QOTD: Are We Afraid of the Future?

by Tim Healey

Published: January 3rd, 2023

I was scrolling through Twitter to kill time during halftime of whatever football game I was watching the other day -- god, I watched so much football this weekend, not that you care -- and I came across this column from Motor Trend editor Angus MacKenzie.

In short, MacKenzie argues that American car enthusiasts are afraid of the future -- specifically, we're afraid that the internal-combustion engine is going to die and that EVs are going to be terribly boring appliances that generally aren't fun to drive. He goes on to argue that just because some current EVs aren't fun for enthusiasts, that doesn't mean the next generation won't be (for some reason, he doesn't mention current "fun to drive" EVs like the Ford Mustang Mach-E GT or the Kia EV6 GT). As evidence, he points out that he's seen future EV products at off-the-record press briefings and that these future products look great. He also mentions that hydrogen and fuel-cell tech isn't dead and that hydrogen could keep the ICE alive.

I was going to write an op-ed on this column since I agree with MacKenzie's overall thesis -- EVs don't have to be boring, and there will likely be enthusiast-oriented EVs on the market sooner rather than later. But after a few minutes of thought, I figured this topic is tailor-made for a QOTD.

So, I ask you -- are you scared that the automotive future will be filled with boring transport pods powered by electricity? Or are you excited that automakers are building cars like the EV6 GT? Do think, as I do, that the future EV-filled market will look a lot like the current one, where 80-90 percent of the vehicles are aimed at the consumer who could care less about horsepower and torque and fun but a certain percentage are aimed at enthusiasts?

Sound off below.

[Image: Kia]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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2 of 60 comments

28-Cars-Later on Jan 05, 2023

The X Files told me I could Fight The Future.

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Bob65688581 on Jan 09, 2023

There's s-o-o-o much disinformation floating around... but the situation isn't really so complicated.
EVs are different. Even daily-driver, go to the supermarket, EVs are rocketships when accelerating. But their state of charge must be managed more attentively than an ICE.
Tradeoff.
Personally, I think that America's total acceptance of "cars everywhere, all the time" is unhealthy. Zillions of cookie-cutter suburban homes are not really the American dream. But is simultaneous with EVs rather than directly related.

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