Increase in Anti-EV Media Articles

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This discussion was created from comments split from: EVs are worse for the environment (the myth).

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MrMusician18

I've been noticing this more and more within the last few months, a more vocal opposition to EVs in media and particularly on social media. As someone that's interested in cars and tech, my feeds have now become filled with quite strong anti EV content.

While some of it is just outright hatred for the vehicle type (I'm thinking the likes of McMaster from the video posted here a week or so ago) a lot of it is woven in with broader conspiracy theories about government wanting to take your freedom and ability to own things. It's also wrapped up in stories of phenomenal depreciation, low sales volumes and car fires.

This may be coincidental, but I've also noticed increased aggression towards me on the road too when in my own EV, but not something that I experience when I'm driving the old diesel. I've been smoked with more than a couple of dangerous overtakes when driving at the limit.

Anyone else noticing a strong anti EV narrative being pushed online, and if you have has that do you think it's started to bleed through to your experiences on the road?

SharkMX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058323575/an-anti-ev-cohort-within-media

Im noticing some people I know who certainly arent happy they spent over €40 of 50k on a car and didnt have home charging.

Also a few who are disappointment when they go to fast chargers and have to queue up for ages.

Most I know who have gone EV though and have home charging and hardly use the infrastructure are very happy.

I guess its all down to making sure the car and any limitations you have work. If they dont work, dont buy. but buyers remorse is big if its an EV because they are expensive.

Ash.J.Williams

Ev annoys me ,I feel we should drive the car best suitable for our needs , if that is electric then great but if it's not then we shouldn't be penalised

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121395564#Comment_121395564

I don't know anyone silly enough to buy an EV that doesn't have home charging. It was the major reason we didn't make the jump until we got a place that had its own driveway. That and the ranges available up until 3 years ago were fairly poor for a single car household.

While I understand frustration from someone that's been burned, most of the anti EV content is at best uninformed rants but a lot of it is outright lies and misinformation.

L1011

The UK print media, particularly the Telegraph, have an absolutely unhinged anti-EV standpoint. Even on stuff where there could be the basis of legitimate complaint they take the approach of a swivel-eyed loon.

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121395686#Comment_121395686

The UK media, especially the print media has lost all objectivity in the last decade. Every has to be framed, not on the merit of the argument but it's position within a broader cultural (culture war) environment.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121395725#Comment_121395725

Very much so - but the Telegraph used to known for (actual, not the culture war use of this term to mean conservative) 'common sense' motoring journalism. And now its batshit.

Red Silurian

Unpopular opinion but I think it's the oil industry trying to protect itself by paying for misinformation social media campaigns and bribing motoring journalists

The overpriced and clogged up public networks don't help

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121395725#Comment_121395725

Thats the case for almost all print media providers.

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121395809#Comment_121395809

You coumd ne right and I believe EV sales have dropped off a cliff anyway since the summer.

Hard to see them ramping back up in the short term.

munchkin_utd

I havent noticed much at all so maybe your social media provider is just giving you what you want.

I would say though that "coverage" might be slanted towards picking up stories from the UK, specifically England and ignoring blatant bias for a second, we tend to forget that the central rump of England from Liverpool/ Manchester to London and the coast is an area of a similar size to the Netherlands BUT with an even bigger population.

They therefore need the sort of investment in charging infrastructre that the netherlands has seen, but that doesnt seem to have happened, and when theres a busy holiday period they do have dramatic tales of queues at chargers.

Another factor is that people charging at home, paying little for their electricity and doing 30km a day of a commute and never remotely experiencing range anxiety or needing to queue at a public charger, doesnt make for attention grabbing headlines. The likes of the video posted yesterday where a workman has done 100k miles in an MG5 estate, and has had no issues, also doesnt make headlines.

It might be a little like rental car reviews too. Only people with a terrible experience tend to make the effort to post or make a fuss. If everything goes grand then nothing is said.

Padraig Mor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121395683#Comment_121395683

The number of people that think the Luton airport fire (which was started by a diesel) was started by an EV is incredible. Not alone that, but I've seen posters who are aware of the diesel side of the story swear blind that it was actually an EV started it and "the government" put out the diesel story!

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121395683#Comment_121395683

I'm silly enough to buy without home charging. But I can charge at work and bought the biggest battery available so I rarely need to use public chargers. The times I do need to charge on public chargers I try to pick the ones in quiter locations.

What people should also consider is renting an ICE if you need to do a long journey and are worried about charging. Buy a car that covers 90% of your needs, you'll still save money in the long run even if you do need to rent for the rare long trip.

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121395954#Comment_121395954

Maybe it is. To be fair, this kind of content that's being pushed my way has certainly ramped up a gear since I watched a bit of that John o'groats lands end "race".

Annasopra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121395809#Comment_121395809

It's not helped by all the climate denialism and the crazed conspiracists who have decided everything related to environmentalism climate mitigation is evil

crisco10

My taxi driver today had a 2 y/o id4 with 250k km on it. Said it was the best decision he ever made. Loves EV life, even if public charging is tough at times..

