Could EVs end the Automotive Enthusiast Culture? Nah
[Dec. 13, 2019]
While electric cars have been around just as long as their internal-combustion counterparts, only within the last decade has modern battery technology made them viable as everyday or “only” cars. Obviously, if you are reading this article, you have at least a passing knowledge or interest in electric cars, so I’ll spare you the long-form dissertation on “compliance cars” and the early days of Tesla. That’s what Wikipedia is for, right?
Let’s cut to the here and now. We’re at a strange time in automotive history and culture. To paraphrase Charles Dickens, “It’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times.” It’s the best of times because we have 700-plus horsepower sports cars that are capable of more than 20mpg highway, the average family sedan or crossover has close to 200hp, and 300hp and 30mpg are no longer mutually exclusive.
The “worst of times” is the unrelenting plague (at least in the minds of some) of the crossover in all shapes, sizes, and price points, annihilating other segments in its wake, to the point that some brands will be exclusively crossovers starting in 2020. While there’s no denying the quotidian versatility of the crossover form factor, the anonymous, characterless shape has become a meme, literally.
Also making today the worst of times in the minds of some, is the unrelenting pressure of environmental activists against the beloved internal combustion engine. CO2 targets by the European Union, suffocating pollution in China, and the outsize influence of the California Air Resources Board are all pushing automakers to put more resources into the development of EVs. And we’d be remiss if we didn’t give a hat tip to Elon Musk, who helped turn electric cars into the latest “it” item in the vein of the iPhone and Echo Dot.
Those who haven’t yet had the experience of driving one of the newer high-performance EVs may still see them as the dystopian joy-killers as portrayed in The Simpsons. But it doesn’t take long after experiencing the instantaneous torque to make skeptics somewhat less hostile to the possibility of an electric future. Naturally, electric motors don’t have the same visceral sensory experience of a well-tuned combustion engine, something many enthusiasts still see as an integral part of the driving experience.
Already, some home-built electric hot rods have emerged from shops such as EV West and Bloodshed Motors. General Motors has also announced the development of electric crate motors with its hot rodding truck concept. Many major technological developments in the automotive world; overhead valves, fuel injection, direct injection, and even the now-beloved GM “LS” family of V8s, were initially met with suspicion and hostility by the traditionalists that clung to the familiar, proven technologies to which they’d become accustomed. In time, the new became the familiar and proven. Will motors and battery packs become the tools of the hot rodding trade two decades hence? Time will tell.
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