Electric cars not electrifying drivers
Nov 29 - Evansville Courier & Press
For whatever reason, something within the U.S. government doesn't
love gasoline-powered cars, but their owners have resisted efforts by
well-meaning bureaucrats and environmentalists to get them to drive less
or drive something else. The alternatives being pushed by the government
are cars powered by ethanol or electricity.
Ethanol seems to be self-destructing as an alternative fuel. This
year, corn-based ethanol proved to be peculiarly susceptible to a
problem gas-powered cars are not: drought. The drought that afflicted
the Corn Belt affected not only ethanol prices but the feed costs for
livestock, distorting food prices.
Cheaper sugar-based ethanol could be bought from Brazil and one day
in vast quantities from Cuba, but farm-state politics largely blocked
both avenues.
For years, doomsayers have been saying we had to end our "addiction
to oil" because we soon would run out and so would the Mideast. Instead,
geologists keep finding huge new reservoirs of oil and natural gas. And
who knows how much properly run Mexican and Venezuelan oil industries
could produce?
That leaves EVs - electric vehicles - which, despite billions spent
on research money, still have a major drawbacks. The batteries are
expensive and need frequent recharging, a serious negative.
The cars are expensive: $39,995 for the Chevrolet Volt and $36,050
for the Nissan Leaf, both of them rather average-looking midsize sedans.
The Volt comes with a $7,500 government subsidy some would like to see
raised to $10,000 - in other words, offer motorists a large bribe to buy
them.
Sales have been short of electrifying. According to USA Today, about
26,100 Volts and Leafs have been sold this year, about 0.2 percent of
vehicle sales.
According to studies done for the industry, buyers of electric cars
tend to be "very well-educated, upper-middle-class white men in their
early 50s with ideal living situations for EV charging," meaning the
owners have enclosed garages with the proper outlets.
This does not sound like the demographics of your average traffic
jam. For the electric car to take off as everyday transportation for the
masses, one of two things has to happen: Either the prices must fall
precipitously, or the rest of us must become very well- educated,
upper-middle-class white men in our early 50s.
USA Today reported last week electric cars will remain a small
portion of the market unless automakers can figure out ways to cut
prices and boost benefits, according to a new study by J. D. Power and
Associates.
"The bottom line is that the price has to come down," says Neal
Oddes, senior director of the green practice for J. D. Power. "There
also needs to be an improvement in infrastructure, or the number of
charging stations outside the home."
We're betting on the price coming down.
Originally published by Evansville Courier & Press.
(c) 2012 Evansville Courier & Press. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All
rights Reserved.
|