Electric Vehicle Challenges for Wide Adoption

It’s fun to watch a Tesla car slide down the road and know it’s fully electric, yet the industry has a long way to go before electric cars can compete on consumer price, before wide adoption is fully feasible. . Believe me when I tell you that I’m not against EVs, it’s just that I see a lot of challenges: cost, weight, subsidies, efficiencies, range, charging infrastructure, etc. And I shudder when I hear people explain how to pave that proverbial ‘road to hell’ with Good Intentions Paving Company LLC. Okay, let’s talk, shall we?

Here are five points about the future of electric vehicles and the real challenges facing the industry:

1). Current battery weight: batteries for electric vehicles significantly increase the weight of cars; Proponents say it’s okay because the new lightweight materials will keep the weight down. True, but if those lightweight materials can do that, they can also do it with gasoline, diesel, natural gas, hydrogen, or steam cars. Which means more competition, at 100 mpg because due to the low weight it is now a huge selling point.

2). End of Life Battery Disposal: Where do all these batteries with chemicals that are not so good for the environment go? Defenders say; It’s not that important. Still, if old cell phones are considered hazardous waste in part because of the batteries inside them, car batteries, which are much larger and have large amounts of material, are even more problematic.

3). Slow growth: Electric vehicles currently represent such a small percentage of the total to us that they are not making any real difference in the use of fossil fuels, so if that is the goal, it will take decades to achieve and will need massive government intervention. The government hasn’t intervened enough in free markets lately (healthcare, biofuels, for example) and how has it worked for us?

4). Electric Vehicle Refunds: When the government grants rebates, we all end up paying higher taxes. If electric vehicles cost an average of $ 10,000 more and we grant rebates, we are subsidizing one sector over another, picking and picking winners. It is wiser to allow the EV industry to climb on and find ways to lower prices to compete.

5). Electric vehicles are quiet – Proponents say that’s a good thing. But, say that to the kid or rider who didn’t hear them coming and got crushed. Some EVs now have “sound” to alert people of approach, and you can choose the sound you like best from several options. That’s good, but it negates the concept and / or benefits of such serenity associated with EVs. Sound requires power too, ask any car sound system audio installer, a second battery or batteries are often added for larger systems.

The electric vehicle industry will have to solve these challenges before consumers have full acceptance or before electric vehicles can supplant the cars we drive today. Please consider this.

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