"I Stopped To Fill My Car Up"
Which makes going electric a real challenge. There are not many public car charge points in Waltham Forest, I can't charge the car from our house: even if we parked opposite trailing a cable across the road is not an option. I, however, believe the internal combustion engine as a mode of transport is doomed.
The motor industry is currently facing major challenges - reduced demand in its major markets, increased emissions regulation and a growing trend away from the internal combustion engine. At present electric (e-vehicles) and part electric vehicles (hybrids) represent a very small percentage of new cars sold. This will change - at what speed is another question.
Major manufactures are gearing up for all electric cars in the not too distant future - that's their plans at least. Yet there is a major obstacle to e- vehicles gaining bigger market share. It is their relatively limited range between charging. And the limited number of public charging stations. ( It doesn't help when dedicated charging spaces are blocked by non electric vehicles).
I don't know how close we are to developing new battery technology or management systems which will put the e-vehicle's range on a par with the petrol or diesel vehicles. People just don't like the idea of going on a long journey and having to plan it so they can access charging points along the way, hang around while the car's being charged or run the risk of running out of juice nowhere near a power point. In big cities, with little scope currently for residential charging and limited public points the situation's really no better, even if journeys are limited to short around town trips.
People are no going to swing behind the e-v until battery range is much better and/or there are many more charging points. Businesses won't invest in charging points if there's little demand.In such situations Governments can play a part by subsidising the development of an effective charging network. Currently there's a subsidy on e-v purchase so there's shouldn't be any ideological objection to subsidising the provision of charging points.
The reason why self charging hybrids are popular is because they avoid "mileage stress". You have a low capacity battery electric motor for town driving and a conventional engine for longer distances. That seems to me to be an expensive solution. Two propulsion systems to service and maintain; although you will be reducing your emissions.Plug in hybrids have the same shortcomings plus you need to find a charging point which explains why companies bought them, because of the subsidy, but never used the electric motor. Policy failure!
For many people car ownership is presently essential. Rural living becomes quite limited without a car as public transport is nearly extinct in such areas and cab hire too expensive given the distances to be travelled. For city dwellers, however, a car is increasingly being seen as an encumbrance. It spends much more time unused, it and the neighbours' cars, if not polluting the roads we live in, create a hostile environment both in terms of safety and visual degradation. In London, for example, there has been a significant increase in the geographical and time coverage of our public transport system, as well as improved regularity of bus services etc. Along with Uber type and hire services the need to use your car is reduced. More people are discovering that a quick calculation shows the annual cost of owning a car far outweighs its benefit.
In my view this trend means that we may skip the exchange from internal combustion ownership to e-v ownership. Instead ownership will be a thing of the past and we'll rely more and more on Uber style hire or local car pool hire to get us from A to B. How the motor industry and its support services respond to this shift will be fascinating to watch.
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