399: Electric vehicle news -- can they replace gasoline?

The boys drink and review Crowhill's homebrewed Viking Stout, then catch up on recent news with electric vehicles. There has been concern about fires and EVs. They burn hot, and it's hard to put them out. With some experience behind us now, while there are still concerns, it's not as bad as feared. EVs are still mostly a luxury item. They're great as a second car, but they can't completely replace gasoline vehicles. They don't work well in the cold. They take a long time to charge. There aren't enough charging stations. They don't have enough range. It would be a disaster if people tried to evacuate Florida in EVs. Home charging is not an option for people who live in apartments, or otherwise don't have access to home charging options. Government goals for EV production and adoption have been way too optimistic. After a solid flood of early adopters, demand has softened considerably. EVs are not as green as people expect. They usually get their power from coal. The materials required to make them are mined in environmentally unfriendly ways. They're not easy to dispose of or recycle. The metals used to create EVs release toxic chemicals into the soil that are toxic to important bacteria. EVs are also much heavier than gasoline cars. Parking garages, safety guard rails, and other infrastructure will have to be re-engineered to deal with the increased weight. It also affects passenger safety in crashes. Put simply, there's no free lunch. EVs are a marginal improvement in some ways, but they're not the green panacea we've been told. We need to put away the cultic, apocalyptic, emergency thinking and allow engineers and the market to figure this out.