Seriously, this meme needs to die. A Tesla model 3 is the same weight as a BMW 340, and the model 3 is hundreds of pounds lighter than an SUV like the BMW X3.
Batteries are heavy, but so are gas engines & transmissions.
Sure, but its also 500-1200lbs heavier than a Civic depending on the trims of each which has very similar utility to an M3 and is much closer in TCO to a model 3 than a 340 or an X3 is.
We shouldn't be having our cake and eating it too by saying "electric cars are more expensive but the TCO so much lower than ICE that its worth it" and then make comparisons to ICE vehicles at the MSRP of the EV.
The point is you don't see a BMW go down the road and freak out about how heavy it is. But there is this meme in everyone's mind that EV's tire polution is much much worse than ICE because EVs are much much heavier. They aren't.
My point is that this just isn't true in the general sense. I didn't choose the Civic because its an "ultra light sporty car" I chose it because it's in a very similar class of car to the model 3 and moves a lot of units, but you could look at the Camry, Corolla, Accord, or Altima and see that the heaviest trims of all 5 (including hybrids) all weigh less than the lightest model 3 currently available.
Those 5 cars cover every sedan on the top 25 sales list other than the Model 3. I'm sure there are tons of luxury sedans that weigh more than the Model 3, but their total number of units is much smaller than any of the 6 cars we're talking about and their TCO is massively higher as well. So if you weigh the average comparable vehicle on the road the Model 3 will weigh more, and the Model 3 is one of the lightest 250+ mile EVs! the Polestar 2 weighs 4400 lbs!
FWIW I agree that the tire pollution thing is a silly aspect to focus on when comparing EVs and ICE, especially considering a lot of people who believe the lie that it makes EVs worse overall are probably driving a mall crawler or bro-dozer that weighs 5000+ lbs.
https://insideevs.com/news/527966/electric-cars-from-heavies...
Model Y is the first tesla vehicle with a structural pack.
I expect that other EV manufactures will eventually follow suit. Why wouldn't they? Less batteries and materials is a win win.
https://old.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/u1926z/confirm...
But beyond that, if the only thing you ever try to compare is 0-60 performance then EVs always have an upper hand because it is one of their primary strengths, and that's great! But cars are much, much more than their 0-60 (as evidenced by a fwd car with a 5.0s trouncing an awd car with 3.1s on the track) and for many people TCO, utility, creature comforts, reliability, etc. are more important comparisons.
