First Rivian (probably and EV) hater encounter

[Autolycus]

I don't even engage. I just say, "cool, man." then exit, or just pretend I don't speak English.

Gotta be careful about pretending to not speak English nowadays.

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[R1TruKaLa]

Over the last two days, I drove from middle of nowhere, Georgia to Pittsburgh. Ran into some very cool people, including a lady who had only had her R1S for two days, and was driving from North Carolina to Penn State.
But when I get within 15 miles of my house, I stopped at a Sheetz station which had a EV go charger. I just plugged in and was grabbing my dogs to walk them when a dude pulled up in his pick up Chevy truck. Reminder, i am a car whore…. I came from a Ram Powerwagon and still have two cars and two motorcycles and a 70’s Dodge Powerwagon I’m building.

He looked at me and said ill never on own of those things. I’ll wait for the hydrogen to get here. Those things catch on fire all the time and they’re nearly impossible to put out. I’ll wait for hydrogen..

I looked at him and I said I totally agree. We should get rid of all EVs and wait for the hydrogen because we know we never had any vehicles burning up along the highway when it was just gasoline I mean I’ve been driving for 40 years and I never remember seeing a car on fire along the road, or in the garage ever before with him nodding his head in agrerment.
I finished by saying … for proof of how safe hydrogen is all we Gotta do is look at the Hindenburg. It was perfect example of why hydrogen is so safe..

He said right on man give me a fist pump and drove away in happy ignorance

?

 

[R1TruKaLa]

You handled that perfectly. He probably went home to google "Hindenburg" but came up with this instead and gave up

???

 

[Donald Stanfield]

My god. People made a big deal (rightfully!) about H2 fuel cells creating only water as “exhaust” … that poor person interpreted that as “fuel cells are water-powered” …

It's worse than that. There are people who believe that there is something called an HHO generator that can be added to a ICE engine which will cause it to run on water. While certain setups can generate hydrogen it's far from being able to completely power a vehicle. Some diesel engines use water injection to help combustion and increase fuel economy under heavy loads but these people just misunderstand the concepts at play. Here's an article on what I'm talking about. https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a3499/4276846/

 

[SANZC02]

The very large gvt agency I work for is committed to all EV by 2030…. But Tesla is the sole Supplier so far and they only commit to selling us 200 a year….
Will take us a 100 years to replace our fleet…. Oh yeah… sent us the cars but chargers were in back order so we were paying people to drive into town to the Tesla supercharger and sit for an hour while it charged…. Need to work the execution bugs out of that idea

on the downside, I’d really feel disappointed if the government started buying Rivian’s and just letting everybody drive them around. I’d like it as a stockholder and hate it as an owner.

I’d be surprised if that 200 a year is in place for long, they are not as backlogged as they used to be and are starting to get into inventory glut positions. They may start calling to see how many you can take.

 

[DuoRivians]

Driving an EV will result in an immediate loss of testosterone, as proven by the same people who have shown Bill Gates secretly implanted microchips into Covid vaccines.

Duh!

 

[COdogman]

And you think they could spell Heisenberg? I’m sensing some uncertainty, just on principal.

No, it probably came up as the autocorrect for misspelled “Hindenburg” ?

 

[SoCal Rob]

No, it probably came up as the autocorrect for misspelled “Hindenburg” ?

Oh, don’t bring logic into my nerdy word play. I know it’s a stretch, but I wanted to put Heisenberg, uncertainty, and principal in the same post and in that order.

 

[fhteagle]

It's the principle of the thing, man...

My last encounter with the EV uneducated public went slightly better, but with the same "nah I'll just wait for hydrogen" hard left turn. At least they listened to me when I gave them a quick 3 reasons why hydrogen is not and will not be a thing at the passenger car level.

Fossil fuel interests are getting a lot of ROI on the hydrogen hype. Not because they're actually going to make any that is practical and affordable, but just because it keeps people enough mollified and inactively hopeful that the pollution problem will be fixed "someday". And still buying petro fuels "until then".

 

[Sbarzideh]

I work with a physician colleague who watches a lot of right wing media. He drives a Ford Raptor for about 6 years, travels from downstate NY to his house upstate a few hundred miles often. He was quizzing me about R1T and how mileage is affected when one tows. Fair point, the range suffers by half and it can inconvijient. He said his 6.7 liter gas guzzler can go about 400 miles plus on a tank even with his trailer in tow. To which I responded: when is the last time you drove more than 200 miles before stopping to use the facilities and eat something? He said never. Then I asked well, what do u usually tow? He said my lawn mower equipment. Mind u he is a full time physician. Then he said, the amount of environmental damage done by digging up precious metals that can’t be recycled is more than fossil fuels (which is debunked multiple ways). Lastly he sent me this ford super car link saying this is why ICE will not die! When I pointed out that the super car will be BEV and sent him this link he changed the subject.
Todays alternative facts do not spare intelligent people it seems.

