Before plastering some stickers on my car, I cleaned the spot with a paper towel, which turned black. Some road filth is from tires and brakes slowly wearing out, but a huge reason that cars are so dirty is because of emissions.
When I’m driving behind an impatient pickup truck driver who finally gets to pass someone, I’m the recipient of a blast of grime. The truck driver hits the gas pedal hard to pass the slow vehicle and out billows black exhaust which I drive through muttering, “You motherfucker!” It must be really satisfying for that driver to look back and see his vehicle’s impressive airborne vomit.
Internal combustion is no longer our only option. But there are many factors discouraging the sale of electric vehicles. According to the news media, Elon Musk’s political views and trillionaire status have turned many people off to the idea of buying a Tesla. In addition to Teslas, other electric cars lag in sales due to range anxiety, steep prices, and the difficulty of charging for apartment dwellers. Naturally, oil industry lobbyists do their part to keep EVs from getting a bigger slice of the pie.
As I was spiffying up my car, I was thinking how much cleaner the air would be if most car, truck, and semi drivers were driving electrics. There’s still pollution generated in the creation of these cars, but in the long run, they pollute much less than internal combustion vehicles. We would need many fewer car washing businesses, which seem to be popping up everywhere! There are an estimated 60,000 car wash businesses in the US. If most people were driving EVs, a vehicle might need a wash just once or twice a year. Especially in the South where there’s not a lot of road salt, this could be the dreamy reality.
Am I the only one who’s imagined that the myriad car and window washers of America jumped for joy in 2025 when EV rebates ended? People who make their money off of soot have nothing to worry about in the USA for years to come, it seems. Long live crud!
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