I had a chance to talk recently with a friend who does what I do. Well, the both of us test drive and review new vehicles. What may interest you is something I found interesting – as regards which of us gets what, as far as press cars.
First some background. We’ve both been doing this for more than 25 years. We both used to get the same new vehicles to test drive. The vehicles being distributed to car writers by the same “press fleet” management companies contracted to deliver (and pick up) the cars on a rotational basis. It was a simple process. Car “X” would be delivered to him (or me or another journalist) for a week and then picked up and delivered to another journalist, in a rotation that lasted as long as it took to get the car in the hands of every journalist on the list.
Some of us got Car “X” sooner – some later. But we all eventually got Car “X.”
Now, some of us don’t. That “some” being car journalists like me.
Specifically, electric cars. I get them every now and then. But not nearly as often as my friend does. He just had three of them in a row. The last one I had (the Hyundai Kona EV; see my review here) was more than three months ago. You are probably thinking it has to do with politics – or rather, mine. I have made no bones about what I consider to be – what is – the pushing of electric vehicles, very much in the manner of the way “vaccines” are being pushed. Both are being pushed with a ferocious disingenuousness by forces that do not have our best interests at heart. If that were not true, then they wouldn’t be pushing them – because it wouldn’t be necessary to push them.
Res ipsa loquitur. It speaks for itself.
But it’s not politics that’s keeping me out of EeeeeeeVeeeeees while my friend is getting into them almost every week.
It is logistics.
Though we do the same thing, he does his in the city. I do mine far from one. He is less than 30 minutes away from the place where the press cars are kept. I am 240 miles and four hours’ driving time away. This latter has never been a problem – until now – because 240 miles is a short hop for any car that isn’t an electric car. If the driver leaves the place where the press cars are kept at six in the morning, he’ll be at my place by 10 or so.
But it’s not just that.
Not merely that he can drive straight to my place from the place where the press cars are kept, 240 miles (and four hours’ driving time) away. It is also that I can drive the car he leaves here, immediately. I don’t have to wait – hours – for it to recharge.
And – a week later, when he returns to pick up the car – he can leave immediately, too.
Even if the tank is nearly empty.
Not so with an EeeeeeeeeVeeeeee.
In the first place, most can’t make it to my place from the press fleet place without a stop – and extended wait – along the way. There are what the pushers disingenuously style “fast” chargers along the way here, but “fast” – as I have had the poor taste to explain, repeatedly – means at least 30-45 minutes. 
Time is money. It costs the press fleet management company more money to send me an EeeeeVeeeee than it costs them to send me a car that can be delivered in four rather than five hours.
The time-wastage being compounded on the pick-up/return drive.
When the driver comes to pick up the discharged EeeeeeVeeee from me, he must wait (again) at a “fast” charger. Which he must drive to because there are no “fast” chargers at my or any other private residence – before he can drive the car to the next car journalist. Or he could wait at my place for at least the 4-5 hours it would take to recover a partial charge. Maybe enough to gimp him along to the nearest “fast” charger – which is 30 minutes away from here.
This is why – when it comes to me – the press fleet management companies will sometimes flatbed Eeeeeeeveees to me. That way, the EeeeeeeVeeeeee arrives fully charged and ready to drive. And – when the driver returns a week later to pick up the EeeeeeeVeeeee, he doesn’t have to sweat the battery being discharged because I was unable to “fast” charge it, at my place (the best I can do is “Level 2” charge it at home, which is the best anyone can do at home; and that means a trickle charge at 240V for several hours, at least).
Back on the flatbed it goes.
But that takes time – and so, money. It is also a hassle – for the press fleet management company and their drivers.
As it will be for you and everyone else who is gulled into an EeeeeeeeeVeeeee, if they do not live in or very close to a city. There are “fast” chargers in cities and you may not even have to wait inconveniently since most in-city driving won’t push the range of an EeeeeeVeeee. But if you don’t live in the city – or rather (and better put) if you don’t want to live in the city – an EeeeeeeVeeee will make living there extremely inconvenient.
And that, I suspect, is a big part of the reason for this EeeeeeeeVeeee pushing. The pushers don’t want people living outside of the cities – where people are much easier to control – and EeeeeeVeeeees are the perfect vehicle to make that harder – and more expensive.