 

[zymolysis]

Todays alternative facts do not spare intelligent people it seems.

You can't beat impenetrable mindset with mere facts. And even intelligent people can have such a mindset.

 

[Redline]

I work with a physician colleague who watches a lot of right wing media. He drives a Ford Raptor for about 6 years, travels from downstate NY to his house upstate a few hundred miles often. He was quizzing me about R1T and how mileage is affected when one tows. Fair point, the range suffers by half and it can inconvijient. He said his 6.7 liter gas guzzler can go about 400 miles plus on a tank even with his trailer in tow. To which I responded: when is the last time you drove more than 200 miles before stopping to use the facilities and eat something? He said never. Then I asked well, what do u usually tow? He said my lawn mower equipment. Mind u he is a full time physician. Then he said, the amount of environmental damage done by digging up precious metals that can’t be recycled is more than fossil fuels (which is debunked multiple ways). Lastly he sent me this ford super car link saying this is why ICE will not die! When I pointed out that the super car will be BEV and sent him this link he changed the subject.
Todays alternative facts do not spare intelligent people it seems.

My wife is a surgeon and she has a partner that sounds very similar.

Indeed, the internet and social media has its hold on nearly anyone.

 

[daeHelkcunK]

Did he have these hanging on the back of his truck?

I was looking for those...I thought my wife still had them.

 

[Steve A.]

Over the last two days, I drove from middle of nowhere, Georgia to Pittsburgh. Ran into some very cool people, including a lady who had only had her R1S for two days, and was driving from North Carolina to Penn State.
But when I get within 15 miles of my house, I stopped at a Sheetz station which had a EV go charger. I just plugged in and was grabbing my dogs to walk them when a dude pulled up in his pick up Chevy truck. Reminder, i am a car whore…. I came from a Ram Powerwagon and still have two cars and two motorcycles and a 70’s Dodge Powerwagon I’m building.

He looked at me and said ill never on own of those things. I’ll wait for the hydrogen to get here. Those things catch on fire all the time and they’re nearly impossible to put out. I’ll wait for hydrogen..

I looked at him and I said I totally agree. We should get rid of all EVs and wait for the hydrogen because we know we never had any vehicles burning up along the highway when it was just gasoline I mean I’ve been driving for 40 years and I never remember seeing a car on fire along the road, or in the garage ever before with him nodding his head in agrerment.
I finished by saying … for proof of how safe hydrogen is all we Gotta do is look at the Hindenburg. It was perfect example of why hydrogen is so safe..

He said right on man give me a fist pump and drove away in happy ignorance

Let's just say that politically, I'm pretty far *right of center* and was a *Ford Mustang/Cobra/diesel Excursion/Expedition/F-150 man* for about 30+ years since my first job out of college at Ford Aerospace, so the majority of my friends and colleagues are definitely firmly in the ICE camp except for a couple (Tesla model Y, BMW iX).

That said, whenever I engage in such debates, I usually shut them up by saying, does your ICE car/truck/suv have more than 835 hp/908 lb-ft of torque and do 0-60 in 3s? That usually shuts them up except for my one colleague who has a modified ZR1 Corvette which he claims does 0-60 in 2.5s.

As far as hydrogen fuel cells, don't hold your breath on seeing it at the consumer level anytime soon, since Nikola Motors is just now producing the HFC-EV semi-trucks for delivery by the end of the year and that's a lease only business model.

 

[Technowizzard]

Over the last two days, I drove from middle of nowhere, Georgia to Pittsburgh. Ran into some very cool people, including a lady who had only had her R1S for two days, and was driving from North Carolina to Penn State.
But when I get within 15 miles of my house, I stopped at a Sheetz station which had a EV go charger. I just plugged in and was grabbing my dogs to walk them when a dude pulled up in his pick up Chevy truck. Reminder, i am a car whore…. I came from a Ram Powerwagon and still have two cars and two motorcycles and a 70’s Dodge Powerwagon I’m building.

He looked at me and said ill never on own of those things. I’ll wait for the hydrogen to get here. Those things catch on fire all the time and they’re nearly impossible to put out. I’ll wait for hydrogen..

I looked at him and I said I totally agree. We should get rid of all EVs and wait for the hydrogen because we know we never had any vehicles burning up along the highway when it was just gasoline I mean I’ve been driving for 40 years and I never remember seeing a car on fire along the road, or in the garage ever before with him nodding his head in agrerment.
I finished by saying … for proof of how safe hydrogen is all we Gotta do is look at the Hindenburg. It was perfect example of why hydrogen is so safe..

He said right on man give me a fist pump and drove away in happy ignorance

Problem with a Hydrogen vehicle is it’s a reworked IC engine with north of 2,100 moving parts versus 75 for an EV. Go figure what the maintenance will cost in the long run.

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