As I’ve written before, my dream car is a mythical 3-year-old electric minivan. It’s mythical because it doesn’t exist yet. Even if an electric minivan was released tomorrow, it wouldn’t be three years old for at least [pause for calculation…] three years.

I’m keeping an eye on it though. Here’s a snapshot of what a major automakers have to offer in the direction of an electric minivan as of March 2021. Note that this is only based on my own barely-researched reading of company websites and bits of industry news.

Summary: Not yet

As of March 2021: No one sells a pure EV minivan yet. See below for a run-down of the next-best things.

March 2022 Update: No major changes. The VW van is still years out for North America. The hybrid Sienna and the PHEV Pacifica are still the best options.

Honda: Nothing

As of March 2021: Honda has no electric minivan in production or on the horizon. Their gas-powered Honda Odyssey is still generally regarded as one of the best minivans on the market. I have a 2013 Odyssey, and it is a good van. As far as I can tell Honda doesn’t have even a hybrid minivan, let alone a full EV minivan, in the works.

Toyota: All in on hybrid, no EV

As of March 2021: Starting with the 2021 model year, Toyota transitioned its popular Toyota Sienna minivan to be all hybrid. If you go by a new Toyota minivan, it’s going to be a hybrid.

This is a great improvement over a conventional gas engine alone, and offers an immediate route to a significant reduction in fuel use and carbon output. Still, driving a hybrid continues to prop up the infrastructure around internal combustion vehicles. As a transition vehicle though, this will save a significant amount emissions and if there isn’t a pure-EV option available, I could see buying a 2021 Sienna Hybrid in 2023 or so.

As far as I can see Toyota does not have a full EV minivan in the near future.

Chrysler: Plug-in hybrid option, no EV

As of March 2021: The Chrysler Pacifica is available in a plug-in hybrid model that can drive up to 51 kilometres on battery alone. It appears, that you can’t manually force the Pacifica to drive on battery alone. The vehicle decides when to use the gas engine and when to rely on the battery automatically.

Most days our family drives well under this 51 KM battery range, though it sounds from reviews like the gas motor will start up to keep the van (and battery system) warm at least during winter even if the battery is at full charge.

This is still a good step toward EV minivans and better than a regular (no plug-in) hybrid, as it does encourage some of the charging infrastructure like getting a level 2 charger installed at your home. It’s also eligible for a PHEV subsidy where live on Prince Edward Island (even for used models, which is a nice policy improvement).

Volkswagen: Nothing yet, but an all EV van promised

Update – March 2021: According to Car & Driver, the ID.Buzz van will be released in 2022 for Europe, and 2023 for the US (no word on Canada).

As of March 2021: Volkswagen doesn’t sell a minivan of any kind in North America right now. They have indicated that an EV model of the VW minibus is in the works as part of their ID line.

This sounds great, and is more than just vaporware considering that they are actually manufacturing and delivering their ID.3 and ID.4 EVs elsewhere in the world (though not yet in Canada).

For now though, you can’t buy an EV minivan from Volkswagen today nor is there an indication of when that will change.

Kia: Nothing

As of March 2021: Kia is busying trying to make their minivan look like a big SUV (wrong approach – embrace the minivan!). There’s no indication of an electric or even a hybrid model.

Hyundai: Nothing yet, but a hint

As of March 2021: Hyundai doesn’t have an EV minivan available, but they have started to talk about their new Staria van. There’s no indication yet of what will power the Staria, but I’d like to think that there won’t be too many new gas-powered models announced anymore.

Tesla: How do you feel about gull-wing doors?

As of March 2021: Tesla is the only major car company that is purely focused on electric vehicles and has a large number of real all-electric models on the road.

The closest thing they have to a minivan is the Model X. It gets close in terms of seating capacity, but is much more like a large SUV than a minivan. Oh, and it’s also a self-driving supercar with gull-wing doors that costs twice as much as an actual minivan. Nope.

Ford: Nothing

Ford gets credit for delivering a competitive EV car in their Mustang Mach-E. These aren’t just a model you can “sign-up for updates” on – you can buy one in Charlottetown PEI now. That said, there’s no minivan EV announced.

GM: Nothing

GM also gets credit for selling a real viable EV in the Bolt, but also has no minivan announced.

While there doesn’t seem to be an electric minivan for me yet (let alone one that is 3-year-old, as I’d like), I won’t be buying another purely gas van again.

There’s a scene in the show Ted Lasso where Ted confronts a character we’ve been led to hate and serves this bully a delightfully satisfying comeuppance. In the process, Ted quotes Walt Whitman:

“Be curious, not judgmental.”

