I understand it was always an appealing choice to a small subset of customers (have charging stations at home / work, only travel relatively short distances, etc) but all the disadvantages of EV that people are pointing out now were even worse a few years ago – like high purchase prices, range concerns, batteries underperforming in cold weather, lack of infrastructure, repairability etc.
What was the actual driver behind the massive EV boom?
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Gas prices were suddenly over $4 a gallon. Lots of people were strongly motivated to get Hybrids and to start looking seriously for less fuel dependent options.
As someone that bought an EV in 2011, I feel I can speak to this.
Before 2010, the only electric cars available were basically glorified golf carts using led-acid batteries, and the Tesla Roadster. The golf carts cost as much as a mid-priced ICE car, and the Roadster cost $99,000 (nearly $150,000 in today’s dollars). Neither of these options was attractive to me, or to most people.
In December 2010 Nissan started delivering its Leaf in the USA. It had a list price as low as $32,780, and you could get a $7500 tax credit on you federal taxes. With a net price of $25,280 the leaf was well below that cost of most of the glorified golf carts. It probably had twice the range, twice the speed, and twice the creature comforts of the golf carts. And it came with things like a decent (8 year I think) battery warranty. It was an apples to oranges situation.
Unlike others that are crediting Tesla, I give the credit to Nissan for getting the EV ball rolling. After all, the Leaf came out a year and a half before the Tesla Model S did, was under 1/2 the price of most of the Model S trim levels, and it was the world’s top selling EV until 2020 when the Tesla Model 3 took the top spot.
And if you think that I’m giving credit to Nissan because that’s what I bought, you would be wrong. I bought, and still own, the now all but forgotten Mitsubishi I-miev.
It was undoubtedly advances in lithium-ion battery technology (and thus decreases in cost) that allowed Nissan to bring the Leaf to market. But, in my view, it was the Leaf that caused the meteoric rise of electric vehicles.
With that covered, let me address your list of disadvantages:
– High purchase prices — Yes, for a similarly equipped vehicle they tend to be more expensive. But not hugely so. And there are offsets. They are cheaper to run than ICE cars. The “fuel” is much less, but maintenance costs are generally less also (unless you need to replace a battery).
– Range concerns — For me I have more range anxiety with my ICE cars than with my electric cars. With an ICE car I might be running late and then realize I need to stop for gas. 😖 With my EV, if I plug it in every night, I always have a full “tank” in the morning — no worries!
– Batteries underperforming in cold weather — Yes they do. EVs don’t do well in extreme cold. This is a real problem. But then again the news doesn’t report on how many ICE cars wouldn’t start at -30 F.
– Lack of infrastructure — Again this is a real concern. In my view, EVs are currently only a good fit for people that can plug in at home.
– Repairability — This can be a problem when they need it, but they generally need a lot less repair than ICE cars. I’ve had a couple of major issues (battery replaced under warranty, charger failed not under warranty). But after owning my I-miev for 13 years and 130,000 miles, it is still running it’s original brake pads!
Tesla Supercharger station and game industry practices.
EV vehicles are more expensive and people in upper economic strata are more likely to conduct interstate travel or, in case of Europe, to conduct intercountry travel. So if these people wanted to drive EV, they would also need to have a second gas or hybrid car.
Tesla solved this issue with Supercharger stations. If people know that they can conduct these sort of travels, they are willingly to buy EV.
However for building Supercharger to cover the most used interstate freeways, Tesla would need significant funding. And they got it basically the same way as game industry conducted. By pre-order. Literally. Everyone who bought a Tesla before production or in the first few months would get unlimited supercharging for the entirety of the vehicle life and possibly being transferable to future Tesla vehicles.
With so many people pre-ordering Tesla models, Tesla became the only player in this new EV market quickly. It would be foolish for any auto manufacturer to try to compete with Tesla when they were lagging in R&D by far and had no funding to build supercharger infrastructure.
Only after Tesla reached a critical point of sustainability and enough market value did Tesla announced its chargers would be compatible with other EV cars. Only at this point it made sense for traditional auto players to join the EV market.
And only at this last scenario did EV got a meteoric rise.
China. Massive subsidies for battery development (especially the more durable and cheaper LFP battery chemistry), plus purchase incentives, especially license plate incentives in big cities. Getting massive amounts of batteries built for the world’s largest auto market drives down battery prices for the entire world, which makes electric cars more accessible to everyone.
Federal tax credits for purchasing one, up to $7500. Remember this the next time somebody tells you the government doesn’t do anything good.
I kind of think what you are saying is a little flawed. All the bad press about EV seems to me to be way over hyped. Especially over the last few months.
EVs are a good fit for a lot of people but the press, for whatever reason, likes to find and report the worst case scenarios. And those worst case situations sound scary. For every report of people getting stranded because a charger is out of commission there are 1000s of situations that worked out as they should have.
So when you say “all the disadvantages” of EVs I think you are falling into a trap the press is setting for you.
I have an EV. It’s a 2017 Fiat 500e. It’s range is less than 100 miles. And in the winter it’s about 25% less. But it gets me to work in -10F weather which the VW diesel it replaced couldn’t’t do. That thing wouldn’t start at anything less than +5F that was a huge disadvantage.
This is just one situation. But I think if you talk to EV owners you’ll find that most of them are happy, and see no if any disadvantage to an EV.
Whenever something is artificially suppressed, be it through bad policy, an unfair playing field, or bogus negative propaganda, when change finally comes it is always a wave. EVs in various forms have been viable all along.
A significant portion of the population know GW is real and are willing to spend their money to try to find a solution.
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