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https://thedriven.io/2025/11/15/misinformation-and-disinformation-why-ev-industry-needs-to-sell-idea-of-electric-motoring/>
"Walking around the halls of Everything Electric and seeing the excellent
products on display, the people queuing for test drives and clambering all over
the vehicles, it is hard to believe that every driver isn’t either driving an
EV or queuing up to buy one.
Unfortunately they aren’t, and this seems like a good moment to examine why.
Not only is this a good week because of all the fun of Everything Electric,
this is also the week in which the Senate committee on Information Integrity on
Climate Change and Energy met.
This week the CEO of the Electric Vehicle Council, Julie Delvecchio, and EVC
Head of Policy, Aman Gaur, appeared before the enquiry in Melbourne to
highlight the misinformation themes that are shared widely across both social
networks and by media personalities and outlets across the world.
The commonly seen falsehoods and their refutations I have taken directly from
the EVC’s submission to the inquiry:
* “EVs catch fire more often than petrol cars” — untrue; per 100,000 vehicles,
international evidence shows petrol cars are 5-20 times more likely to catch
fire and in the majority of EV fires, the battery is not involved. Only 12 EV
battery fires have been verified in Australia since 2010.
* “EVs produce more emissions over their lifetime” — contradicted by CSIRO and
IEA lifetime emissions analyses: Despite higher manufacturing emissions
associated with producing the battery, the battery EV’s cumulative emissions
are lower than those of its internal-combustion equivalent after 2 years.
* “EV batteries go to landfill after a few years” — untrue, modern batteries
are expected to outlast the car and have 8-10 year warranties. Vehicle
batteries often have a second life in stationary storage and more than 95% of
their metals and minerals can be recycled.
* “EVs will overload the grid” — AEMO modelling shows demand impact is
manageable with smart charging.
I can be fairly confident that every single reader of this article has heard or
seen one of these nuggets of anti-EV propaganda on the TV, in print, online, or
spouted by some bore holding a tinny at a party, and probably had to dispute
them at a barbecue, in the pub, or in the comments sections of articles across
the web."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