My mentioning these facts no doubt contributing to my not getting many EeeeeeeeVeeeeees to test drive.
. . .
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These slow EV’s need an engine swap with a real ice gas engine, those 2 or 3 or 4 wimp electric motors in an EV are too weak and slow, they belong in washing machines where they came from….lol…..they are so weak 3 or 4 wimp electric motors are slower then one good ice gas engine, what a feeble joke they are.
plus they have no sound, they are weak, feeble and dead, no life, real abortions, they are just a joke and require a 1000 to 3000 lb battery for power.
this Audi 5 cylinder turbo, ice gas engine, is stronger and more powerful then 3 wimp, weak electric motors…lol
A tuned Audi RS3 is way quicker then a tesla plaid…lol
A brand new Audi RS 3 starts off at a base price of $56,200 in the USA, MSRP.
You can buy and tune an RS 3 for less then a tesla plaid and it is quicker, this RS 3 ran an 8.4 second quarter mile. 0 to 60 1.3 seconds. 3000 lb 1100 hp.
This RS 3 is a better solution then buying a 5000 lb. tesla plaid. ice cars are better then EV’s.
The RS 3 you can actually hear, feel and smell, the sound of this thing is wild, EV’s are dead no emotion or fun.
https://www.hotcars.com/worlds-fastest-audi-rs3-drag-races-ken-blocks-1400-hp-mustang-hoonicorn/
the sound of this thing is insane, listen at 2:52 in video…
swap this engine into your Porsche 924/944 or Cobra or Lotus…
or into a tesla, then it might be fast…..lol…with this ice gas engine it might actually be fast….
get the same performance as the RS3, quicker then any car anywhere, including all the hypercars, supercars……..
“My mentioning these facts no doubt contributing to my not getting many EeeeeeeeVeeeeees to test drive.”
So Eric,
Please tell us that you’re Not Complaining about this situation? To me, it sounds like a “good thing.”
Hi Mike,
I don’t like – have any emotional investment – in driving EeeeeeeVeeeees. But it is my job to report the Truth and the Facts, as Clover used to say!
What happened to Clover? When did that twat disappear?
Hi Michael,
He’s been gone for some time; no one knows where he – she? – went. I’d like to know!
I’d say odds are about 120% that Clover took the jab….. He may be bunking with Jeffrey Epstein, Martin Lucifer King, Fido Castro and all of his other ‘heroes’ now….
Clover is working for Klaus Schwab.
Clover has nothing…and likes it!!!
No more postings when you have nothing!!
Mike P.
It speaks volumes that the EeeeeVeee mongers don’t want an honest reviewer who hasn’t been brainwashed or bribed into heaping praises upon EVs, but who merely posits truisms and honest observations from documenting the realities of their products.
Good article Eric, and I believe you’re analysis is right, and you ought to just ask those in charge of the Press cars about lending you their EVs. Once again you have opened my eyes to this EV scam in play, the damn things are really a joke being played on us. I wonder, though, if you gave an EV a really bad review what would happen.
Where I live, I’m surrounded by EV’s, mainly Tesla’s since my neighbors are rich. My friends mostly drive EV’s as well. I have a small collection of cool ICE cars, but two of them are fantastic for long road trips and great in the mountains around lake Tahoe. It’s inevitable, once snow season starts, that my friends keep asking to borrow my Subaru Outback (500 miles highway range), because their AWD Model-S or X or Y or whatever is simply too inconvenient. If you’re a solo adult driving somewhere, maybe you can waste a few hours at a charger, but if you’re driving up for a ski weekend with a couple toddlers in the car, you’d rather die than be in a car with them for additional hours.
Going up into the Sierra mountains around here during ski season in EV’s is hell, because there are enormous lines at all the charging stations, because everyone else is doing the same. This is our new and improved future I guess.
‘My friends mostly drive EV’s as well.’ — OppositeLock
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Tesla EeeVee?
My friends all drive Lucids, and I’m left at sea
Worked hard all my lifetime, but they act snooty
So, oh, Lord, won’t you buy me a Tesla EeeVee?
