The future for electric cars
They have been touted as the future of green transportation Billions have been invested to be, for large and small enterprises and world governments Rules were rewritten, the infrastructure reconsidered, big promises.
Indeed, the powers that shape the cars you and I drive do everything they can to put an electrified automotive future be It's just a big question that has not responded, and this weekend Earth Day, it is worth pondering.
Will there be buyers for these electric cars.
Why electric cars haven t taken electric cars as supporters say the adoption curve looks so far like the hybrids in the 1990s that the true art, but if the technology will continue on this path - whether it will make the jump geek gadget novelty for the mass market, such as hybrids - is still very much an open question and there are real reasons to be skeptical.
The secret of success of hybrid cars, after all, they didn t require something new and different from their drivers for most living with a hybrid is like living with another car driving in the same way, with the same controls; you put gas at any gas station when the tank is low; take you to a time of oil change in time and have the dealer check back once a year or nothing hybrid-ness of it requires a major change in consumer behavior - and consumer expectations.
This is not true of electric cars at least for the moment, pure electric cars come with what General Motors GM NYSE anxiety cutely called what extent you will be able to go, and where you can recharge GM has solved this problem by comprising a generator using gas on board with its Chevy Volt but functionally makes Volt just another hybrid certainly innovative.
Meanwhile, with pure electric cars such as the option sheet will Nissan, the range remains a major concern for potential buyers While Tesla Motors Nasdaq TSLA managed to build cars with comparable range to the gas-fueled vehicles - but at a high price - no other Electrics available, including the sheet can go well over 100 miles without charge.
And that art in optimal conditions As it stands, the range of an electric car depends on considerations that don t come in with gasoline, as your driving habits, and time a car that comfortably go 100 miles when driven carefully on a warm dry day can only go 70 on a cold day when you are in a hurry If your office is 40 miles from home, the problem of his.
Of course, the range problem is to be tackled in time, the batteries continue to improve and automakers and drivers gain more experience with the technology The most difficult problem is the infrastructure where you recharge when you are not at home.
A market with slow growth, a more viable alternative The easy answer is that the charging stations will become more common as electric cars become more frequent, but the problem of the chicken and the egg of his Meanwhile, while cars Power seems to be talked about everywhere, there aren t actually very many on the roads.
Just over 17,000 electric vehicles were sold in the US last year, which sounds like a lot - but s less than a tenth of the total market 1, roughly equal to the number of F-Series pickup that Ford F NYSE sells every 10 days or the number is sure to go this year, assuming Tesla gets its Model S sedan into production this summer as planned, but where is it from there.
Tesla has more than 8,000 bookings with deposits for the Model S - enough to reflect the production expected this year and some But Tesla has a cool factor and a following among geeks gadget affluent Those fans are likely to hold occupied the company's production lines in recent years, but the company is able to build its appeal beyond there.
That art is to be determined The question is whether Ford will be able to sell more than a handful of copies of its new all-electric Focus Since its launch in December, the company's sales were unimpressive only about two dozen were sold by Mars.
The likely future for the electric car technology Ford CEO Alan Mulally seems troubled by the low sales of the Focus Electric and stresses that the electric vision of the company car is a long journey, but as rival Toyota TM NYSE Ford is hedging its paris on electric cars by investing heavily in more advanced hybrid, as the next new plug-in sedan Fusion hybrid Ford expects hybrid and electric together for up to 25 of its 2020 sales - but also provides that the hybrids represent more than this figure.
Chief engineer of Toyota recently expressed similar views While Toyota will continue to keep its options open technology, it is clear that the increasingly advanced hybrid will be his priority for now.
And that's probably how it will play out, at least during the next decade electric cars seem to hold so much promise, but the compromises they need proved to be a tough sell to the mass market, it seems always likely that the promise will be used later, but the safest bet seems to be on hybrids - at least for the foreseeable future.
Rising gas prices will drive the popularity of hybrid cars - and perhaps, in time, also Electrics Meanwhile, the oil industry is ready to take the world price for gas springs To understand more of invest in a volatile energy market, check out the Motley new special fish report, the only energy stock you'll need is completely free for Fool readers, but only for a limited time - so get your copy now.
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