this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2024
1101 points (96.3% liked)

xkcd

8841 readers
7 users here now

A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Alt text:

An idling gas engine may be annoyingly loud, but that's the price you pay for having WAY less torque available at a standstill.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 31 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (62 children)

Gas engines have decent range. Gas engines are cheaper (as the electric engine prices are artificially inflated, just look at Chinese prices), with gas engines you can listen to the sound of the engine to diagnose problems before they occur, batteries don't degrade (you still have car batteries, but when they degrade, you can still drive a car for as long as with the new battery. You can refuel it in a couple of seconds. Anyone can make one sided arguments. There isn't a best thing for everything.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (4 children)

The reason why you may be able to diagnose an ICE by sound is because they're complex. That's not a positive. An electric motor has just a few moving parts. If it goes bad you don't really need to work to figure it out and fix it.

The rest of the arguments can be made, but as you imply they're disingenuous. The sound one is just not a benefit at all.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I was apprehensive about EVs but the first time I rode in one I immediately fell in love with it. I get carsick easily, and the super-smooth ride without the chug-chug-chug of an internal combustion engine made the experience surprisingly much more pleasant for me. I do not use a car, but if I had to buy one, I don't think I could ever stomach an ICE again knowing that this alternative is available.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Chug-chug-chug? Are you sure you weren't in a steam locomotive?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

I knew that motion sickness is triggered by frequent starts and stops and frequent turns, but even I was not aware of how big a contribution the engine vibration makes until I got to experience a ride without it.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (59 replies)