He'd make a pretty poor click bait.

And agree with previous poster, the telegraph is unhinged in its coverage.

joe1303l

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121397379#Comment_121397379

I think your taxi driver opinion would have to be discounted. He’s pretty much got a free car for 2 years as a gift from the taxpayers. (I’m presuming he bought it with the taxi grant and could sell if now for close to what he paid for it.)

kippy

The thing about social media and feed aggregators is that they are designed to suggest or show you content you have interacted with in the past or are more likely to interact with based on your past watchtime etc - that may be why you are seeing more of this type of content.

I don't personally believe there's anything more negative on EVs than there has been in the past but I think there are a few things happening that effect people's perceptions.

New EVs are expensive.

New EVs are not straightforward to buy(there are many more variables to research)

People are realising the charging infrastructure isn't there yet.

They may have been sold a pup relative to their expectations.

That said you'll see plenty positive EV stuff up there as well.

joe1303l

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121397745#Comment_121397745

Some good points here. Most helpful thing that could be done is to ban the publishing of WLTP data on new car brochures, websites, tv commercials and radio ads.

MarkN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121397497#Comment_121397497

Not with 250,000kms on the clock he won’t !!

joe1303l

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121398242#Comment_121398242

Maybe not but Taxi drivers got €20K off and an ID.4 was about €44K 2 years ago. Nett cost of €24K. Cheapest ID.4’s are making about €30K now. Even with such high miles, it might still make at least €20K as a trade sale.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121397365#Comment_121397365

Nobody listens to the headbangers, it's when the moderate newsreaders and state owned tubsidised subsidised news outlets make nutty claims we get problems

SharkMX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121395725#Comment_121395725

Same as RTE :)

Its hard to read any print media anymore. They are afraid to actually have any opinion in case they get cancelled.

I cant even read anything about climate change in comfort anymore. There is a big problem when any opposing views cant be published because of fear of a backlash and loss of funding an cancelling etc.

You just cannot get an unbiased opinion and that makes for bad news.

Scientists are even modifying their results that dont support climate change because there is less chance of them getting published.

Unless its safe to argue for or against something then you just cant depend on the news you are actually getting.

Busman Paddy Lasty

Government policy isn't fully behind EVs* so weak leadership opens the door for gutter journalism and what not.

*Civil Service mileage rates (my workplace too) have EVs at 1500cc rate

*EV fleet was taking off back in 2019 and the €3,800 grant was axed

*Lack of direct Design Build procurement for charging infrastructure as a public service obligation (PSO)

Corrected cc band

Shoog

I have noticed this trend, a concerted coordinated anti-EV campaign over all conservative media. Most of it is pure lies.

The Murdock media empire is heavily in the pocket of the oil industry.

Shoog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121398904#Comment_121398904

There is no balance in reporting climate change denial. The media finally cottened on to the fact that give airtime to 4% of opinion was a form of bias.

SharkMX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121398969#Comment_121398969

Im on the side that there is climate change myself.

But I am not okay with creating an environment where its only possible to get one side of any argument for fear of bullying for want of a better word.

Science needs to be tested and argued. When you dont even allow that other side to challenge your research then you have nothing.

Now im not saying that that you can argue against something just for the sake of it either. Im talking about an environment where proper science can be done and challenged in a safe environment.

Im also not okay with attributing any weather event to climate change (im just picking climate change as an example) either. See RTE with all weather stories having a line in about climate change when any severe weather event happens.

Same for EVs. Im driving one EV or another for a a good 8 or 9 years at this point so i think im well versed in the pros and cons of them. But some people refuse to see any other pov than their own. Every use case is different. As someone mentioned above, when people see the real range compared to what they were sold, im not surprised they are disappointment. When someone buys an EV and cant charge it apart from at expensive, hard to get at public chargers, well im not surprised they are disappointment either. Just because I have one and it suits me doesnt mean it will suit everyone.

Shoog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121399069#Comment_121399069

The media is not the place to discuss scientific debate, that is for scientific journals and forums. Only the most probable science should be debated in the general media. If you are genuinely interested in developments in science then you need to turn your attention to reading science journals.

The reality is that skeptical papers represent less than 1% of all climate papers so you will rarely come across them unless you frequent climate change denial forums who will boost them.

No science is been supressed, it simply isn't credible to argue from a climate skeptical position given the overwhelming evidence. No serious scientist will argue from a position that lacks credibility and evidence if they want to progress in their field.

thehairygrape

We have a two car ICE household, one petrol, one diesel. Would love to replace the older diesel car with an EV. Driveway so no problem with charging point. Three problems: cost, cost, cost. Just cannot justify (or afford) the huge cost of an upgrade. Can’t see why they are so dear. Infrastructure wouldn’t bother me, that just needs proper planning.

Ive often wondered if the availability of PCP finance is artificially inflating the cost of all cars, especially EV? We have an aversion to debt of any kind (mortgage aside), so actually paying out of savings for an EV is just not going to happen any time soon.

Agree with OP that media coverage is anti EV in some cases. Don’t drive an EV so can’t comment on driver aggression.