Markets which have already made a massive switch to EV’s like Norway and China (Think they crossed the line of 50% of all new cars sold are EV’s now) have achieved this with large government funding programs. I do think we likely need to do the same.
At the end of the day an EV costs more to buy. Even if you can charge at home you might well not make the cost difference back. For those that have to charge in public, it’s likely more expensive than fuel. Range is shorter and papers are filling people’s heads around massive queues and anti EV articles.
Frankly there’s little reason to get an EV for most people and a lot of reasons not to get one.
Ha.
"An EV costs more to buy."
Sure, that's
right now. But it sure as heck isn't going to stay that way.
Look at an ICE, any ICE. Literally thousands of moving parts and wear items. If one has ever looked at the actual process of building that hunk of iron and aluminum (which I've done, a few times) it's just frigging amazing that that block can be built for less than $100,000 or so. A 150 years or so of more-or-less continual improvement and highly automated manufacturing has gotten us to the point where the casting, the drilling, the smoothing, the forging, and all that $CRAZY stuff has been pushed to the point where an average gonzo can actually
buy one.
And we haven't even gotten to the transmission: A characteristic of ICEs is that they have a limited range of RPM for power and vague efficiency; to make up for that, one has (minimum) 3 forward speeds and up to six. The sheer number of gears and the complexity of the transmission invites even more automated manufacturing and continual improvement that has taken nearly 70 years to get us to where we are now, with automatic transmission prices pushed down to the point where it's almost di rigure to have one on a given car.
An electric car's power motors are, by comparison, far, far more simple. And most electrics have one (1) forward and one (1) reverse speed - so what passes for a transmission is ridiculously simple by comparison.
The hardest part to build is the battery. And that's not because of the expense of the raw materials; rare earths, generally, aren't. And LiPoFe batteries use elements that are major portions of the Earth's crust.
It's well-known that the ICE manufacturers were pushing back, hard, on BEV development for fear of the financial hit of losing all those sunk costs. It took a maniac like Musk to bust it up.
And, yes,
right now the BEVs have been more expensive - but, given a mere, what, 15 years or so or serious technology development, Tesla built cars with 'way more technology
and were still making a ridiculous profit, far outstripping the rest of the automotive industry. And Tesla is
still dropping prices as the scale of manufacturing and the automation for this newer hardware comes on line. You think that they, and the other car manufacturers, are finished pushing costs down, yet? You're dreaming.
When
most of the kerfuffle is over, I expect that the cost of a BEV will be 70% of the equivalent ICE; possibly, as low as 50%, and maybe more. I'm optimistic; I'd say give it ten years. But in 20, when youngsters are told how much a, say, Toyota Corolla cost, they'll look at their elders and say, "You paid
what for that?"
Right now the average BEV is more expensive, It's not going to stay that way.