EVs, Plug-ins Still Face Many Hurdles
As consumers grow more excited about the prospect of buying electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, it’s important to remember that their introduction will be no simple matter.
The roll-out of vehicles like the Chevy Volt, Mitsubishi iMiEV, and Tesla Sedan require not just a gamble from automakers and demand from consumers (a factor that remains largely academic at this point), but an everyone-together-now leap into a new method of transportation.
This requires an immediate and large-scale infrastructure investment. For electric vehicles to succeed, car buyers will need assurances that their obstacles to recharging be no worse than filling up the tank with gas. This means cities that have enough recharging stations to accommodate demand or battery exchange posts where dry batteries can be swapped for fresh ones, which are being planned in Hawaii and the Bay Area.
But it’s not just the battery situation, it’s also the electric grid. Utilities must find a way around the scenario where most people get home from work in the early evening and overwhelm the grid with TVs, computers and a car sucking up volts for three to eight hours.
To avoid this, utility companies are looking into smart charging — consumers pay less to charge cars during off-peak hours — or software that controls the timing and flow of the juice to avoid overwhelming the system.
Companies like GM see public-private partnerships, like the ones in Hawaii, the Bay Area, and Portland, Ore., as the quickest way to develop the needed infrastructure at once. There still remains an enormous hurdle to the market penetration of EVs and plug-ins: gas prices.
As demonstrated by falling gas prices, hybrids like the Prius have become unworthy of their premium price for many consumers. Toyota has even put a Prius plant in Mississippi on hold while it waits for the economy to stabilize and the hybrid market to recover. With gas prices hovering in the basement at a national average of $1.66 per gallon, the best laid plans for EVs and plug-ins won’t mean much if consumers are still addicted to cheap gas.
It Takes a Village to Sell an Electric Car (C-NET News)
