Video discussing the pluses and minuses of owning battery vehicles?

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Mark W

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Are there any videos about how to decide whether an electric car is good for a particular person. I’m thinking of a video that discusses the differences between hybrid, plug in hybrids, BEVs, and the pluses and minuses of them. Is anyone aware of good ones? I was thinking it might be fun to make one, if a good one doesn’t exist.
 
Mark W said:
Are there any videos about how to decide whether an electric car is good for a particular person.
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The problem is "a particular person" is a subset of the human population that ranges from remote native peoples to urban dwellers in multi-million person cities. So a hybrid works for one, especially those in remote areas, and electric vehicle in a dense urban area.

So the first question is 'Who is your audience?'

Bob Wilson
 
My audience would be anyone looking into purchasing a hybrid, PHEV, or EV. We have one of each in our family. The idea would be to stand in front of them and explain the differences. Rough outline that I STARTED:

Why electric:
  1. Environment
  2. Driving experience, fast, quiet
  3. Tesla cool factor
  4. Saving money on gas, maintenance
  5. Tax credits
  6. Depreciation means great deals on used EVs
  7. Convenience of fueling at home
Negatives:
  1. Expensive sticker
  2. Range anxiety
  3. Lack of Charging station network
  4. Battery degredation and possible cost to replace
  5. Depreciation
  6. Battery technology rapidly increasing
Types:
  1. Hybrid
  2. PHEV
  3. BEV
Economics by state - Differences between electicity and gas prices in each state
 
It looks a little busy to me. My rule of thumb is humans can memorize up 7 things at one time and then forget half by the next day.

The reason I asked about the audience is we can sometime ferret out what motivates them and address those specific issues.

Bob Wilson
 
bwilson4web said:
The problem is "a particular person" is a subset of the human population that ranges from remote native peoples to urban dwellers in multi-million person cities. So a hybrid works for one, especially those in remote areas, and electric vehicle in a dense urban area.
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Yeah, there should be at least four videos to cover the expected audiences:

1. Europeans and others who live where there is good access to mass transit

2. American suburb dwellers

3. American urban/apartment dwellers

4. Dwellers in rural areas (in the U.S. and elsewhere) with no reliable access to mass transit

Perhaps even:

5. Dwellers in remote areas without access to reliable electricity every day

​
 
bwilson4web said:
It looks a little busy to me. My rule of thumb is humans can memorize up 7 things at one time and then forget half by the next day.
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It looks a lot busy to me. Professional speakers know that you should have no more than three main points to make in a speech. If you have a "laundry list", then your audience is going to forget most of what you say.

* * * * *

I'm reminded of this story told by my stepfather, a Protestant minister (and a Doctor of Divinity):

A minister who was a member of the local Rotary club was asked by one of his fellow Rotarians if he'd be willing to be the main speaker at a meeting, and if so how long he'd need to prepare.

"Well," he replied, "How long would you like me to speak?"

"How about 15 minutes?"

"Oh, I'd need a couple of weeks to prepare."

"Well, what if we wanted you to speak for 30 minutes?"

"Oh, I could get ready for that in a week."

"What if we wanted you to speak for two hours?"

"In that case, I can start talking right now."

* * * * *

I'm often reminded of that joke -- which has a real point -- when seeing links to some "Ted Talk" which goes on for like 85 or 90 minutes. Seriously, the speaker has something to say which he thinks is important, yet he couldn't get his remarks down to under an hour? Either he needed more time to prepare, or else he doesn't understand that when giving a speech, less is more. Ditto for the narration in a video.

Now, there are certainly cases where more than 15 minutes is necessary; if you're doing a detailed instructional video, for example showing all the features in a new EV and showing how to operate them, then it may be necessary to go rather beyond that 15 minute limit. But if you're trying to explain a general concept, such as what type of car (gasmobile vs. PHEV vs. BEV) best suits someone's lifestyle, then get it down to 15 minutes. If you need more time, then you're trying to cover too much in a single speech, so break it up into multiple videos.

History's most memorable speeches aren't the ones that went on for hours. Rather the opposite! Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is only 272 words long.
​
 
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head.

Make a basic hybrid vs plug-in vs EV introduction that in a few minutes addresses specific users.

Then have three more specific videos addressing each architure. A brief comepare and contrast followed by details and suggestions.

Bob Wilson
 
Yeah, the "have three main points in your speech" advice would seem point to talking, in turn, about the advantages of gasmobiles/HEVs, PHEVs, and BEVs. Or gasmobiles/HEVs, BEVs, and PHEVs. Or even BEVs, PHEVs, and gasmobiles/HEVs. The natural progression would seem to be gasmobiles/HEVs, PHEVs, and BEVs, but I think it would work better to have BEVs come before PHEVs. Then you can explain that PHEVs are (at least ideally) switch-hitters which can function as either HEVs or BEVs, and you've already explained how BEVs work.

More specialized videos could be created for more targeted audiences.

