Skeptic's view re: Why EV is Not the way

Heated roads.

 

It's important that we as a society do not pour money excessively into R&D of an assumed end-point technology. Many here would assume that EV is the future and thus we must build to it, but perhaps if things fall as they may it wouldn't be the ideal future. On the other hand without any R&D nothing changes.

I just can't see mass transport 200 years from now being ICE based.

However, with the gains in companies like Toyota, with inexpensive hybrids capable of 50 mpg, or the c soon even cheaper than a regular prius and ~60 mpg, we must admit that we're pretty damn close to the point where a very good hybrid not only costs no more or only barely more to operate per mile than an EV, but is also much cheaper than the EV and so much more convenient (no retrofitting of house or business, and "infinite" range), that the prevalence of EVs is going to remain exceedingly low for many years to come.

Try as we might, EVs in their current incarnation, regardless of brand, are only purchased for the sake of change; people who enjoy being unique, enjoy gadgets, or perhaps really hate on a personal level using gas. Battery technology alone is still far too immature for the market to become independently (e.g. no glut of tax rebates) healthy. The Leaf is the premier EV right now. Its battery weighs 650 lbs and has a range of 72, give or take. And if it's, for example, cold then it's a lot of take from that 72. Plus will increasingly lose range as little as five years out. What we need is a revolutionary change in battery technology to change the equation.

 

I beg to differ.