Wondering why electric cars are not the future? What makes them an unrealistic, luxury product?
Electric cars currently make up just 1% of the global automobile market. However, in the U.S., as in other countries, sales for electric cars have soared, breaking records even during a global chip shortage and ongoing supply issues. However, they come with a major limitation.
Keep reading to find out what’s holding electric cars back from consumer adoption.
Electric Cars Are Not the Future: Here’s Why
With revolutionary technology come revolutionary challenges, and these mostly pertain to electric car’s central feature: the battery. These challenges will define the shape of the industry both in the near future—by determining the scope and speed of consumer adoption—and in the far future, by bringing environmental threats and manufacturing challenges that will change the way the industry operates.
Here lies the primary reason why electric cars are not the future: Battery limitations are holding the industry back. Without a national, dependable network of charging stations, electric cars risk remaining a luxury product bought by wealthy suburbanites who can outfit their garages with personal charging stations.
Battery Limitations
The logistical limitations of charging electric car batteries mean that right now, the cars tend to be niche products bought by wealthy suburbanites who can set up personal charging stations in their garages or who have access to charging stations at their workplaces. If electric cars are to be the future, evolving into a mass market product, they’ll need a national network of stations to counter the top reason why people hesitate to buy them: range anxiety, or the fear that the cars will run out of juice on a long drive and have nowhere to charge.
Analysts note that the industry can’t take off until this network exists, but car manufacturers currently face a chicken-or-egg conundrum: Customers are hesitant to buy electric cars without enough charging stations, but companies are hesitant to build stations without enough customers.
For this reason, electric cars will likely not be the future of transportation without government-led investment in such a network.