I don't think pure gasmobiles should be ignored. Even if the person making the video wouldn't ever want to suggest that a pure gasmobile would be the best solution for anyone, it's still useful to talk about them as a contrast to EVs.

And to be honest, I can't see any reasonable case to be made for recommending any sort of EV, not even an HEV, to someone looking for a pickup as a practical working vehicle. There just aren't any practical plug-in pickups*, or even HEV pickups, and there probably won't be for a few years. The first ones on the market, such as the Workhorse W-15 and the Tesla Pickup (which probably won't be produced until 2021 or later), will be in the $50,000+ price range. That may work for some commercial outfits, but not for the average Joe who needs a pickup for his construction contractor work, or his working farm/ranch.

*There are perhaps arguments on both sides of the question of whether or not the Chevrolet S-10 EV was "practical".
;)
 
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In answer to your initial question, yes, there are lots of such videos on Youtube, but many only compare specific models, many are outdated (in five years pretty much everything has changed), and many feature folks droning on chatting about their personal history, or making generic points. So, there is room for better, if you can. Hint: Don't give a long intro explaining why you are making the video. Dive right in. Write a script, review it, cut extraneous words/sentences, memorize your script so you are not reading from it.
 
Mark Miller said:
Write a script, review it, cut extraneous words/sentences, memorize your script so you are not reading from it.
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Definitely have a script and edit it down to cut out the stuff that's not important or essential.

But I'm not so sure that not reading from it is the best technique. Why not do the script as a narration, as a voice-over instead of a talking-head(s) video? Let the video illustrate what you're talking about, with footage of real cars, and PowerPoint charts and diagrams used where necessary -- hopefully sparingly. "Death by PowerPoint" is another failing of many presentations. The "rule of three" also applies to PowerPoint screens: No one single screen should ever try to make more than 3 points. If you've got a screen full of bullet points, then you're going to lose your audience.

* * * * *

I really enjoyed the "Everyday Driver" review of the Tesla Model X (posted below), but it occurred to me when watching it for perhaps the third time that all those video shots of the guys sitting in the front seat having a conversation, while the car drove itself, were a waste of footage. There was nothing added by allowing us to see the guys talking; the conversation between them would have better been used as voice-over while the video was being used to illustrate what they were talking about. Or, if there wasn't anything relevant to be shown by pictures, then they could have inserted one of the many "beauty shots" they have in the video, where nobody is talking. (Beauty shots are nice for a commercial, or when telling a story... but this was supposed to be a review! Beauty shots in that type of video should be used only where needed for short transitions, and for filler as necessary underneath narration.)

As I say, I enjoyed that review, but from a film editor's viewpoint it sucks. It should have been edited down to about half that length -- or even less, if they had edited out most of the sections were they were just repeating themselves -- and would be vastly improved if it was.

 
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Now that I've given an example of a badly edited (altho with interesting commentary) informative video, let me give a sharp contrast with the one linked below. The narrator is a 9-year-old girl... and it shows, because one rather quickly gets tired of her repeatedly exclaiming OMG! over everything, as well as the repeated (to the point of annoyance) footage of her expressing amazement over the car's key fob.

But ignore the childish aspects of the monologue/ narration, and instead concentrate on (a) the superb editing, and (b) the sheer amount of data presented in this video. At only 7 minutes 25 seconds, you can easily find informational videos three times as long that have less than half the content of this one!

I'm fairly sure that whoever edited this video is a professional editor, and no doubt the girl had help editing down her script. But the sheer intensity of the "data dump" in this video is amazing, and it's done without boring the audience. It really shows how much you can do in a short time... if you are willing to spend the time needed to trim the fat.



P.S. -- I see both videos I've linked to are for the Tesla Model X. That wasn't intentional; I'm not getting paid by Tesla Inc., honest! :) (And if I could have any car I wanted, it would be the Model S... not the MX!)
 
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Please note that there is a pretty short shelf life for such comparisons. If you are doing it today, go with what you have. If you are wanting to put something on youtube and not be obsolete in 6 months, the approach has to be different. For example, if you take Tesla's cool factor, something may be cooler in a years time.


My suggestion, compare them across a few categories. I took your points and just put them into four major categories that someone could use to evaluate choices. You can add to these 4 categories or create more or reduce them, but fewer the better. A few may go into multiple categories, so may have to split


1) Total cost of ownership (this takes care of initial costs, maintenance, battery replacement, incentives.....)
Expensive sticker
Saving money on gas, maintenance
Tax credits
Depreciation means great deals on used EVs
Battery degradation and possible cost to replace

2) Features, functionality, performance
Driving experience, fast, quiet
Battery degradation and possible cost to replace


3) Convenience and usability
Convenience of fueling at home
Range anxiety
Lack of Charging station network

4) Environmental and Technology considerations
Environment
Battery technology rapidly increasing

You could discuss the relative merits across the categories or create a balanced scorecard .like this and use this as a framework in your video

upload_2018-10-5_17-54-59.webp
 
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