Public Transit Electric Avenue Certifiably Not "Awesome"

“I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but EVs are great,” John Beltz Snyder boldly writes in the opening sentence of Autoblog’s “ More research shows why EVs are awesome” article.

For more than 15 years, when not writing about cars, I’ve worked in the public transportation sector. With the exception of the two years I spent as an automotive test engineer, I’ve worked on bus and rail projects in engineering and managerial roles.

Mr. Synder, Autoblog’s resident electric-car guru, states a study published by the Indian Institute of Science shows how much money electric buses save over conventional diesel buses. He continues, in a somewhat non sequitur way, to claim that “switching to an EV is about as big of a difference a single individual can make without giving up driving altogether.”

Needless to say, the Autoblog article, and the study it referenced, is of great interest to me. Unfortunately, it misses the benchmark of the cavalierly claimed awesomeness.

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  • Master Baiter Ditch the Giga-casting and Robo-taxi. I'd rather have a turn signal stalk.
  • Pig_Iron If it's not hurting anyone, what's the problem? We have a lot bigger problems to deal with like the failure to prosecute the 5-29 insurrectionists. ✌
  • MaintenanceCosts This is already illegal for several reasons. Is this a new redundant law, or is this just an announcement that the police are actually going to be enforcing the law as is?(Also, most lifts at all 4 corners are illegal too, although it's almost never enforced.)
  • Jkross22 I get Lexus much more now, especially this era. This seems to be the sweet spot for reserved styling, comfort and reliability. No turbos, integrated screen, hard buttons and knobs, good to great stereos, great seats. Still have some pangs of desire for the GS-F for all of the above reasons and V8 sounds, but this is the smarter choice.
  • Canam23 I had a 2014 GS350 that I bought with 30K miles and the certified unlimited four year warranty. After four and a half years I had 150K miles on it and sold it to Carmax when I moved to France a little over two years ago. As you can see I ran up a lot of work miles in that time and the Lexus was always quick, comfortable and solid, no issues at all. It was driving pretty much the same as new when I let it go and, and, this is why it's a Lexus, the interior still looked new. I bought it for 30K and sold it for 16K making it the most economical car I've ever owned. I really miss it, if you have to drive a lot, as I did in my job, it is the perfect car. Some may argue the Camry or Accord would foot that bill, but I say nay nay, you really want the comfort and rear wheel drive of the Lexus. Keep it forever Corey, you won't regret it.