during protests and riot situations? Oh they dont turn them completely off. Federal and state issued cellular devices are set through specific channels that stay open. Only the unwashed masses go dark. Dont believe me? Would you believe the ACLU? Go ahead and give that a gander.
Do your own research, other instances are shockingly easy to find. I was witness to cell tower shut downs several times at previous jobs. Both by state and federal request and there was no push back by the carrier. The call came in and the towers as far as the public could tell, just went off. I dont think it’s much of a leap to say that this is something that could be easily extended to Electric cars. Think that sounds crazy? Did you know all Teslas and most other electrics have both cellular and wifi modems. Not only to facilitate updates but to send massive amounts of collected data back to their manufacturer. Tesla as the front runner of the industry has been questioned over this many times. Again dont believe me, check it out yourself, here’s a link to an Axios article to get you started
Another great example of how easy this would be to facilitate is the Xcel thermostat issue. You might have seen this story in Denver Colorado. Xcel is the name of the Utility company that serves Denver. As a heatwave was cooking the mile high city Xcel was noticing that their customers were running their Air Conditioners soaking up enough power to put the grid at risk. So Xcel just locked everyones thermostats at 78 or 79 some people reported they were locked at 88 degrees. That may not sound like a big deal but if you really think about it, a company just decided on their own what was best for 22,000 customers. Sure one could argue those folks should have known that was a possibility, they should have read the good old terms and conditions. If you thought that just know you’re a dick and when was the last time you read the terms and conditions on anything? I am betting like most people, never. Here’s a link to that story
https://www.denver7.com/news/contact-denver7/thousands-of-xcel-customers-locked-out-of-thermostats-during-energy-emergency
As I mentioned Electric car manufacturers are following Teslas lead. Installing 4g/5g and wifi modems in their own vehicles. Rivian and Lucid both use similar Cellular and wifi modems in the same fashion as does Ford and chevy. Call me crazy here but if we have already seen both state and federal government shut down cell towers to control protests and riots. Why wouldn’t they also turn off everyones cars to?
Let's try and lighten things up a bit. Let's be generous, optimistic even and say it was for safety? An option like that could be justified as a safety measure, How? Why? Well how about to prevent or slow a mass exodus during a natural disaster? Or maybe to automatically clear a path for emergency vehicles? What if it was sold as a theft recovery app? Turns out that last part at least is already a thing, GMs on star has been able to cut the engine off from the beginning. Telsa’s can be tracked not only by Telsa but also by the owner using their app. The GPS is so good that in the US “data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Crime Information Center data released by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (via Marketwatch) showed that 112 out of 115 were recovered from 2011 to May of 2018:It compares to a recovery rate of just 58.4% for all vehicles in 2016 – meaning that Tesla vehicles are much easier to recover on average in the US.” I found this info here.
https://electrek.co/2018/08/10/tesla-stolen-vehicles-us-recovered-thieves/
All real situations that when positioned correctly or predatorily, well they make sense, dont they? Picture a massive storm about to hit Florida. A message appears on your cars screen saying "To keep freeways from being clogged cars are only allowed to leave in metered waves to prevent traffic.” Starting to sound plausible isn’t it? Or what if theres a mass protest or riot in your area and you try and flee but your car displays “Due to civil unrest your local police force recommends you shelter in place for your safety.” The technology is already there it’s just a matter of implementation. It might not be implemented in the US first but if China or any other similarly controlled company wanted it…
Theres a saying that says "You can trust the government or know your history you cant do both". As someone that reads a fair amount of history this hypothetical idea and the requirement to change my whole driving behavior. Being required to schedule and plan every stop and give up any detours… these reasons at least so far are enough to keep me away from electric cars. Maybe if a company was to offer a fire walled option that allowed complete control over what was and wasn’t installed an electric might be more appealing? It will be interesting with Apples “commitment” to personal privacy what their electric offering will look like in regards to these features. So while my work buddies are buying Electrics I’ll keep looking for a low milage 90s suburban 4x, preferably in green.
## Edit ##
Since I wrote this an article has been going around again about Tesla settling a lawsuit over a software update that curtailed the available battery accessible to some 1700 plus Model S sedans. Its nit clear if this was an over the air update or if it was done while in service but it happened. Tesla added a software update that changed the performance capabilities of the car. Adding an alert to pull over or to disable the car completely is not a stretch.
I was also reminded of Dodges new Electric the Charger Daytona SRT and its Software upgradable performance packages. Software updates that change the suspension and power settings to allow for a "Drag Pad" a Drift mode and a few others. No physical changes to the car or its mechanics all Software.
James
The Lowered HMFIC
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