While environmental activists and EV manufacturers have crafted a narrative that EVs are not just the cars of the future but our only clean solution to an ostensible climate crisis, Elder uncovers the dirty truth: EVs require more energy to produce, provide less freedom for drivers, empower America’s chief rival in the world, and actually make things worse for the environment.

“Mass delusion has always fascinated me,” Elder says in the film, “Electric Vehicles: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” released on Salem Now. “Scientists, media people, politicians, academics have convinced the average person that our climate is in peril and if we don’t do something real fast to get us off of fossil fuels, we’re going to be in trouble. I just, intuitively, am skeptical about that.”

He asks the hard questions, and comes away with unsettling answers—for the proponents of EVs. Ironically, only the oft-demonized fossil fuels give viewers a sense of hope for the future, and many political and ideological forces are attempting to snuff out the lights powered by the internal combustion engine.

Contrary to Popular Narrative

Fossil fuels haven’t made life worse for humans or the environment, experts in the film tell Elder. Alex Epstein, an energy expert who wrote the book “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels,” tells the radio host that climate-related disaster deaths have decreased 98% in the past century, and “a key cause of that is fossil fuels.”

Ronald Stein, an expert, notes that EVs require a massive amount of energy to produce, which is often generated by fossil fuels. This leads to a significant carbon footprint, making EVs no more environmentally friendly than traditional cars.

The Dark Side of Electric Vehicles

Earth Day seems the perfect time to deliver this important message. The transition to EVs would prove an “enormous boon for China,” warns Dan Kish, senior vice president of policy at the American Energy Alliance.

America may “essentially become a vassal state of China” if we continue down this path, Carafano notes. Moreover, electric vehicles undermine America’s cybersecurity and pose significant privacy risks, says James Jay Carafano, a Heritage Foundation analyst.

The Financial Reality

"Green" technologies are also not cost-effective. California already faces rolling blackouts as it seeks to use more solar and wind energy, which cannot generate power on demand but must rely on climate conditions. EV manufacturers and environmentalists like to dress up electric vehicles as the sleek, fashionable future, but Elder convincingly paints the opposite picture.

According to a McKinsey and Company study last year, nearly half of EV owners say they want to buy an internal combustion engine car next. It's time for Americans to think critically about the real costs of transitioning to electric vehicles.