Range is the big problem now. Can't take it on a trip to the beach 700 miles away. Hybrids are the answer to this but are so much more expensive, they never pay off.
There is also the factor of cost of replacement batteries. I remember when the first Toyota hybrid came out, it was $6,000.00 for a battery replacement. That would come on average about every 3 years. $6,000.00 eats a lot of gas savings.
“The Morning Briefing” is SmartPlanet’s daily roundup of must-reads from the web. This morning we’re reading about the future of electric vehicles (EVs).
1.) Automakers, tech companies mining electric car Big Data to plot industry’s future. Ford, IBM, infrastructure companies and utilities are mining electric vehicle data to plan where to put charging stations, manage the impact on the power grid and develop new services for the nascent EV industry.
2.) Egg-Shaped electric car chosen as finalist for Sierra Nevada Innovation Challenge. With a billion cars on the road today expected to double in the next 20 years, a new vehicle company Eggasus has been selected as a finalist in the Sierra Nevada Innovation Challenge sponsored by Rabobank.
3.) In the lap of luxury: Tesla’s all-electric Model S. Tesla Motors’ Model S demonstrates that everyone — from sports car enthusiasts to eco-concerned families — has an interest in luxury electric vehicles.
4.) Germany to miss electric vehicle goal. Germany will miss its target of one million electric cars on its roads by 2020 without more incentives, the country’s coordinator on electric transport policy warned on Wednesday.
5.) Saab, Aptera, Think: Can China, Russia Save Electric Cars? Last week, something miraculous happened: after more than a year of being prepped for burial, Saab rose from the dead.
Image credit: Fisker
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