In the author’s opinion, the EV market has taken a wrong turn, probably on purpose. By the way, EVs are not going to save the world, this is a silly illusion and part of a fanatical belief system.
I love electric cars
For the record, I loved the idea of electric cars before “T-Motors” (not their real name) ever existed, but am repulsed by the current state of the idea. It has been ruined like every other good thing.
Top Drawbacks: Excessive Complexity
The number one drawback for me is excessive complexity. I have zero desire for a rolling gizmo-laden touchscreen with headlights. The level of complex gadgetry has reached a hysterical level. Retracting door handles? Fingerprint scans? A car that records your face and eyes while you drive and you can’t turn that off? No thanks, bro.
We already have a culture immersed in distractions and glued to their smart phones 24×7. I’ve seen people fiddling with the touchscreen on their EV and scrolling through options while driving down the road. Common sense says “don’t text and drive” but shouldn’t that also extend to clicking through the 700 menus to adjust the color of your ambient lighting while doing 70mph on the highway?
Battery Degradation
For me the second huge drawback is battery degradation. Let’s see those range numbers after 5-10 years. I’ve heard the pundits insisting this is not a problem, because a single T-Motors (not their real name) car hit 150K and only lost about 20% of it’s battery capacity. That’s nothing to brag about, nobody can afford those cars anyway. I expect a high level of battery management in a car of that price, yet it still couldn’t stop the degradation. The fact is it is a relatively young car that lost a massive part of its range, and there is nothing that can be done about it.
Plus the facts in these cherry picked examples tend to be hidden – such as: what is the real capacity of the battery pack from the start? What is the real age? Where’s the data? What was the average DoD (depth of discharge), average temperature, how many times was the pack charged to 80% vs 100% and so on? Was the car fast charged half the time, all the time? How many examples in the data set can we see? If there even is one.
And how about the thousands of cheaper EVs that experience severe battery degradation and range loss? Of course they leave that part out of their glowing promotion of EVs. The common man needs to be aware of this drawback.
EV Batteries Work Hard and Age
The fact is the batteries in an EV have a punishing existence, the harder they’re pushed the worse they degrade. Lithium Ion batteries degrade just sitting there, even if not used. Every calendar year further ages the pack, there is nothing that can be done about it.
There are ways to mitigate the drawbacks if a solution was honestly desired, but something tells me battery degradation and other negative factors are part of the “planned obsolescence curve”.
Excessive Cost
Nobody can afford an $80,000 EV. I define “afford” as “not running up a massive pile of debt”. Sure anybody can get an 80K loan, that’s not affording anything. EVs don’t have to cost any more than a normal car if they are built simple and basic.
There is a need for this type of vehicle, but I don’t see a lot of them, if any, being manufactured – at least in my country.
The Solution
Access to simple and affordable EVs. It is 100% possible to manufacture a simple EV in a car, truck and van layout that is affordable and has decent range. These would be great for families that just need to get groceries; work trucks, local delivery routes and more.
Furthermore, these cars should be PV2EV compatible. That means the ability to plug solar panels (PV) straight into the car and charge it in your driveway off the electrical grid. Why isn’t that feature included already? And what are the motives for not including it?
Think about it… thanks for reading! DD
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