— Janis Joplin, Mercedes Benz
It seems to me desire to live in cities is just changing fashion. The city was once a terrible place, full of dirt and trash, smoke and squalor. The suburbs were where it was at. First the trolley lines created the ‘burbs, then the freeways. Neighborhoods were designed to look like the English countryside. People still traveled to the city for work and entertainment but they lived out in the sticks. Even the hippie movement of the 1960s was all about getting back to nature and living in rural areas, self-sustainably. Now much of that land has been developed and there’s no population growth to make it profitable to do so. So in order to get market action the new trend is to move people back into the city. Instead of driving everywhere, you take public transport or use lots of delivery. Instead of playing in the back yard, get the kids playing videogames. Isolate and compartmentalize activities into different public and commerical spaces, all with a fee for use. And keep housing small and cramped so people won’t want to spend time at home.
I don’t think people really want to live in cities, it’s just that there aren’t as many options avilable for the young. One only has to go to any Home Depot or Lowes on the weekend to get a feel for just how many homeowners there are in the US. People seem to enjoy yard work and home improvement projects (or at least they enjoy complaining about it at work on Monday), and most of the time it isn’t all that expensive either. Compare that to a night on the town or a round of golf. When you add up all the costs and realize all you have when done is a memory (or an STD), which is the more enjoyable activity? Not to mention you as homeowner are more likely to address problems before any landlord or building superintendent.
Cities are boring if you’re not consuming.
RK, it always kills me how no matter where ya go, they are always pushing some communal ‘youth center’ or organized activities, because “the kids have nothing to do, and will get in trouble and take drugs if not artificially occupied”.
So, in small towns they always have to have some tax-funded youth center (Which only about 8 kids ever use- appropriately- who would want to? I certainly never would when I was a kid.). Here in farm country, the parents are running to the larger towns every day, or several times a day, shuttling kids to various organized/school/church “activ-i-tays”. In the suburbs it was the same thing… “The kids get in trouble because they have nothing to do”, so the oft-mentioned youth center is again proposed.
And even in the biggest cities…even in NYC- same BS. “The kids have nothing to do”- ’cause everything one can do in the city, as you mentioned, costs money (Unless you can…you know…play…explore…hang with relatives and friends, like people used to do everywhere. But we’re not so sophisticated these days…).
It’s funny to me. As a very poor kid, growing up on Long Island; then spending some time in a small mid-western town; then the latter half of my teenage years in NYC, I always managed to find stuff to do that didn’t cost money (Didn’t cost me nor the taxpayers). In the ‘burbs of Long Island, it was riding bikes…walking in the woods, playing outdoors; playing with cheap simple toys, like Matchbox cars, etc.
In the mid-west town it was bikes..hanging with a friend. And in NYC, the whole city was yours for the price of a subway token (“Metrocard”, now)…and walking was always free…and still is, at least for the time being. I never felt the need to use alcohol or drugs, or steal, etc. and NEVER participated in organized activities…nor could I afford any of “all those things you could do in the city” -nor would I have wanted to do them if I could have.- and I had an amazing time.
People always think the grass is greener somewhere else. Maybe the grass isn’t the problem- but holing-up in some city where there ain’t no real grass to speak of is definitely a detriment and not an improvement.
I get to see a glimpse of old-fashioned childhood here in the sticks, where the kids who live across the road from me are always out playing, no matter the weather. They shoot guns(real ones) and raise animals, and run and play games….and unlike most these days, they’re not being shuttled to town every day for some ‘activity’ or organized sport, or origami lessons….. Sad that such has become a rarity these days. (A real childhood, that is- not origami lessons :D)- But it is something which can be had almost anywhere by anyone….EXCEPT in the cities. (Just my luck that it has to happen across the road from me- Though their ‘yard’ is a good quarter mile from my house….I hear all of the noise…the high-pitched screaming and screeching. Me- someone who can’t tolerate kids and who loves peace and quiet…. But it’s still good to see such a rarity, instead of a house full of kids with no external signs of life, because they’re all inside playing video games.)
BTW I think at one time there were some advantages to growing up in cities, most of which have been negated by technology and security. One of my fond memories of going to school in Denver was the excellent library system and the specialized retail. I lived near an old-school electronics shop where the clerks knew the difference between an inductor and a resistor and could offer advice to a young whipper-snapper. Computer stores where you could screw around with the machines all afternoon. The college campuses were fairly open to the public and one could just spend time in the student union. I was able to vounteer with the PBS station to run cameras and floor direct the fund drives (which was great because they fed us too). I have a feeling all that’s gone. For sure the retail world has become a flat boring wasteland of chains and restaurants.
