Electric car bashing video

[RandomFact314]

David's farm video, watch this guy all the time, found this video of him bashing electric cars...

What do you think about what he says?
Any counter-attacks?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6-lT...ure=grec_index

[Ryland]

He has some good points, but his costs are wrong, for $7000-$10,000 you can buy a very nice battery pack for an all electric car, not a hybrid and after 100,000 miles it should have dropped in range by 70-80%, worse case.
I'm not a fan of hybrids for some of his reasons, mostly that I like simple cars, but that is why I am a fan of electric cars.
I am not a fan of VW's because they cost alot to maintain, their diesels require alot of regular service and also cost alot to maintain, every time I talk to someone who owns one I ask them how they like it and I get the same answer "great for long distances but costs alot to own" an example of this is replacing the injector pump on a diesel is going to cost you about the same as replacing the battery pack on your hybrid and it's going to need to be done about as often.
with that said, if I drove long distances on the highway I would buy a diesel, if I drove alot every day stop and go I would buy a hybrid, if I just want to be efficient then I would buy the car I own, a civic vx.

[VegasDude]

What sorta mileage does he get outta that mower?

[bgd73]

moving to north central maine as a kid, I did not understand the davids farm types.. but understood quickly the dynamics needed are nearly barbaric. I never forgot. I knew much smarter than david's farm with the hillbilly madness.. therefore I do not really like what he does many times.

The easy going and free spirited is worth a watch every time.

I knew he was a buried farmer when his welding how to videos showed him working in the snow. That is an act of desperation only. real welds have to wait in climactic areas (he is not far from where I am now in fact)

another vid had him welding a gas tank into the leaps of spring.. the worst time ever to be welding gas tanks...

and most recently I left a comment about no studs in the strut towers of one of his skyhill jumping buggies....

I look at the mechanical stuff as a crew chief.. no relax there for me. But the other stuff, horsing around it is funny, and he is lucky.

pay no mind to the integrity of his mechanical opinios on alot of subjects. It is no worse than me believing in 3600 pound vehicles as a minimum ...

[jkp1187]

My thoughts:

1.) First, he's not talking about electric cars, but rather hybrid-electric vehicles.

2.) I'm not against hybrids, but after doing a bit of thinking on the subject, I would prefer my next vehicle (on which fuel economy will be an important factor) to be a diesel in part for some of the reasons he says here. There seems to be less need to compromise the vehicle's driving dynamics, while still giving very good fuel economy. (Hybrids are still far superior in the city, though.) We weren't exactly blown away after our Prius test drive last weekend -- wasn't impressed with braking or emergency handling at all, nor the oddball center console. We were very impressed with the Audi A3 TDI, though. Secure handling, good safety ratings, etc.

3.) He's wrong about the battery replacement price - I think that's around $3000 or $4000 for the Prius. It will no doubt be higher for a straight up EV. He's not wrong that there are environmental costs to creating the batteries, but I have not seen anything establishing that these costs are, throughout the vehicle's lifetime, more than the lifetime costs for a non-hybrid.

4.) He mentions that the Chevy crossover gets equivalent fuel economy to the Ford Escape Hybrid. I imagine he's only talking about highway mileage -- city will no doubt be a different story. But it's a fair point that fuel economy for non-hybrids is beginning to increase across-the-board.

5.) It's a little unfair to imply higher operating costs for a hybrid. This might be the case after the lengthy battery warranty expires, and the owner is on the hook for battery replacement, but it is not borne out by any facts right now. The battery warranties for the popular second-gen Prius are still running (I think they were 8 years, and the models were released in '03 or '04...)

[sjr]

its easy to bash, would rather hear some useful info

[tjts1]

Thats not a rant. This is real rant. Colorful language.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRNcDxe5_Aw