Imagine driving an ICE (internal combustion engine) car for the first time, coming from…

…EVs.

April 5: We drove in a couple of ICE cars around town (Airlie Beach and Cannonvale) for a few days.

It reminded me of a couple of years ago, hopping back in our Mazda CX-5, after owning an EV.

Here are my observations:

1. You can’t charge it up while parked at home, or at a shopping center. You have to go to a special “fuel station” to recharge the car. You can’t just leave the car to recharge – you have to stay with it, holding the recharge nozzle.
2. It smells. And the fumes are carcinogenic. The fumes come from the nozzle, but also out of the back of the car while driving.
3. When the car has enough charge (fuel), you put the nozzle back in the pump. But then you have to walk into the service station to pay at the counter. It’s not automatic at the pump, or it’s too complicated for most people to bother that way.
4. There’s a possibility of fire. The fuel is highly flammable. And the car actually combusts that fuel to make the car go. There are about 7 ICE car fires each day in Australia, compared to 7 EV fires ever.
5. It costs about $100 for a full charge 😳. I couldn’t believe it. Recharging our EV costs $0 to $35.
6. In order to drive the car, you have to start an “engine”, which uses little explosions of fuel (combustion) inside a big metal block. This engine wastes about 80% of the energy in heat and noise.
7. To go forward, you push the accelerator pedal, just like in a normal EV. But when you release the accelerator, the car barely slows down. You also always have to press the brake pedal to slow down. But the engine keeps going. So, now the engine is producing heat to go forward and the brakes are creating heat to slow it down. I know, crazy, right!
8. When you drive back down a hill, the car doesn't recoup the fuel that you spent going up the hill. Do I have to avoid hills now?
9. The drive is noisy and vibrates. The whole car rumbles.
10. Even when you’re stationary, the car is still making noise, heat and fumes. Anyone standing near the car or sitting in it is breathing in that exhaust which can cause cancer and asthma. In fact, more people die from exhaust fumes than car accidents.
11. Despite all the noise and heat of the engine, the car is gutless. Planting the foot in the accelerator, the car takes a few seconds to accelerate, not instant like in a typical EV.
12. When you’ve parked the car and want to turn on the air conditioning, you have to start the engine to make it work. So, while the air conditioning tries to cool you down, the engine is heating the car up, and poisoning the occupants and anyone near the car.

I can’t see ICE cars catching on.