I’d buy an EV if the price were comparable and I liked the car. The first criteria has not been met yet, but Tesla met the second criteria.
The current crop of electric cars are essentially very crude vehicles. The technology of using electric power for cars is still underdeveloped compared to internal combustion engines which are much further along on the development scale. Even ICE’s were thought to be max’d out in technology 10 years ago and still they keep making significant improvements in power and efficiency.
In 50 years the current electric vehicles will be like Model T Fords compared to our current gas power cars. Solar panels in 50 years will be zillion times more powerful, motors will be more efficient, smaller, and lighter. Every aspect of the electric car will be vastly improved. Less energy will be required to get it moving and maintain speed, smaller lighter batteries will hold energy better, solar panels will recharge the batteries so no gas back up motor and generator will be needed saving room and weight.
The question is; will American companies lead the way on these developements? Or, will it be the Japanese, Koreans, Indians, Chinese, Europeans, or Russians? With gas prices in Europe, I think European mfg’rs will be a major factor in this race to develolp electric cars.
Things will certainly improve. But just remember, there’s only so much better a solar panel can be. If they’re 20% efficient now, they can only get 5 x better, right? There’s only so much power that hits the earth per square foot.
True of solar panels, and th emotors themselves are pretty well developed by other applications, but storage technology, infrastructure, and cost reduction are in their infancy. Until things like battery packs, regenerative braking systems, lightweight materials and such become truely mass manufactured, costs will continue to be high. Until an infrastructure is more developed, I don;t see any of this happening in the foreseeable future.
Hey, ICE powered cars were playthings for the rich too until Henry Ford started mass manufacturing them!
Who will do it? Tough to guess. Toyota certainly has far more experience with hybrids, including some of the technologies applicable to EVs, but Eorope is cracking down on emissions even more than we are and european manufactureres seem to be repsonding. I seriously dount of it’ll be an American company. We’re too risk-averse and “quarterly report” focused.
The technology that has intrigued me since I saw this show on Nova is the fuel cell technology running on Hydrogen. I wasn’t very impressed before this show because of where we have to get the Hydrogen from. Currently the best source is from oil.
But Nova had this segment where they’ve been able to break apart the bond in water and release the hydrogen atoms by using solar power. So during the day your solar panels will produce the hydrogen you need to run your cars. You come home and just fill up. The technology is extremely new…so we’ll see if it’s even viable.
Sounds cool.
“I’d buy an EV if the price were comparable…”
Lifetime costs are close now, but I’m only ready to buy when the range is comparable. Tesla has the range, but not the cost. Nissan has the cost, but not the range.