Tesla has the highest fatal accident rate of all auto brands, study finds

I suspect the biggest factor is speed. After getting used to EV for over a year, every ICE vehicle feels painfully sluggish and slow. If that's the case I'm curious to see how the numbers compare to other EVs.

Torque and touchscreens.

> every ICE vehicle feels painfully sluggish and slow.

You don't do much towing, do you?

The worst 23 models according to the study are here: https://www.iseecars.com/most-dangerous-cars-study#v=2024

I'm not sure which of them are evs, but you could work it out fairly easily. Even if many of them are, it still looks to me like tesla is doing poorly by this metric.

99.9% of drivers will never tow anything in their life.

> 99.9% of drivers

I think you've just made that up; however, I am willing to stipulate that 99.9% of Hacker News posters will never tow anything. I always forget how out of touch the audience here is.

None of the others are EVs, except maybe a small % of Kia Souls

Mostly non-EVs. In fact the only EVs are both Tesla.

That might be a little high given how many small boats exist in this country, but definitely agree the vast majority will never tow.

Not that one could tell by their vehicle choice, of course.

I heard EVs are very heavy, how can they be faster?

EVs have full torque at 0 RPM so they are capable of accelerating much faster than an average ICE.

The manufacturer can alter based on software, how much current the electrical system is capable of supplying, how powerful the motors are, etc.

But even “normal non-performance” EVs that aren’t designed for performance like a Chevy Bolt come off the line way quicker than an equivalent normal car, even if they’re full 0 to 60 time isn’t that much faster.

I recently drove a 2014 Nissan Leaf. Not exactly a performance oriented EV, and the acceleration it's capable of is 'nice'. Not crazy, but was unexpectedly good given it's 10 years old and only trying to be an EV rather than a "hey look I'm an EV!!!".

Are you my in-laws?

We had to stop talking to them about the possibility of buying an EV because they kept bringing up irrational arguments like this one.

No matter how many times we reminded them that, in the two-plus decades we've been driving, we may have towed something maybe twice. Maybe.

One of our existing cars doesn't even have a towbar. The horror!

The irrational hatred / fear is real.

I find the touchscreen actually less distracting and easier to use than the cell phone I had to use in a Honda civic. Also no critical functions need to be done on the touchscreen, they can all be done via physical buttons on the wheel or stocks.

Eh, my neighbors Honda Pilots and other friends Toyota Siennas are heavier than my Y.

People love to say that EVs are very heavy, or are much, much heavier, massively heavier and so on. This paints the wrong picture in people’s heads. The same people will use the Hummer EV as an example, but most people aren’t driving that.

https://thedriven.io/2024/05/03/are-evs-really-much-heavier-...

> full electric versions are only around 10% to 15% heavier than their direct ICE equivalent

To put it into perspective, from the table, you could load an ICE with passengers and some luggage and it would weigh the same as the EV equivalent with just the driver.

I assume the misconception is because EVs are massively heavier if they had comparable range, as the reason is the poor energy density of batteries. If an EV had the same range as the ICE then it would be massively heavier, but with significantly reduced range it is only slightly heavier.

I don’t think people talk about hypothetical EV weight when they make such claims, the claims tend to revolve around EVs currently on the road.

We should also try to discuss “waiting time” rather than range so that people start to think in these terms.

My overall waiting time is much lower for my EV than my old diesel, despite the range of the EV being lower. Less time waiting to fill up on a weekly basis (0 mins while I sleep vs 5 mins filling up + journey time to the petrol station), less time defrosting in the winter (0 mins remote pre-heat vs 5+ scraping), less time waiting to fill up on long journeys (0 extra mins while I eat vs 5 extra mins filling up).

These are all situation dependent of course, but making people adjust their thinking will help them get a more accurate picture of EV ownership.