That remains true to this day, people still post wishfully that there will be battery breakthroughs, but there won't be. There'll just be a snails-pace addition of increments in battery performance, each accompanied by limiting disadvantages. For e-cars it's a dead end.
Quite so Flecc.
Whether powered by diesel, petrol or electricity, choosing a 1 ton metal box with a frontal area of 3m[SUP]2 [/SUP]to move one person about town is a waste of energy.
Aggregate travel behavior in London changes very little and very slowly. Interventions designed to increase electric car use in London have not succeeded -. PwC’s recent study
Electromobility Standards: Driving the Future (Jan 2012) cites vehicle range, recharging infrastructure and high purchase costs as crucial factors impacting on EV user acceptance. Specifically in the case of costs, most users will not be prepared to accept a significant mark-up on the purchase price compared with a comparable combustion vehicle.
Stefan Jakoby, recently retired CEO at Volvo, doesn't see electric cars going mainstream in the foreseeable future: “there are those who want EVs to succeed so badly that their vision of the technology and the market has become clouded - I do not believe they have a mainstream application in the foreseeable future”. Jacoby adds “Some countries have adopted them energetically, and legislation means that some niche applications will take off, such as with short distance taxis, but overall I do not believe electric vehicles will have a role in the next 10-15 years.”
Jakoby is referring only to 4 wheeled EVs here, that require re-charging infrastructure and cannot be moved manually when the battery runs out.
Unlike e-cars, e-bikes have been mass-market tested and proven to offer users clear demonstrable benefits over and above that of their manual precursors. People may not be easily persuaded to pay more for a car that does less than a traditional car, but they will pay more for a bike that does more than a traditional bike.
