New Car Reports Use Weird Parameters
We live our lives inundated with information. Anyone wishing to purchase anything from a car to case of wine to a box of toothpicks can go to any of a myriad of studies so as to formulate the best purchase decision.
Sometimes there are reports on the reports, i.e., metareports, that either support or call BS on the primary reports–and below we have an example of that.
This journalist takes exception to TopGear’s comparison of the Tesla Model S and the BMW M3. When the Tesla beat the living mucus out of the BMW in each of the driving performance tests, TopGear saw fit to create additional challenges, including the ability to hold traction in some extreme conditions, and the pleasantness of the noise, i.e., the “whrrrr” of a highly inefficient V8.
The gentleman points out something interesting: not a mention was made of environmental pollution. That orgasmic roar of the internal combustion engine spewing out poisons counterbalanced the Tesla’s amazing performance, but the fact that the EV has a far tinier environmental footprint associated with it wasn’t worth a single syllable.
Does someone have an agenda here?
I hope you’ll check out the video; it’s very well done.
As an EV skeptic (and a harsh critic for using public funds to subsidize the EV industry), I’ve always been baffled by what I can only call “complete idiocy” of the people saying that silence is a drawback to the EV’s.
It’s one of the most compelling things about an EV.
We’ve had literally a century of luxury automobile manufacturers telling us that their cars are worth more than other cars for six very specific reasons (in order of advertising prominence:
1. Acceleration (rapidly diminishing returns once you out-accelerate the average vehicle from the line to 60 mph).
2. Handling.
3. Quietness.
4. Vanity
5. Reliability/low maintenance.
6. Longevity/value retention.
This has been true, and it remains true today. A luxury car add will not hesitate to advertise and stress the relative quiet of the drive.
Yet somehow the EV’s, because they are more quiet, are somehow… bad?
I hate the false nature of the claim of EV environmental purity… and I hate the fact that EV’s get such heavy subsidies. But I’ve never done anything other than marvel at their acceleration off the line and their amazing quietness while driving (I didn’t list the handling because it is specific to some EV models, and not to others, so that is not a constant of EV’s… but supposedly the handling is superb on all Tesla models).
Craig,
I’ve been involved in the EV industry for just on twenty years, and over the years I’ve owned a number (and built) quite a number of these vehicles. (I’ve collection vintage and oddball examples over the years in the fond hope of creating a museum dedicated to EV technology.
Which is why sanctimonious little sermons kike yours and the maker of the video are annoying and irritating !
The Top Gear franchise since the departure of the three original presenters who employed motor vehicles as a metaphor for commenting on trends within society, has reverted back to the format followed by most motoring type shows and now attracts a smaller but more traditional audience.
That audience consists of people who love automobiles and find the internal combustion engine exciting, facinating and awe inspiring. They love the purr of a big V8, evoking the memories of a simpler more optimistic time. They thrill to the primeval scream of big V8 as it powers through corners and roars down the highway.
A whole class of music and poetry was created to accompany and those emotions with a mass audience of hundreds of millions of fans.
So, where the hell do you get off disparaging these folk? What gives you the right to wag your finger and purse your lips and sneer at their pleasures?
Adoption of EV technology is not advanced by this sort of parsimonious smugness and faux moral superiority!
This might be a little more tolerable if you were an early adopter, Tesla shareholder or had 3ever owned and EV. But no, you who have not bothered to actually practice what you preach, have the temerity to criticize others. Your patronizing killjoy comments are completely unhelpful to both the environment and lessening animosity and divisiveness in society.
You are like MacCauley’s observation of Puritans, “Puritans hated the cruel bear-baiting, not out of sympathy for pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.”
For you, environmental issues are just an excuse to moralize against those whom you regard as “political or social deplorables”.
Today, Tesla is struggling with accumulated debt and stagnating sales momentum.Even the ferociously loyal shareholder base is wavering, now would be a great time to show your support by buying a Tesla product, and leading by quiet example.
Glenn,
I think describing those who consider silence to be a drawback to EV’s, as “complete idiots” is more than a little intolerant.
While there’s some truth in what you say that some luxury car makers find ‘quietness’ a sales advantage, that’s not true of most. The note of the exhaust and purr of large cubic inch engines is very important, even essential, in the marketing of many automotive models especially expensive and sports marques.
Believe it or not, over the decades a huge amount of research has been undertaken to determine the most desirable ‘note’ for automobile exhausts and engine sounds !
On the subject of EV handling. Tesla products handling (in my experience as an owner) in my experience is quite good and perfectly adequate, but not “superb” or exceptional. They certainly don’t compare with the top of the line BMW, Jaguars etc..
Tesla products are also fairly well built and finished. Not to the standard of quality control by Lexus etc, but again, to an adequate standard. Acceleration is very fast with the higher priced models, but I suspect very few Tesla owners spend their lives dragging people off at the traffic lights. (at least I hope not). Tesla products are definitely not for everyone. Even I find the enormous touch screen controls annoying and distracting. The seating and interior finish is quite good and adequate, but not really that of a true luxury car.
I don’t share your antipathy toward Government industry incentives, as long as the incentives are designed with appropriate ‘sunset’ clauses. Governments have a responsibility to manage the national economy, and incentives are one of the tools government can employ to stimulate economic activity if employed responsibly.
You are correct when you say the environmental value of EV’s is sometimes exaggerated. But, their will always be a disagreement between those purists who see “efficiency” and “one solution” and those who delight in a cornucopia of choices and options.
For me, anything that reflects the ingenuity or even eccentricity of the individual human, no matter how daft (but not dangerous) is to be celebrated. I don’t want to live in a society controlled by grimly efficient regulations and products, no matter how “morally correct” or sensibly utilitarian.
I enjoy the crazy kaleidoscope of human existence, no matter how risky it may appear to the insecure and timorous. I guess life is a compromise. Tesla is exactly that, a series of compromises, on the one hand it has exciting new technology and cache, but on the other, it’s not very luxurious for a car of that price.