The future of cars scares me. I know it's for a better Earth and a greener future but the fact that my children may never truly understand what its like to own a "good old-fashioned" gasoline vehicle is, well frankly, a bit sad. Just look at the Mustang, for example. Perfectly tuned, loud and powerful V8. One of the loudest, most pleasing noises car lovers of my generation experienced. And what’s happening to it? It's gone electric, of course, and Ford say they want to go fully electric by 2025. I’m sure other car companies will follow suit to compete with the new era of automotive engineering. I’m all for “out with the old and in with the new” but it makes me sad that my kids will never experience the exhilarating roar of a V8 engine that makes every animal in a 20-kilometre radius run in the opposite direction.
There will of course be some cars still left over from The Great Switch just like there are with people in their 60s who are still holding on to the '60s. To me, this begs the question, will Ferrari still be Ferrari, will Lamborghini still be Lamborghini? What about Alfa and Porsche? Those kinds of companies live and breath gasoline, with delightfully audible and impeccably tuned engines. Will they disappear off the face of the Earth just like the dinosaurs and the fuel they left us? Well, the answer is probably not. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if those kinds of vehicles become a little bit more, for lack of a better word, economic.
With fewer moving parts the running costs of an electric car would certainly be less. But, have these companies developed enough of a brand pedigree to keep the consumer demand they’ve worked so hard to earn? In other words, would you buy an electric Ferrari? Maybe only time will tell. I certainly wouldn’t and I also wouldn’t buy an electric Mustang.
On a brighter note, this may be something to be excited about. Tesla will have some competition because car companies will need to create vehicles to compete. That’s obviously the case, so instead of Ford leading the charge of this new era by switching a once-great V8 all-American pony car to an electric shadow of its former glory, have the engineering teams at these bigger companies make new electric vehicles not at all based on previous models ever created … ever.
Dear Mercedes and BMW: don’t have an electric C-Class and an electric 3 Series because that’s just plain boring and horrifically unimaginative. We need new cars for a new era. Yes, it costs time and money, but the automotive industry would be nowhere without experimentation and trial and error. Just look at the Mustang.
A recent transplant to Thompson, Jay Hurley is a freelance columnist with a focus on cars, lifestyle and culinary arts. He is from Ontario and studied broadcast and contemporary media.
