The future is now! Or is it? It appears electric cars are here for the long haul, but that doesn’t mean you have to give up the fun stuff just yet. Go to the racetrack for one day, and you’ll experience the very best (and maybe the worst) of the internal combustion era. For decades now, enthusiasts have found camaraderie with fellow motorists celebrating the differences and similarities in their ICE vehicles. Whether it’s the same car or vastly different ones, the most defining factor is so often the engine that powers them. Electric powertrains are basically all the same across the industry.

Whether you have one, two, three, or more electric motors, the result is unsurprisingly similar every time. You’ll have access to a ton of power but at the cost of any emotional connection. This is a problem all automakers are striving to solve by artificially adding back in, some kind of emotion-triggering elements. Whether it be sound, gearing, or a combination of influences, one thing is for certain, the world's best EVs still can’t replace the fantastic sensory overload experience of an ICE vehicle. The woes of the electric vehicle are slowly seeping out into the public eye, and here are ten reasons enthusiasts are clinging on to their gas-powered cars.

RELATED: Ford Refuses to Ditch the Internal Combustion Engine​​​​​​

10 Intoxicating Sound Track From An Internal Combustion Engine

Chevrolet-Corvette_Z06-2023
Chevrolet 
Close up of 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 quad exhaust. 

There’s no denying most enthusiasts will miss the roar of a well-tuned engine. Some drivers opt for cars solely based on exhaust notes alone. Think Chevy's thumping small block V-8 or Porsche’s screamer of a 4.0-liter flat-six. Subaru boxer engines are known for their signature sound, as are Honda’s VTEC cars of the past. Ford re-engineered the GT350’s flat plane V-8 to sound “more American”, and it was a success. Engine notes go a long way toward giving character to a car. The vibrations and varying delivery of torque also lend to ICE cars exhibiting different characteristics from one another. There are inherently more mechanical cues that ICE cars offer and it renders EVs numb and soulless by comparison.

9 Convenient Fill-Ups/ Don't Have To Deal With Charger Stations And Range Anxiety

2023 Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing
Garret Donahue
Front view of Blaze Orange Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing parked at fuel station. 

Let’s be honest here. As “quick” as quick EV chargers are, they still can’t compete with the speedy convenience of taking just a few minutes to fill up your ICE car at a gas station. Say you suddenly find yourself in a rush to be somewhere you weren’t expecting to be, and that place is out of range of your EV’s capabilities. You may find that not only would you need to wait exponentially longer at an EV charging station, but there may be a line of people waiting for a charger to become available. Say you just drive to the next station (if you have enough charge left in your car), and you may find a similar situation, or worse, no available chargers.

Reliability has not been EV charge networks’ strongest suit often promising “quick charging”, but either can’t charge at “quick charger capacity” or is unavailable for any myriad of reasons. What if you simply forgot to plug in your EV after a long day at work? You may not have enough power to continue the next day, and the vicious cycle continues. These are real-world problems for people living in the real world. A car is meant to be reliable transportation for anywhere you might want to, or more importantly, need to travel to. Unless your entire life lives within the bounds of the same city, charging is simply an ugly truth about EV ownership nobody wants to talk about.

RELATED: BMW Sees Danger in Abandoning the Internal Combustion Engine

8 Brands With Heritage And Pedigree

BMW-3.0_CSL-2023
BMW AG
Front 3/4 rolling shot of BMW 3.0 CSL 

Brands that have traditionally used Internal combustion engines tend to have substantial heritage, something fairly valuable in the auto enthusiast realm. Heritage models tend to influence current models, offering signature experiences reserved for specific brands. An example of this would be the inline-six cylinder configuration of BMW, a defining characteristic that speaks to the legendary lineage of BMW motorsport and road car performance. Porsche has a flat-6 engine and an iconic teardrop silhouette. Much of the early automakers' struggles with perfecting ICE cars from the 20th century influenced design and engineering styles that enthusiasts have grown to appreciate, many of which continue to influence the automotive industry.

7 Manual Transmissions Offer Ultimate Control

2023 Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing
Garret Donahue
Close up view of manual transmission shifter of 2023 Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing. 

The manual transmission became so unpopular, it’s just now becoming cool again. Porsche listened to the cries of long-time enthusiasts longing for a manual in certain models and they delivered. Mini has just reintroduced manuals in their lineup as well, along with a dedicated course designed to teach those who are interested in learning, how to properly operate vehicles with the do-it-yourself transmission. The joy of changing your own gears is becoming a lost art, but thankfully we still have an offering of manual transmission choices available, good ones too! Cadillac’s manual Blackwing models, any Toyota with a GR badge and a manual, and Ford Mustang’s Tremec manuals all spring to mind.

RELATED: Dodge Will Not Give Tuners Access To Its EV Models

6 Endless Tuning Capability

2016 Ford Mustang Show
Kannachon/Shutterstock
A shot of a couple of Ford Mustang's at the 2016 Mustang show

Yes, you can “update” electric vehicles through the cloud and some updates are pretty impressive (Tesla’s Track Mode), however, the effect isn’t quite the same as tuning a vehicle with an ICE powertrain. Performance upgrades allow tuners to completely transform a car's driving experience, by adding power in certain parts of the rev range, removing unwanted lag, or the ever-popular “flame tune” (not recommended) which literally makes ICE cars shoot flames for the sake of showing off.

