First Rivian (probably and EV) hater encounter

[Duquesne]

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

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[MIG]

My wife and I signed up for Honda's hydrogen fuel cell waiting list about 15 years ago. We were intrigued even though there was no infrastructure whatsoever. Never rolled out beyond some California vehicles. Fast-forward to 2023. No infrastructure whatsoever and it's still expensive to produce.

 

[COdogman]

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

 

[Redmond Chad]

Some time around 2010 I took my EV to an earth day event or something like that. Someone setting up in a booth near me looked at my car, and said "Is that electric? I don't want electric. Let me know when you have a water powered car."

Maybe it was just my bias, but I figured she wasn't likely to appreciate a physics lesson, so I just smiled. Some people are just too far gone to worry about. They may be the last to adopt an EV, but that's OK, somebody has to be last...

Incidentally, these people may seem to be everywhere online, but they are very few and far between in real life.

 

[Buckets0fun]

My wife and I signed up for Honda's hydrogen fuel cell waiting list about 15 years ago. We were intrigued even though there was no infrastructure whatsoever. Never rolled out beyond some California vehicles. Fast-forward to 2023. No infrastructure whatsoever and it's still expensive to produce.

let alone the fill up times at busy stations.

 

[duessell]

I had one encounter recently with someone who was poo pooing range and a few other EV things. He then asked about cost and said he could never afford one. It seemed to me that he actually really wanted one and that he thought it looked cool (he was really looking it over) and he had read about them. And let's be honest, affordability is an issue.

 

[Ingo B]

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

 

[Donald Stanfield]

I personally would have just mentioned that the rate of EVs catching fire is lower than the rate of ICE cars catching fire.

 

[mikehmb]

Some time around 2010 I took my EV to an earth day event or something like that. Someone setting up in a booth near me looked at my car, and said "Is that electric? I don't want electric. Let me know when you have a water powered car."

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” …

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

My wife and I signed up for Honda's hydrogen fuel cell waiting list about 15 years ago. We were intrigued even though there was no infrastructure whatsoever. Never rolled out beyond some California vehicles. Fast-forward to 2023. No infrastructure whatsoever and it's still expensive to produce.

Precisely why BEVs have momentum. And why Toyota, Mazda and Subaru will see their sales erode. They inadvertently gave Hyundai and KIA an opportunity. And the Koreans jumped on it.

 

[Duquesne]

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.

 

[A Land Rover Forever]

Sounds like one of our next great American political leaders!

 

[Christopher]

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.

They really need to open up their options to other EVs. My neighbor really wanted an R1S, but Rivian isn't part of their fleet program. He gets the vehicle 1/2 off (company pays the difference) and as much as he loved the Rivian, it's hard to pass on a Tesla at 1/2 the price.

 

[SoCal Rob]

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

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

 

[Tim-in-CA]

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

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

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