Report: Electric cars will be cheaper than gas models by 2025

[FeedBot]

It's clear that an electric car revolution is brewing and that it's going to shake up the auto industry. Beyond that, however, details about the revolution are hard to come by. For example, how will the auto industry deal with the issue of range anxiety: better batteries? Faster charging? Improvements to the electricity infrastructure? And perhaps...

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[Frosty]

There are a few things that still make EVs unsustainable beyond a local commuter car.

1. Range - the current 30-50 mile limit (Bolt/Volt/Leaf) and 300 mile limit (Tesla claim) make these cars practical for local commuter driving. Granted the Tesla theoretically has a significantly longer range making it more practical over the others.

2. Battery recharge time - in order to drive any distance cross country you have to be able to re-charge the batteries quickly. Currently this takes over night. Again this is not currently practical for long distance/cross country driving - especially if you can only go 50 miles before having to re-charge.

3.  Increase demands on the current electrical grid - we the consumer will pay higher electrical rate fees charged by our local power companies to upgrade the local power grid to support the increase demand for electricity that these vehicles will generate. Your electric bill will go up too because you are recharging your EV(s) every night (that you don't have today).

4. Building/remodeling of gas stations into quick charging stations - assuming that the engineering problem of rapid battery recharge and range is figured out, recharge stations will be have to be built or gas stations will have to be remodeled into charging stations in order to support the demand these cars will generate. What will the rates be from city to city, state to state, country to country? Who will build them - the oil companies - the power companies? Not to mention you will likely pay to have a recharge station in your home as well. You may have more than one if you have multiple EVs too.

Bottom line is this - a comprehensive national and international standardized infrastructure is needed to support this paradigm change in automotive transportation. It is not even being discussed yet that I can see. So while a long(er) range EV maybe possible by 2025, a serious investment in infrastructure will be needed to support at the local, state, federal, and international levels to support it. It will cost billions of dollars to do as well. As a society are we willing to invest in this? Or do we simply have no choice?

Edited May 30, 2017 by Frosty

[JUSTA6]

I would have to be paid to drive one....

[Frosty]

You might Justa....Cash for Clunkers - Part Duh anyone? It could happen.

[indymanjoe]

green fossil burners (electric to me) will put you in the seat when they get them figured out.Electric motors have a lot of torque. Remember gas powered cars didn't even have roads when we started. And i doubt the range was much better than the electric cars of today. Its going to happen just a matter of time. I bet the horse and carriage guys in the day said the same about gas powered cars.

[Ringo64]

46 minutes ago, indymanjoe said:

Its going to happen just a matter of time. 

While i 100% agree, something is going to replace gas powered cars, i think its going to be some time before its "worthwhile" to the average American. That necessarily isn't a bad thing for us either.

[Frosty]

2 hours ago, indymanjoe said:

green fossil burners (electric to me) will put you in the seat when they get them figured out.Electric motors have a lot of torque. Remember gas powered cars didn't even have roads when we started. And i doubt the range was much better than the electric cars of today. Its going to happen just a matter of time. I bet the horse and carriage guys in the day said the same about gas powered cars.

Interesting observation Joe. Recall in those days you had four choices for the same dirt roads: horses, gas cars, electric cars, and steam powered cars. It was the proliferation of all cars that lead to paved roads - Woodward Avenue was the first one in the country.

Gas cars won out over steam and electric because of consumer choice. So are people demanding electric cars now or environmentalists? 

[JUSTA6]

Skip this step and go to flying Jetson cars like we were suppose to have already.