Café Inquiry (Online) – The Dirty (Un)Truth About Electric Vehicles

This event is held online. (Click the button to join the Zoom meeting.)

This week, Dennis Gaymer leads a discussion of electric vehicle technology. His synopsis (edited and abridged):

Clearing Away Some FUD about EVs –

I get it. Change is hard. And scary! There’s no shortage of purveyors of fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) about electric (EV) over internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, EVs being part of the Commie, Socialist Green New Deal designed to take away our freedoms. First of all, there are the fires. At least, that seems to be all the buzz. But if you read this article from Electrek the statistics don’t seem to bear this out.  In fact, AXA, a multinational insurance company, recently held a major, live press event to show how dangerous the battery pack in a Tesla really is. Except it turned out that all was not exactly what AXA was trying to portray. Then there are the concerns about limited range and time spent charging, debunked here; concerns about freezing to death in a snowstorm, debunked here; and severe problems driving in hot weather, debunked here. (Videos probably contain ads). The hot weather debunking video contains this link to Transport Evolved’s FUDbusting video series. The claim that sourcing the ingredients for batteries is more polluting than driving an ICE vehicle is addressed here by Jason Fenske from Engineering Explained. And if you haven’t already OD’d on videos, this last one addresses a click-baity video regarding towing deficiencies of the electric Ford F150 reported on by Alex Jones, Sean Hannity and Breitbart.

There are so many myths about driving EVs that it’s hard to keep up with all of the FUD. EVs aren’t perfect. I don’t believe anyone in the EV industry claims that they are. But mainstream EVs have progressed considerably since the introduction of the Nissan Leaf in 2010. It’s time to call out the naysayers and let powered vehicle transportation evolve away from fossil fuels. Join us as we discuss the exciting future of electric vehicles!

Café Inquiry starts with a short introduction of the day’s topic, followed by casual discussion.

This event is free and open to the public. Donations appreciated, but not expected.

Attendees are able to future propose topics which would align with Michigan Humanist’s purpose: from atheism, agnosticism, humanism, secularism, and freethinking to broader subjects in science and humanities, such as religion, philosophy, social issues, politics, evolution, morality, ethics, and psychology.

Café Inquiry (Grand Rapids) meets each month on the second and fourth Sunday.

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Michigan Humanists values the participation of all guests — requests for reasonable accommodation may be made by contacting the event host at least three days prior to the event.

Michigan Humanists expects all guests to engage in respectful discussion. Critiques on views and claims based on merit are allowed, but not attacks on individuals who hold other perspectives.

Any person engaging in disruptive behavior or harassment will be asked to leave, and may be banned from future events pending the severity of the action. Please speak to the event host or contact info@michiganhumanists.org if you feel these expectations are being violated.