I Wanted To Buy An Electric Car

 FLORIDA  

Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD

My wife and I had planned to buy a small electric SUV in the fall of this year, 2024. Our travel requirements changed slightly in the last few months, and it became clear that a new car was going to be needed sooner.

So, I started looking around at electric SUV's.

What I wanted was: An electric vehicle. Just a mid-size SUV that was powered by a battery and looked like a traditional vehicle.

What I did not want was: 

A vehicle that looked like it had been rejected as the transport vehicle for a sci-fi movie.

What I also did not want was:

·         An interior and exterior adjustable light show, with relaxing mood settings 

·         An advanced high end infotainment center featuring the best of the best sound systems

·         A dashboard that looks like a video game

·         Heated and vibrating seats

·         A front end with multiple lights and adjustable color features

·         LEDs stuck everywhere.

·         An interior that was designed by somebody sitting in their mom’s basement that has never been near an automobile plant and doesn’t have a driver's license.

I also wanted something that was affordable.

The automobile industry has gone out of its way to educate us on the fact that electric vehicles are going to be expensive. It is their way of protecting the old profit margin.

To achieve the goal of maximum price for the useless stuff they put on the vehicle, they go out of their way to over accessorize these cars driving the costs through the roof.

Personally, I think the price of electric vehicles in the United States is going to remain high until the domestic battery plants get online and battery pack costs start coming down. I am also pretty sure that the automobile industry is just going out of its way to not create any base models of electric cars that are functional, useful, and reasonably priced at this time. They just do not want us to get used to that kind of thing.

So, for now we skipped the electric SUV and bought a mid-sized Ford gasoline powered SUV.

There is obviously an early adopter market out there for these overblown, overequipped rolling pinball machines, but the fact of the matter is many of the features on today's modern vehicles go largely unused by drivers.

One thing the automobile industry needs to come back to grips with is the fact that most of us just want to get in the car and go somewhere.

We do not want to spend 20 minutes fiddling with the dashboard trying to figure out how to get the stereo off and the GPS on and our cell phone connected. All those flashing and blinking and dimming and color changing lights on the dashboard and in the doors are just that much more stuff for something to go wrong with in the future. And more rage inspiring the mood setting.

Henry Ford had the right idea when he started building cars. He just built a car. It had a motor, four wheels, enough seating for four people, and it got you where you wanted to be.

It is time to look backward rather than continue this headlong rush into sci-fi insanity just to drive down the road.

Both Ford and Volkswagen had the right idea. Build a car for the people. And you will sell a lot of them. Now what we need is simply an electric version.

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