Sort of, but it's not even just that. I think people would quickly get over not hearing a "sports car rumble" if the car performed well enough to outperform all of the cars that made more noise.
The real problem is, electric cars are terrible track cars. They're amazingly good at posting good 0-60 to 0-100 times, so they're good choices if all you do are short drag races. It also turns out that they're a great fit for the realities of how MOST people use their cars. (I've always been a sports car enthusiast, but I don't have any interest in racing on a track. My sports cars have all been daily drivers, and I just like knowing the speed and handling are there, in the random situations where I can make use of them.) But electric cars can't sustain high speeds, or the constant back and forth of hard braking going into turns and accelerating back out of them as quickly as possible. Their batteries get depleted or overheat and start limiting the current output.
I couldn't afford a Tesla P100D, although it's the car I *wanted*. I settled for an older, used Tesla P85D -- and it's amazing for what I wanted from a car. I think "environmental reasons" are mostly nonsense. Modern gasoline powered cars have so many pollution control devices on them, their exhaust is really not a big issue. (And when one is, the car winds up failing inspections and has to be fixed or taken off the road.) And meanwhile, a lot of electric cars are still not exactly getting charged back up by 100% solar or nuclear power. So coal or natural gas are being burned anyway, to recharge them. Electric cars just seem like the way forward, to me, for reasons like the simplicity. No more complicated transmissions to break down. No more regular need for oil changes. Regenerative braking means you barely ever need to replace brake pads. And you have more flexibility when the car is going to be left plugged into a power source while it's parked. (I can tell the car to keep the interior warmed or cooled to a preset temperature, so it's where I want it when I get in. No need to leave a gasoline engine running just to run the air conditioner or heater.) That, plus the performance, with the nice side issue of no longer having to stop and pay for gasoline constantly are the reason I thought it made sense.
The real problem is, electric cars are terrible track cars. They're amazingly good at posting good 0-60 to 0-100 times, so they're good choices if all you do are short drag races. It also turns out that they're a great fit for the realities of how MOST people use their cars. (I've always been a sports car enthusiast, but I don't have any interest in racing on a track. My sports cars have all been daily drivers, and I just like knowing the speed and handling are there, in the random situations where I can make use of them.) But electric cars can't sustain high speeds, or the constant back and forth of hard braking going into turns and accelerating back out of them as quickly as possible. Their batteries get depleted or overheat and start limiting the current output.
I couldn't afford a Tesla P100D, although it's the car I *wanted*. I settled for an older, used Tesla P85D -- and it's amazing for what I wanted from a car. I think "environmental reasons" are mostly nonsense. Modern gasoline powered cars have so many pollution control devices on them, their exhaust is really not a big issue. (And when one is, the car winds up failing inspections and has to be fixed or taken off the road.) And meanwhile, a lot of electric cars are still not exactly getting charged back up by 100% solar or nuclear power. So coal or natural gas are being burned anyway, to recharge them. Electric cars just seem like the way forward, to me, for reasons like the simplicity. No more complicated transmissions to break down. No more regular need for oil changes. Regenerative braking means you barely ever need to replace brake pads. And you have more flexibility when the car is going to be left plugged into a power source while it's parked. (I can tell the car to keep the interior warmed or cooled to a preset temperature, so it's where I want it when I get in. No need to leave a gasoline engine running just to run the air conditioner or heater.) That, plus the performance, with the nice side issue of no longer having to stop and pay for gasoline constantly are the reason I thought it made sense.