IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2023 - 24

Book Review
battery-technology research and development that
came together to enable the EV renaissance, the role
of Silicon Valley types in reimagining electric cars
as blisteringly fast " computers on wheels, " and the
important role of EV enthusiasts in shaping the technology
in good times and bad. It ought to become
required in undergraduate and graduate courses in
the history of transportation and automobility, the
history of science and technology, and environmental
history. It is a welcome and thought-provoking
contribution.
My only real quibble is that I wish this book took
hybrid cars more seriously as a genuine bridge
between the internal-combustion era and the all-electric
future, especially in terms of the user experience.
For better or for worse, the petroleum-fueled paradigm
is deeply embedded in the habits and expectations
of ordinary motorists. This means that for all of
the attention that automakers, EV boosters, the press,
and Eisler himself give to " driving range " as the key
metric for comparing the performance of electric
and ICE vehicles, the fact of the matter is that out in
the real world of everyday use, the effective driving
range of an ICE car (including hybrids and plug-in
hybrids) is more or less infinite, and thus mostly irrelevant.
But this is not the case with the straight EV.
No matter what comes up-a sudden need to rush
to the store, or to an emergency room across town,
or to an aging parent's house 200 miles away-a
minute or two at any pump will get you there in a
conventional car or a hybrid no matter how far you
have already driven that day. This may one day be
the case with full EVs too, assuming that charging
points become as common as gas pumps and that
the full recharging process comes to take no more
than a couple of minutes. But we are not there yet by
any stretch. And this is precisely why hybrids remain
a vital bridge: nothing about their operation fails to
meet their users' embedded expectations regarding
what a car can do. It matters, then, that hybrids have
not only saved a lot of fuel over the last 25 years,
but also that they have quietly introduced millions
of motorists to at least part-time electric propulsion.
Eisler also falls victim, as he feared, to the perils
of writing about the recent past. It is an unavoidable
risk associated with contemporary history, and
it happens to us all. Still, I found myself chuckling
a bit at the notion of Elon Musk as a hip, out-there
entrepreneur at the helm of a thriving EV firm. This
of course was written before Musk bought Twitter
late last year in a fit of erratic behavior that not only
called into question his reputation for savvy dealing,
but also put him on course to claim the Guinness
record for " largest loss of personal fortune in history, "
some $182 billion. Tesla has also had an abysmal
run since Eisler finished this text, posting year-toyear
stock losses in excess of 65%. Then again, perhaps
by the time this review appears Musk will have
reclaimed his reputation and his fortune, and Tesla
will once again be the envy of the NASDAQ world.
As for me, I am certain I will be just as late to the
EV party as I have been with pretty much everything
else. There is way too much life left in my current
cars to give them up, and there is a certain satisfaction
in their analog operation, too. Plus, they are
fully depreciated and paid for, meaning that even
factoring in gas and maintenance, they are far, far
cheaper to operate than anything new, including an
electric. But it is nice to know that when my hand is
finally forced, at least I will have the EV smile to look
forward to.

David N. Lucsko is a professor of history at
Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849 USA, where
he teaches transportation history and the history of
technology. He is the author of The Business of Speed:
The Hot Rod Industry in America, 1915-1990 (2008)
and Junkyards, Gearheads, and Rust: Salvaging the
Automotive Past (2016).
 Direct questions and comments about this article
to David N. Lucsko, Auburn University, Auburn, AL
36849 USA; dnl0006@auburn.edu.
24
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2023