No one brought me to these places. I discovered them on my own. There’s no way I’d let a kid walk the streets alone in downtown Denver today. Yes, there were homeless back then, but they were winos, not tweaked up psychotics like today.
Hi Nunz,
“I always managed to find stuff to do that didn’t cost money…”
And I’ll bet you also found things to do that would make money, as most kids used to do. Imagine that.
My mother-in-law lives in the ‘burbs, and there’s no such thing as kids going door-to-door offering to clear snow or cut grass for a few bucks.
Me, I grew up on a farm, so no one ever told me that work could be optional. Started driving tractors when I was 5, having sat on Dad’s lap enough to learn generally how they worked. When I got a little older he and Mom started paying me. Today they would be in jail for abuse, no doubt about it.
It’s not that folks don’t want to live in cities.
They don’t want to associate with Homosexuals, Jews, and Negroes.
Re: city vs country living, the move to push us into city living has been active for decades. We talked to a builder back in the mid 80s about building a house in a nearby rural area in Western WA, he commented it wouldn’t be long till the middle class won’t be able to do it, the government goal is to have us stacked and packed in urban areas.
I didn’t push him in where he got his info and due to cost we never did the house build.
Sure enough, within a few years even without the internet there were stories about “Cascadia”, Agenda 21, Urban Growth Boundries. Here in WA and specifically King County good luck getting through the review and permitting process to build what you want, where you want. Where I live in Central WA similar, the State water restrictions over rule our County. It was years of State vs County battles over water use restrictions. No science, just bureaucratic fear speak “you’ll draw down the water table with personal wells on those 20 acre / family home setups”. Now you can do it, if you can pay the vig for a permit, purchase $ Thousands in “offsets” good to go. Mormon friend summed it up, control the water = total control of the people.
I’m surprised the numerous Teslas tooling around our rural county, pretty expensive grocery getters. There are four charging stations in two locations in town, next town is 72 miles round trip with three hills between. It’s interstate hwy and sagebrush between you’re screwed if the battery dies on the way back.
A lot of “old money” owns urban real estate and has influence to keep its prices up. Includes pushing for things like “mass transit”, usually subsidized by fuel taxes paid by trucking industry and motorists that may work in the city but don’t live in it.
EVs could work for a fair number of people most of which would be city dwellers who engage in ot of stops go driving, don’t log many miles per day, and have off street parking/charging capabilities. The niche sounds/looks like:
-Upper middle class+ income. Tow house/apartment dwellers need not apply.
-Smaller to midsized city with fairly robust infrastructure.
-Drives less than 100 miles a day
-The need to virtue signal for muh clim-mutt change
-People who want to drive a boring skateboard rather than a machine.
The rest if us will keep our ICEs, thanks.
Nothing lost I reckon. The driving experiences and utility (or lack thereof) are pretty homogeneous.
You’re relegated to doing something akin to a smartphone review.
‘Car “X” would be delivered to him (or me or another journalist) for a week and then picked up and delivered to another journalist.’ — eric
Last week I was looking for reviews on the Ducati Scrambler. For whatever algorithmic reason, YouTube’s top picks were all out of India.
Watching three of them, I realized that it was three different guys, but the same bike with the same New Delhi number plate, clipped beneath the headlight on the front fork.
Small world!
Cities were INVENTED to facilitate control. True, they congregated sources of goods, so one could get what they needed and wanted within a much shorter radius, but such would require no governance other than a free and open market. They very quickly became centers of control. Kings, barons, mayors, etc. lived in them. And controlled them.
Very few mammals thrive in crowded conditions. People are not one of them. But the Psychopaths In Charge do not WANT you to thrive. They want you to serve, or die. But most of all, to obey, or die, which is the very foundation of all government.
Eric, you should bribe the guys by offering a spin in your Firebird while they wait for the golf cart to charge. I’m sure they’d jump at the chance to drive a real car again.
AHAhaha! I could just see that, Roland!
“Sorry ’bout the bashed-in side, dude, but like your lane-keep assist and blind-spot monitors never alerted me”. 😀