Man approaches group of extreme petrol heads to ask them to explain exactly why they hate electric cars
Published on Apr 23, 2026 at 2:37 PM (UTC+4)
by Ben Thompson
Last updated on Apr 23, 2026 at 2:38 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Mason Jones
The petrol and EV debate has been raging for a while now, with many petrol heads being adamant that they hate electric cars.
YouTube channel Chargeheads is on the side of EVs – as its name would suggest.
But they wanted to understand how the opposing side felt about the contentious car debate.
To find out, they ended up going to car meets in the UK to hear it from petrol heads themselves.
Why these petrol heads aren’t fans of electric cars
For the sake of this video, the Chargeheads team attended two car meets.
One was organized by Beds Modified in the city of Luton, while the other was hosted by Autonomous somewhere in the county of Bedfordshire.
The people attending these events were the most devoted petrol heads you could find anywhere.
What was the most common criticism that was voiced among these groups?
Well, first and foremost, it was the noise.
Many attendees mentioned that they would miss the roar of the engine and the presence of a loud exhaust.
Although many Americans might find this hard to believe, many of these drivers claimed they would miss the feeling of driving a manual car.
Something about ‘yanking’ a car into gear really appealed to them over what they described as driving a ‘glorified microwave’.
We’ve heard EVs be likened to a lot of things over the years, but a microwave is a new one on us.
How about the common comeback from EV defenders that electric cars are cheaper to run than gas cars?
Would that be enough to convince these sceptics?
It wasn’t, especially for attendees who didn’t have a driveway at their property.
The perception that public charging is more expensive than home charging isn’t unfounded, so it’s understandable why some people weren’t going to be swayed.
And of course, range anxiety was frequently cited as a concern.
This is a commonly heard anxiety from people sitting on the fence about EVs, so it’s no wonder manufacturers have been putting in the work to dissuade this concern.
How much of a difference does aesthetics make here?
Another common criticism was that EVs had something of a generic look, without enough being done to make them stand out.
However, one EV was singled out as an exception, and that was the Renault 5.
“That’s the only new car that’s got a bit of the [retro] look, and it’s cool,” one car fan said.
Following stints at LadBible, The Sun, The New York Post, and the Daily Mail, Ben joined the team full-time in February 2025. In his role as Senior Content Writer, his sparkling copy, the ability to sniff out a good story at 100 paces, and a GSOH quickly led to him becoming an integral and invaluable member of the writing staff.
