The Elitism of EVs

They tell us battery powered devices are necessary to prevent the “climate” from “changing,” which they claim is happening because we’re driving cars. What they don’t tell us – directly – is that they’ll use devices to get most of us out of cars rather than getting us to switch from cars to devices.

That’s the intent, at any rate.

How will they do this? Take a look at the window sticker of the devices they’re pushing on us. One example being the device to which they have affixed the “Charger” name. It has a base price of more than $60k – or about just shy of twice as much as it cost to buy the car named Charger when it was last available in 2023, when you could buy one for $33,200.

Next up, the VW I.D.  Buzz – which is a device that is meant to evoke fond recollections of the VW Microbus of the Hippie era back in the ’60s. Apparently, VW hopes people will forget that a Microbus didn’t cost $61,545 to start, as the device that hopes to leverage  memories of it does.

A 1967 VW Bus stickered for about $21,00 in today’s money – or about a third the money it takes to buy the device that only affluent Hippies (a chimeric being if ever there was one)  can afford. One that only affluent Hippies can house. You didn’t need to own a private garage to be able to charge up an old VW bus at home. You do need one to avoid waiting half an hour or so several times a week at a Sheetz if you own a device such as the I.D. Buzz.

These are just two examples. There are many others. In fact, it is all of the others. There is no such thing as a device that costs less than a car. Every device costs more. And not just a little bit more. The cost difference generally amounts to at least $10,000 – and often a great deal more than that – when you compare the cost of a device to a vehicle that is otherwise similar (and also functionally superior).

Case in point: The Nissan Leaf is one of the less-expensive devices available. Its base  price is $28,140. Nissan’s Versa is the comparable alternative, in that it is about the same size and shape. But the Versa’s base price is $17,190. Put another way, it would cost you $10,950 extra to replace a car like the Versa with a device such as the Leaf. Not counting the hidden costs of owning the device, which include a shorter service life and much more rapid depreciation.

Another case-in-point: The Chevy Bolt EV. It is the least expensive device sold by General  Motors. It stickers for just over $30,000 to start. Or you could buy a Chevy Trax – which is about the same size and looks similar – and will last longer and hold its value for longer – for $21,163.

As you move up to larger devices, the price disparity increases markedly.

Case in point: The 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ – which is the device made to look the Cadillac Escalade SUV. It stickers for $129,990 to start. The Escalade – the SUV,  not the device – stickers for $87,595 to start. That’s a difference of $42,395 – for the device.

It wasn’t all that long ago you could buy an Escalade for not much more than $42,000. (Its base price back in 2005 – only 20 years ago – was $53,850.)

The cost of these devices is driving people out of vehicles – or will, when the only vehicles you’re allowed to buy are devices. This is clearly the intention. If it weren’t – and if the “climate” really were “changing” – then the devices being foisted on us would be designed to cost no more than the vehicles they want us to abandon and ideally, less. So as to give us an incentive to want to buy them in addition to us being able to afford them.

Instead, the curious emphasis has been on gratuitous attributes such as performance and luxury. Not there is anything wrong with either attribute – if you are someone who has the cash to indulge. Luxury and performance cars have always – until now – been elite cars, but not necessarily elitist cars.

The distinction is significant.

An elite car is one that’s available to anyone who has the means and wants to buy one. For example, a Corvette or a Mercedes. A elitist car is one that is only available to those who have the means and for those who do not, nothing else is available.

It is no skin off one’s nose if one cannot afford a Corvette when one can afford a Camaro, say. Or when the neighbor buys a Mercedes but you have your Camry – and both serve equally well as transportation.

But what if the only “option” – other than hitching a ride, walking or taking the bus – is to buy a device that costs as much as a Corvette or a Mercedes? Well, the you hitch a ride or walk or take the bus.

That’s where we have been headed the past four years and if they had another four years, it is all-but-certain they would have ensured only elitist vehicles – in the form of these devices – would be available.

Then it would have been a simple matter of attrition – as the already-in-circulation alternatives to devices age out of circulation, leaving no option other than a device priced such that only the “elite” can afford one.

Now there’s a chance that they can be stopped. But it won’t be easy and is certain to be traumatic – because so many vehicle manufacturers have already bought into this business (probably the wrong word) of manufacturing elitist devices. Billions have been committed – and it will therefore cost billions to un-commit.

For that reason, expect a fight. One that will probably be a lot like trying to deprogram a child who has fallen under the sway of a cult.

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