by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Affordable electric cars will still be a long way off, so say car manufacturers, and what a surprise, NOT.
So far they are several time more than that or an ordinary car and, in addition to that, there are hardly any charging stations about either. And, to top it all, too fully charge most of those cars, which have a maximum range in most case of less than a hundred miles, still take the best part of half a day or so.
It is time that we can to understand that the affordable electric car is not about around the corner and that will mean that the majority of motorists will not be able to switch from the ICE car to an electric any time soon.
Seeing, however, that we are on the verge of running out of cheap oil more or less entirely in about the next couple of years; probably by 2013 to 2015 (in the UK at least) for no one will be able to continue driving an oil-powered motorcar when prices for gasoline or diesel are reaching or have reached the £15 to £20 per Imperial Gallon, the only answer for most will be getting out of the car and onto a bicycle.
As far as industry appear to be concerned proper affordable electric cars will not be available by that time and that does mean – take heed now – that those that drive cars presently and who do not have the kinds of funds available with which to by an electric one must look for alternative means of transportation.
While some bio-diesel can be made from waste cooking oil and that rather simply and easily too there just will not be enough about to make it work for all. It is time that we all woke up to that reality and that rather pronto.
I know that far too many do not want to hear this message and that the governments also are not too happy, it would appear, to let the people know of this elementary truth, but the fact is that the affordable electric car is still rather a long way off. To top it all, I have to ask, as to how we are going to make such electric cars when we also no longer have the power capacity, due to lack of cheap oil, to make them.
The cost of manufacture is also related to the cost of energy required to make such electric cars and, I hate to be the bringer of bad news, it would make such cars more expensive rather than cheaper. Everyone still with me so far?
It would appear, to me at least, that industry has not calculated that through as yet properly and the affordable electric car may be something that may never really every become reality, at least not as a family saloon car and such like.
The era of the motorcar – as far as I can see it – is going to be just a blip in the history of mankind. It arrived one day and went another, somewhat a hundred years and a bit apart.
While the electric car idea has existed even before the motorcar, the oil-powered one, in order to build it plenty of energy, ideally cheap energy, is needed, especially if such cars are supposed to be affordable.
But even if we get to the electric car, proper, and not just so-called hybrids, which are, primarily, nothing more than an ordinary motorcar that has some inertia battery charging and electric motor, the big saloons are going to be a thing of the past and where does that leave family transport?
We better realize it now that the car, as we know it, as a means of cheap family transportation is going to be history in the not so distant future and thus we better get ready to adjust to that, and there is no time better than the present, while we still have the time to transition slowly to this new era.
© 2011