Before the forced induction era, however, you had to actually wrench on engines in order to make cars go faster or louder. Thankfully chassis tuning has improved and many sporty vehicles allow you to set suspensions to the correct stiffness and travel for your desired driving. Some allow it on the fly with the push of a button. Admittedly some electric cars offer this feature, however, they are often too heavy to benefit from the wide range of adjustability available.

5 ICE Cars Tend To Be Lighter

Lotus-Emira-2023-
Lotus Cars Limited
Front 3/4 view of blue 2023 Lotus Emira parked. 

Batteries are heavy. It can be argued that engines are heavy too, but battery packs really pack on the pounds for EVs. A Tesla Model S Plaid weighs a hefty 4,766 pounds. Because EV batteries must be installed onto the vehicle in “packs”, and because those individual battery packs can only hold so much energy, nowhere near the amount of energy density of gasoline, EVs make the ultimate sacrifice of combining as many battery packs together to create a more energy-rich system.

Because it is generally best to mount them as low as possible, these battery packs have now become an essential part of EV structures with automakers designing them with this in mind. This brings weight way up and that’s before you add the electric motors, extensive wiring, computers, controllers, and any other equipment required for EV powertrains. It all adds up to a hefty vehicle since downsizing as you can in an ICE vehicle isn’t as useful in EV platforms.

RELATED: Toyota's GR Performance Arm Remains Devoted to Internal Combustion Engines​​​​​​

4 Aero Designed For Performance More Than Efficiency

2019 McLaren Senna
McLaren
A front 3/4 studio shot of a McLaren Senna

Aero enhancements traditionally help a car stick to the ground and therefore go faster around corners. This requires features like wings, scoops, and other clever ways of managing airflow on, around, and even through the structure of the car. These features can be somewhat gaudy in nature, but to actually be able to see how cars can be enhanced in ways where you can see physics happening and then feel them behind the wheel is indescribable. These boy-racer aero features are what help define a performance car from a base model.

Conversely, with EVs, the first priority is the range and being as aerodynamically slippery as possible therefore every model from the base to the flagship must be as straight-line aerodynamic as possible. Downforce kills range, so you will rarely find even performance EVs with increased wings or scoops, a bit of a disappointment when you paid tens of thousands of dollars more for the “premium” model, but have nothing visually, to show for it.

3 Limitless Racing And Track Day Opportunities

Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing
Garret Donahue
Front 3/4 view of blue Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing driving on racetrack. 

Realistically, EVs cannot yet handle full track days. A lap or two? Absolutely, go for it! A full session without draining the battery or overheating it? Maybe, if you’re lucky. A full day’s worth of sessions? It’s going to be a long shot unless you get the charging just right in-between sessions, and if the charger in question is even available and running at peak capacity. Being able to drive all sessions and then make the trip home? Absolutely not. You will undoubtedly be charging after your long day for a while before you can even leave the track.

ICE cars will usually go most of a track day with maybe two fill-ups. Two five-minute fill-ups. This is the reality of the EV world we must learn to accept (for now.) As battery and more importantly charger infrastructure and reliability improve this will probably change, but for now, this type of driving environment is sort of off-limits. So it doesn’t really matter that your new EV has over 1,000 horsepower at its disposal if it can’t handle the pressures.

RELATED: Why E-Fuels Could Stop Electric Cars In Their Tracks​​​​​

2 New Eco-Conscious Fuels On The Way

Porsche eFuel Plant
Porsche
Aerial shot of Porsche's Haru Oni eFuels pilot plant in Punta Arenas, Chile

Promising eco-friendly fuels are being developed right now. Namely, Porsche, which has invested a significant effort in developing what they are calling “e-fuel”, acts just like gasoline, but is clean burning. It is produced from water, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide, that’s it! E-fuel allows drivers to fuel up their ICE cars as normal without any changes to their vehicles. Often with alternative fuels, extra equipment is required to alter the engine to utilize fuels, but e-fuel promises a simple transition. Better yet, e-fuel can utilize existing infrastructure as it is used in a liquid state, just like gasoline. Porsche’s e-fuel is said to provide “near CO2 neutral operation.” This new fuel could greatly reduce ICE vehicle impact on the environment as Porsche intends to ramp up production by the end of the decade.

1 Electric Vehicles Aren't So Green Afterall

The Taycan Turbo S' Performance Battery Pack
Porsche
The two-tier Performance Battery Plus of a Porsche Taycan Turbo S

The type of batteries EVs currently use is the main culprit for the downfall of the seemingly promising tech. More specifically, the mining involved non-renewable metals such as lithium-cobalt varieties. These types of metals have to be removed from the ground much like fossil fuels, except they also require a vast amount of water to separate the metals from other earth materials. Although manufacturing practices have improved somewhat, reducing the number of factories and reducing the number of parts sourced from across the globe, the production of the electricity that powers EVs is still mostly created through fossil fuels. Solar power production and other alternative electricity production methods are starting to help in some capacity, but there is much work to do in these key problem areas.