I have been discussing in a class the idea of electric cars not being on the public agenda, and why are they not? I feel as if this is a worthy cause, yet politically there seems to be no move towards an answer. Do we need to make officials more aware of the demand for electric cars or do they already know our concerns and needs. Are they stuck in a position by big business, so that government cannot mandate the production of electric cars? I am just so confused on why this has not already happened and I hope that there would be some clear answer and I see none. Any thoughts out there?
At risk of raising some feathers here I will give some thoughts on this question.
EV’s are not yet functional enough to be considered mainstream. Todays hybrids are really just an experimental step to the next electric car idea. That at the present time sell well to the public.
The problem is that an ICE and a gallon of gas (at any price $2 - $20 per gallon) is still a good energy deal.
Todays electric cars are still a novelty and without some significant breakthrus will continue to be for some time.
Proponents of electric and hydrogen cars seem to forget to look into where the electricity or hydrogen comes from. There is no simple source of hydrogen. Electric power is still 50+% generated by fossil fuels in this country. Power generated by clean renewables still is a very small % of total power used in America. Power losses at every step of the way from the generator to the pavement for todays EV make it so a very large amount of power needs to be generated back at the coal fired power plant to get a few KW to the motor of the EV.
The people who think they can run their EV from a few sq feet of solar cells or a small windmill are very mistaken.
Maybe if you had 3000 - 5000 sq feet of solar cells you could get some useful miles out of your EV but that would be a a huge $$$ cost.
My website FuelFrenzy.com goes into detail on many of these topics.
No do not get me wrong. I think all the hard working, imaginative, future looking people here on the forum are doing a great service in trying to move EV’s to the next plateau and I commend them for that effort.
I just know that it is not easy to to get some alternate fueled vehicle to be on par with todays conventional ICE powered auto.
I often think when on a 100 mile trip ,speed about 80 and AC blasting to keep down the 90+ outside temps, that there is NOT an electric car available at any price that can do that. Add to that for maybe $14 in fuel. Not a good situation but one that is very difficult to beat.
And do not get me going on the Tesla- At present time I think it is more hype that reality.