I wouldn’t normally suggest life lessons from a TV show quoting a poet I’m not sure I’ve ever read, but it is good advice.

The worst aspects of myself often surface when I lean away from curiosity toward judgment. When I see the best in others, it is often through their curiosity.

My friend Peter Rukavina is the most curious person I’ve ever known. His curiosity can lead him to take a 15-month old child on a trip to Thailand, or follow an interest in letterpress to become the owner of a 1,500 pound Golding Jobber letterpress. His curiosity about open location data led him on a journey of over 10,000 location data points, but also to meet the the people behind the systems he was using.

Despite being a self-described introvert, Peter is a great conversationalist because he is so obviously genuinely curious about how your life differs from his own.

Be like Peter. Be curious.

There are twelve new electric school buses on the road in Charlottetown this week. The buses are from Lion Electric. As a safety precaution, they play a musical tone in place of the grumble of a diesel engine. I’ve heard it going passed my house just this morning.

It’s nice to see a small step to reduce carbon emissions. About 25% of our electricity on Prince Edward Island comes from on-Island wind generation, and hopefully this number will grow soon.

I look forward to these being so common that I come to hate their music.

Yesterday, CBC’s evening radio news program As It Happens covered the embarrassing refusal of the Canadian Conservative Party to acknowledge that climate change is even real. Host Carol Off had no patience with the nonsense she was hearing from members of the Conservative party as they struggled to explain away the absurd decision.

After a rambling attempt to explain the Conservative approach to climate policy from Conservative MP Tim Uppal, host Carol Off replied:

“To be honest I have no idea what you just said. I don’t know what you have told us is your policy on climate change.”

Carol Off, in response to Conservative MP Tim Uppal on CBC Radio – March 22, 2021

Then, Carol Off spoke with Conservative delegate Moshe Appel. To his credit, Appel supported the motion to acknowledge reality, but when trying to explain the confounding decision of his fellow Conservatives, he raised the argument that it’s so obvious to say climate change is real that is is like saying that water is wet. Carol Off replied with my favourite few seconds of radio in a while:

Water is wet and climate change is real.

Carol Off on CBC Radio – March 22, 2021

The Conservative Party can’t be taken seriously. I appreciate that Carol Off acted accordingly.

The editors of the Volkswagen Canada site were trying to helpfully inform me that a Canadian version of their car may differ from the European variations. The composition of this photo and text conveyed a different message.

Is Tom Cochrane the Canadian:

1. Bruce Springsteen?
2. Tom Petty?
3. John Cougar Mellencamp?
4. Who is Tom Cochrane?
5. Must we define Canadian artists by comparing them to Americans?
6. Somewhat agree

I was delighted to hear such a beautifully optimistic take on space exploration from Stacey Abrams’ in her interview with Kara Swisher on the Sway podcast.

After forty minutes of talking about voting rights and how to repair American democracy, Swisher took a hard left turn and asked, “Do you want to go in space?” Abrams’ response (hear it at the 43 minute mark or read the transcript) should be hung on the walls of NASA.

As if that wasn’t good enough, she went on to a completely earnest discussion of how Janeway is her favourite Star Trek captain.

I’ve always loved Star Trek: The Next Generation, but never had much time for the other flavours of Star Trek. Stacey Abrams may have convinced me to try out Voyager. How long could it take to catch up? There are only 172 episodes…

I heard a song near the end of episode 3 of season 2 of the show Search Party that stuck with me enough to look it up. It’s Circles by Prairie Empire. It reminds me a bit of the restrained guitar and vocals from The National. Recommended.

As for the show Search Party, I started watching on the recommendation from Jeff Cannata from the Slashfilmcast. For the first few episodes I just hated the characters, but I’ve been sucked in to their world. Such a bizarre show.

Just puttin’ a new video card in my gaming PC. No big deal.

I stumbled across this cover of Radiohead’s Paranoid Android by Ball Park Music. I have never heard of Ball Park Music before, but I was captivated by their surprisingly faithful cover.

Radiohead managed to make a few guitars, bass, and drums sound like nothing I’d ever heard before in Paranoid Android. Seeing it recreated in such an unassuming way makes me appreciate the original song even more.

Ball Park Music does a great job with the cover—particularly the vocals, but no one can recreate the sound of Johnny Greenwood on guitar.

I can remember listening to OK Computer when it first came out in 1997 and being annoyed by it on the first listen. It just sounded like a noise to me. After a few more listens it not only stopped sounding like noise, it turned out to be a collection of beautiful melodic pop songs.