If you'll excuse the pun, I think that with regard to the planet saving claims of EVs in particular, many people are being taken for 'a ride'. Was it Mark Twain who said that "it's easier to con people, than it is to convince them that they have been/are being conned"?
Interestingly, Liberman, in the article, made no reference to what is increasingly becoming clear in many parts of the world regarding the huge green energy costs crisis. This crisis relates to Malthusian Zero-Sum Poverty trap issues, that global net-zero policies have already begun to plunge many of us all back into. In brief, the trap explains how poorer people get poorer, richer people get richer, due to the massive rise in energy costs when you restrict ordinary people's access to cheap energy. Cheap energy, access to cheap coal and fossil fuels, from the 1820s initially in the UK with the Industrial revolution, broke the poverty trap, as this is happening now in fossil-fuel burning China, India and Indonesia, creating an expanding middle-class and reducing poverty, child mortality, and lengthening people's life spans- see
Breaking out of the Malthusian trap: How pandemics allow us to understand why our ancestors were stuck in poverty .
More generally, there are also many other genuine issues that the article conveniently didn't confront - see for example
10-biggest-problems-electric cars
Don't get me wrong, hybrids aren't all bad (IMO) but we need to have the personal choice of whether we want one or not, rather than have them imposed upon us as the only choice by multinational organisations and NGOs that claim to know what's best for us better than we do ourselves and offer us no choice to decide otherwise.
For example, my neighbour has just bought a Jeep Compass self-charging hybrid, and it does indeed seem to be showing great mpg figures, so that's a big plus and a reason to buy one for him. But he, like me, doesn't buy the 'greenwashing' that the car-industry's marketing departments and many Governments are promoting. Also, today in the UK at least, with electricity costs and the fact that 25% of our electricity charges are higher related to "green levies/taxes', the unit cost of electricity to run an EV car is more expensive than the cost of running one on unleaded petrol.
Personally, I wouldn't choose a hybrid Subaru today, as I had the displeasure of driving a Forester e-boxer hybrid for a day, while my OB was being serviced. The Forester only had 3,000 miles on the clock, but compared to my previous experiences driving an ICE Forester, this one was so very heavy and ponderous, presumedly due to the weight of the batteries. Driving away from junctions, particularly at heavily trafficked roundabouts, was not a comfortable experience, and I found myself switching the driving mode to S in order to try (not v effectively) to squeeze some improved acceleration from a standstill, so as to allow me to join the traffic flow safely.
These green issues can be very polarising, and I respect people's right to come to different conclusions, but we do need to have all sides of the debate aired, so everyone can form their own opinion, and change it, or not, when new information or perspectives appear. I just hope Subaru continues to offer some reasonably priced ICE vehicles in the future for customers to be able to choose should they wish.
