The Problem with Electric Vehicles

Presumably at least some techno-optimists would agree, but suggest that transitioning to electric cars is a step towards making our bad situation better. Restructuring our cities, getting everyone to bicycle, walk, or use public transit (and killing off the auto industry, which is a significant chunk of the manufacturing economy) would be much harder to accomplish in the near future.

I'm guessing Jacques lives in a large European city because this piece reads like someone who has absolutely no understanding of how a typical American uses an automobile. Land use, city planning, public transportation and highway management in Europe are all completely different from that of America, or specifically the United States. Accepting that you can't just give up your car, he then enumerates short comings of EVs that just don't add up.

The implication that simple lifestyle changes would enable most American's to do away with their automobiles is utterly ridiculous and demonstrates complete ignorance to the suburban environment surrounding all cities in the United States and other parts of America. If a large number of people did vacate the suburbs for the city, this would create a housing market crash in the suburbs that would draw just as many people out of the cities into the suburbs. Without revising land use policies in the United States, there's no way to support this. Just look at gun control polices if you need any more evidence of how ridiculous this notion is.

His argument that everyone will be charging their EVs at peak times and will overload the grid is ridiculous and completely ignores the fact that most people today are aware of peak vs off peak electricity rates and specifically charge their EVs during off peak hours to avoid paying higher rates. This is analogous to driving a few extra miles to save $.05/gallon on gas. People are cheap and won't do that for financial reasons.

He then goes on to make a number of points about the lack of charging infrastructure that would make EVs unfeasible but these completely ignore his first assertion that most people will be charging at home. More than 90%* of commuters have a commute of less than 36 miles one-way which means that only 2 EVs on market (i.e. Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Smart Electric Drive) would be unable to cover their daily commute. Which means that in most cases the need for charging stations would be radically diminished. Another thing to consider is that petrol stations exist in their current form because of regulator requirements around the storage of hazardous materials (i.e. petroleum products). There's no such restrictions around EV charging stations and in a world with 90%+ EVs it's not hard to imagine every parking spot having a charge station.

The assertion about vehicle maintenance being an issue is also equally ridiculous. He states that most EV systems will be unservicable at the average garage which is debatable. The power train will probably remain unserviceable but an EV's powertrain is significantly more reliable than your typical ICE. All of the other major and minor systems (i.e. drivetrain, environmental, braking, etc) in an EV are similar to those of an ICE vehicle and thus serviceable at a regular garage. Considering that most EVs will be daily commuters, the likelihood that you'll find yourself with a powertrain failure in a location where your EV can't be serviced is also highly unlikely.

http://www.statisticbrain.com/commute-statistics/

http://ecomento.com/2015/03/23/nissan-leaf-ev-battery-reliab...

No, you're not missing anything, that is a very likely thing to happen.

The path we as a society ultimately take isn't up to any one entity making decisions (not even Elon Musk :-) ).

Certainly lifestyle transitions will require decades, after all, it took decades to cities to become car-centric. But can happen even within a generation. Many millennials eschew car ownership and are moving back to cities, whereas for baby boomers the car was a rite of passage as well as its concomitant house in the 'burbs.

Transitioning entirely to electric vehicles will also take decades (admittedly it would be less time because car-years are much quicker than people-years).

What will happen is some mixture of both of these along with random jags of reactionary fascination with the happy-motoring era and who knows what else.

Ultimately, we only have a finite quantity of fossil fuels and there is no "free-refill" for the planet. At some point, lifestyles will have to change drastically to accommodate this limitation as population continues to grow.

> No reason to charge them at dinner time. Timers and current control & remotely adjusting by power company

My main issue is with your notion that the cars should, somehow, be limited to only charging at certain times. The issue becomes, "OMG I CUT OFF MY FINGER". "Oh, sorry, cars not charged yet." "Oh, I want to go to Walmart and grab some chips." "Sorry, cars not charged yet." "Oh man! I forgot about a meeting I had with my realtor!" "Sorry, cars not charged yet"

> "There's no reason to recharge them at dinner time."

The issue is that this could be a problem now. Instead of me just being able to put fuel in my car whenever, now I have to be like "Oh yeah, it's dinner time and I'm home. Can't recharge my car yet!"

AND, when everyone has an electric car, it will very quickly become like a busy cable network in your neighborhood. "Well, it's estimating 18 days until the ~download~ charge is done."

Refueling with an ICE takes no time at all and can be done anywhere. Even if the car is out of gas in my driveway, I have a chance to walk and get a can of fuel and put fuel in my car (in probably less time than it would take to recharge it).

I would bet that the "power company's night time rebates" would go away really fast when they were struggling to meet the sudden demand of charging everyone's cars.

> Most Tesla owners are happy with their range and it will improve by 5%/year.

Even if their current range is 300 miles, that's 15 miles the first year. That's not really significant.

Lastly, your disagreements all seem to be either flawed or they seem to be with the less important issues (tow hitch, range) and ignore the more important (charge time, accessibility, cost, cost of infrastructure, etc).