Hi
I tried hard to stay away from this Corvette C8 discussion that has morphed into gas vs EV or Hybrid ... thing. I have to dive in
It is hard for many to accept that cars with ICE engine are a dying breed. The reasons are based on physics and economics. There could be here and there some rationals about the Planet and pollution. The truth is more prosaic. An electric car provide better performance and cost less to make. It is also very easy to discard the Planet thing and make of it a debate about global warming but ICE run on fossil fuel, a finite resource. Any reduction in using this resources buys us of the Human race, some additional time on the planet. We also must prepare for not using this resource at all.
ICE engines are inefficient: close to 75% of the available energy in the fuel is lost. People may not think too much when driving a car about how wasteful that is but, try to get anything and throw away 3/4 quarter of it, be it money food, anything.. Throw away 3/4 quarter and see how far that will take you ... That was anyone does when you start your non-eV, non-hybrid car, aka ICE vehicle. Clearly there have to be better ways: eV cars and hybrid cars are answers for now. For full eV the usual arguments are real and have been invoked here: Reduced range, lack of infrastructure, Electricity is produced mostly from fossil fuel anyway, etc... let me try to address those ... :
Reduced range and lack of infrastructure: 200 ~400 miles is common fare for eV... It is safe to say that on the average, people do not drive 200 miles a day. If we are to take data from the US DOT, Americans, drive less than 20,000 miles a year. According to the same DOT sources. the average drive per day is less than 30 miles. that range of 200 Miles, thus is largely sufficient for most people including sports cars aficionados. There will be times when 200 miles is not enough but for the vast majority of car owners, including sports cars aficionados and practitioners , 200 miles is enough... And there are the hybrids: They provide better performance (yes!), burn less gas, and do not rely on any electric refueling infrastructure...
As for the provenance of electricity: That is true but I tend to believe that the solution lies in Nuclear and a better inclusion of renewable energy within the delivery infrastructure. The current Electric Energy delivery infrastructure is predicated on constant/stable sources that run continuously day in and day out, year in and year out. You don't just turn off a power plant with the flip of a switch. It takes days. The case of Nuclear is even more problematic. Left to themselves they slowly restart ... or worse... , thus next to any nuclear power station there is a large cooling pool that runs on .. yes ... fossil fuel .. Diesel in most instances .. If the reactor and their spent fuel are not cooled.. then .. the results can be catastrophic. Renewable energy OTOH output varies. With the wind, with insolation which are weather dependent ... a few clouds and output may drop by 80% .. not a stable, constant output. Storage of this variable energy output is another issue that many green people, myself included, just would love to forget ... It is unfortunately
the Elephant in the room.
Everything point toward producing more eV or hybrid cars and GM is clear-eyed about it. They will sell as many C8 they can produce while keeping their R&D toward delivering before 2025, an eVette or perhaps ready for production an hyb'Vette.
In the meantime those who love the smell of spent fuel and the sound of a V8, enjoy the C8 'Vette, perhaps the last full-ICE-'Vette. You may now understand the feeling some have for their definitely passé Turntables and R2R or even tubes. The nostalgia is strong but the performances of those is surpassed by things as trivial as a $9 dongle from Apple.
Peace.