> a motivated belief among consumers that automakers’ latest and greatest offerings—whether powered by gasoline, batteries or a hybrid system—are inferior to the products they are replacing.

I share this belief. I think that it's clear that new cars are inferior to the older ones and have been for at least a few years now. Whether or not they're electric doesn't enter into it.

But, to be fair, it depends on what you value in a car. New cars are better in several ways, but they're worse in other ways. So the fairest way to look at this is that automakers have chosen a good/bad tradeoff that is not appealing to a lot of people.

For me, that tradeoff is very solidly on the "unacceptable" side.

Wish the Chevy Volt was still in production. That was a nice car.