Over the last 100 years there have been a number of attempts from electric vehicle enthusiasts to push them into the mass market. Unfortunately the vast majority of these attempts have failed for a variety of reasons, often out of the control of the market itself, but today we stand in a very different place and electric vehicles will eventually go mass-market. We hereby list five reasons why electric vehicles are here to stay in the longer term: –
1. Technology
There have been enormous leaps in electric vehicle technology over the last 10 years which not only offer greater efficiency but also give the driving public greater confidence. This technology continues to advance at breathtaking speed not only in the area of electric vehicles themselves but also battery technology. In many ways the development of new technologies is putting gasoline vehicles in the shadows and grabbing the headlines.
2. Industry and government expenditure
While the electric vehicle market has made numerous attempts to crack the mass market, the majority of which failed, today is very different. The industry itself and governments around the world have literally invested billions upon billions of dollars and gone beyond the point of no return. In previous attempts there was a definite lack of incentives from governments around the world and indeed many governments paid lip service to the industry without cold hard cash. The simple fact is that too much money has been spent for the EV industry to fail this time round!
Quote from ElectricForum.com: “While the electric vehicle market seems to be dominated by the likes of Tesla, General Motors, Nissan, etc, there is a rather unknown entity sneaking up on the sidelines in the shape of Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD.”
3. Battery technology
One of the major problems of the last decade has been the relatively slow development of battery technology in relation to electric vehicles. This was in many ways overlooked by the industry as more focus and more investment was placed upon actual car technology as opposed to battery technology. It was only when the general public began to have major concerns about battery power and efficiency that both governments and the industry switched part of their investment towards battery technology.
4. Journey capacity
In tandem with new electric vehicle technology and battery technology we now have a greater emphasis upon extended journey capacity. The introduction of various electric vehicle recharging networks across the world has also added to this more positive picture with journey capacity in excess of 100 miles now commonplace among some of the more popular vehicles. There is still some way to go, more investment is required but there is no doubt that journey capacity concerns are certainly reducing.
5. Electric vehicles have lost that stigma!
In the early years the electric vehicles we saw on the roads were, how can we put it, very different in look and style and often embarrassing. This created something of a stigma which hovered over the electric vehicle industry for many years although thankfully this stigma has now gone. In many cases it is difficult to tell at a distance whether a vehicle is powered by traditional gasoline/diesel or whether indeed it is powered by electric. This in itself is probably the most compelling reason why electric vehicles will eventually crack the mass market, the fact they fit the hopes and aspirations of the motoring public and there is no embarrassment in driving one today!
Source: Electric Forum