What Will Un-Kill the Electric Car?

Electric cars have been around since the earliest days of the horseless carriage, but that pesky internal combustion engine came along and stole its thunder. But here we are, a little more than a century later, and electric cars are making a long-overdue comeback. Despite the fact that every manufacturer is dabbling in electric cars, or at least gas-electric hybrids, the public isn’t exactly clamoring to buy them. Sales of the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Spark—two of the more popular electric cars on the market—seem to have plateaued, but the industry remains committed to them, mostly because they know that the days of affordable fuel are numbered. So what will it take for electric cars to finally reach the point where they become as common as gas-guzzling SUVs?

Price
Electric cars remain out of reach for many car buyers simply because of their sticker price. Even the tiny Smart ForTwo, which can carry two passengers and not much else, starts at $25,000. That's $10,000 more than the Honda Fit, which, while quite small, still has four seats and room for a couple of suitcases. To get an electric car that’s at least as big as the Fit (there is an electric Fit, but it’s only available for lease) buyers are looking at something starting around $35,000. Yes, there are sizable tax incentives that can bring those prices down to more competitive levels, but to buy an electric car, you still need to afford to pay the sticker price—incentives come in the form of rebate, so you have to wait till tax time to see that money.

Practicality
The biggest barrier facing electric cars is range. Battery technology has advanced significantly in the last several decades, but for the moment it appears stuck at a point at which most electric cars can only offer about 40 miles of range when they’re driven the way real people actually drive—using accessories like the heater or the car stereo, accellerating quickly from stops, and not always driving 55 mph.

Given that the average American commutes about 32 miles round-trip to work each day, that 40-mile range is not enough. Add to that the fact that even with the highest-voltage charge available, electric cars take at least 30 minutes to fully charge. That’s pretty fast, but it’s still about ten times longer than it takes to fill a gas tank, and too long to make it possible for most people to re-charge their cars in mid-commute.

To overcome these problems two things need to happen. Battery technology needs to improve to the point where electric cars can offer ranges comparable to gas-driven cars (most of which offer at least 200 miles of range per tank), and charging stations need to become as common as gas pumps.

The charging station problem is trickier because it involves a significant infrastructure investment, but the need for charging stations would be mitigated by significantly longer range.

Fortunately, there are a few recent developments in battery technology that suggest that the days of electric cars offering 200-mile-plus range may not be all that distant. There has been progress in the development of bacteria-powered “bio-batteries,” as well as a recent breakthrough involving graphene-based supercapacitors, that could lead to electric car batteries capable of holding significantly larger charges than what is available with the current lithium-ion batteries used in most electric cars.

Public Perception
Beyond the problems of price and practicality, there is the not-insignificant issue of public perception. Electric cars (as well as hybrids and any other form of alternative-fuel vehicles) still carry the negative association of being “tree-hugger” cars. The transport of the liberal elite—a symbol of snobbishness and a rebuke to those whose unwillingness to pay more for a more Earth-friendly car implies selfishness and greed. It doesn’t matter that most people actually do drive vehicles that are bigger and less fuel efficient than what they actually need or in many case can afford, because cars are about much more to most drivers than getting from point A to point B. Cars are still as much about status and culture as they are about transportation, and that’s something that isn’t going to change any time soon.

Of course, even this will change once the technology improves to the point where electric cars don’t have to look so much like golf carts. Tesla and Fisker have shown that it’s possible to make cool-looking electric cars (although making them affordable still remains an elusive goal), and if gas prices continue their upward trajectory, more and more drivers will question their allegiance to the internal combustion engine. ---David Merline

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