THERE IS NO doubt any more about what powers the best cars and trucks on earth. Electric vehicles are superior in pretty much every category. They cost far less to operate over the life of the car (you fill up at home overnight on cheap electricity; a gas station is now just a depot for Diet Dr Pepper). They have far fewer moving parts to break. And, oh, they don’t destroy the planet by pouring carbon into the atmosphere. That’s why they’re taking off every place around the planet, with especially huge sales gains in the wake of the 2026 Iran war.
But, as The Wall Street Journal reported, the exception is the United States, where automakers are bringing back … the V-8 engine, the really big block that chugs gas like beer at a bachelor party. Why? Well, the noise. “What truck buyers and muscle-car fans love more than anything, it turns out, is the rich, throaty roar of a V-8 and the vibrations it causes.”
In fact, the newspaper found one Kansas dad who just plunked down $80,000 for a new truck with a big V-8. “It just sounds like what a truck should sound like,” said Brian Ewart. As Antonio Filosa, the auto executive who resurrected the V-8, explained, “The engine is not only efficiency and horsepower. It’s also emotions.”
We’re turning our back on the future because we like … the snarl of the engine?
Maybe too many emotions. Maybe American men have been so pampered for so long that they now have to be treated like small children who need the same dinner every night, and with all the green beans lined up going the same direction. We’re literally turning our back on the future because we like … the snarl of the engine?
Meanwhile, in China, 60% of the cars sold this summer were EVs. And that means not only that China is building out the industrial infrastructure of the future (EV batteries are the base for a lot of other things—drones, say), but also that China’s cities are much quieter. One Beijing-based expat told a reporter, “I have developed a world-class collection of earplugs, optimized for maximum noise cancellation. I still use them on my travels. But when I’m at home, they stay in the drawer.”
Oh, and one other thing. China’s new wave of EVs has cut air pollution enough to prevent about 262,000 deaths. Particulate pollution fell by almost a quarter, and those particulates—which lodge in the lungs—cause four million deaths a year on this planet.
Look, I’m an American. I don’t want to live in China—had I been politically engaged there the way I have been here, I’d have spent my life behind bars. I get the idea that cars have something to do with freedom. But we do need to somehow mature past the point where the noise of the engine is so comforting that we can’t live without it. Guys, grow up! Get beyond the growl!
Bill McKibben is an author and founder of Third Act, which mobilizes people over 60 for action on climate and justice.
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