EV barriers – politics – alternatives

Despite many claims that EVs have a dirty secret in that they are not really green at all, the real secret is how long it takes for the green payback. The claims are based on two realities: 1) the driving of EVs still results in emissions when EVs are charged from our current dirty electrical grids, and 2) the building of EVs also creates emissions, and sometimes increased emissions over building ICEVs. However real data from critical studies shows that even in the worst case, overall, an high build emission inefficient EVs charged from a dirty grid still result in less emissions than ICEV. Just in that extreme case, only a marginal reducing in emissions! However, already not all grids are "dirty grids" and as vehicles have an average lifespan of over 20 years either dirty grids will improve during that 20 years or we may have bigger problems. Build emissions from EVs largely track EV prices, and Wright's law dictates both EV prices build emissions will soon fall below those for ICEVs. The real conclusion from examining this question, is there is no quick fix green EV transition, but any delay in reducing production of ICE vehicles is creating …

If you follow car industry publications, there both facts and well recognised predictions that combined, signal a storm for the car industry. Reality: Why The Makers Are Lying. In less than 5 years, electric vehicles will become less expensive than ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles, and are already significantly less expensive to maintain. Lower cost […]

People have for decades owned cars without needing to refuel at home, so it may not seem obvious just how important home charging is for owners of EVs. Various surveys confirm that 80% to 95% of EV charging happens at home and given that less than 80% of people have access to a space to be able to charge at home, those who can't charge at home are less likely to buy an EV. To understand the problem, try living with a mobile phone without charging at home, or at work.

After friend told me "I am not interested in electric cars, because I will wait for hydrogen cars", I did the research, and found that such a future no longer makes any sense and will never happen. It turns out that hydrogen cars were never desirable and only viable if EVs remained impractical. Hydrogen vehicles have now been surpassed for charge times and range and they were only ever anexpensive to build and operate, higher emissions, limited interim stop gaps, for the time until we reduced the limitations of battery EVs.

Move to renewables for energy, and electricity for transport, and we solve the climate problem. But renewables require storage, and uptake of EVs requires home charging, and there is a cost to both. But what if electric vehicles could solve the "green power grid" problem, provide energy security, and avert a threat of increasing inequality, and reduce costs? It turns out this dream scenario is definitely possible but can be fully realised only if the home charging problem is solved.

All tools can bestow superpowers and motor vehicles are no exception.Superpowers provided by motor vehicles include the ability to quickly travel and transport goods and people on local trips, and the quite different but key superpower to travel to new and more distant places on road trips. .

After a long history resisting action on climate change, the Australian government finally 'committed' to net zero by 2050, and then did an about face from their previous 'anti-EV' stance and announced support for electric vehicles. Or did they?