It’s time to get behind electric cars

Re Electric cars for everyone? Most people aren’t buying, Wheels May 7 Norris McDonald argues that the government is pushing social change on us whether we like it or not with electric cars. Apparently, consumers have colluded and decided we don’t want these newfangled contraptions with their unreliable range and mysterious costs. Sadly, his argument lacks credibility.

The numbers he quotes in terms of total car sales are misleading. The number of electric cars sold in 2015 is around half the number of Honda Accords sold in Canada. This suddenly doesn’t seem so bad.

And more than incremental change, Tesla has already received well over 300,000 pre-orders in the U.S. for its affordable “Model 3,” and is on pace to hit a half-million buyers who have put down real money to be in line for one of these cars for 2018.

If these cars are delivered within a year, it would make the Model 3 the bestselling car in the U.S.

Changes in consumer habits take time, but when the paradigm shift does happen, it happens fast. The advent of computers in every household and cellphones in every pocket are demonstrations of this. Thankfully for us, that time is now for electric cars. Mubdi Rahman, Baltimore, Md.

Auto reviewers have done great work in the past reporting on vehicle offerings, which has led to improved products. But we are now faced with climate change.

Auto reviewers cannot shield themselves from responsibility. Refusing to acknowledge that the fossil fuel industry is heavily subsidized while criticizing start-up electric vehicle subsidies misleads the public. Refusing to take 30minute electric charging breaks every three hours on a long trip or to use a plug-in hybrid is just selfish.

All fossil-fuelled light-duty vehicles should be rated as unsatisfactory products — too dangerous for the biosphere. This will take courage and the self-realization that it is the only moral and ethical path forward. Otherwise auto reviewers will seal their fate as the modern-day versions of tobacco salesmen.

Jim Hindson. Victoria, B.C.