electric cars have been pushed by the green lobby as the answer to driving away from our dependence on fossil fuels. in theory, the combination of using solar or wind energy and the availability of lithium battery power seemed to have the problem solved. but a shock awaits around the corner.
potholes on the green road
green, clean and free – but not so fast. its seems that isn’t the case as hidden costs, lack of capacity but critically, high pollution and core environmental damage present a very different picture.
The greatest shock comes from the unexpected cost of creating a green car. And this is the ironic part. for a vehicle that has non-productive engine – one that doesn’t create energy internally, but one that requires energy for it to work – build costs are far higher than an equivalent capacity internal combustion engine (ICE), with all its complexity.
The charge to deliver enough energy as electric vehicle take up grows has totally overwhelmed the power grid. green energy alone cannot provide the power required to keep up. this results in the embarrassing situation of requiring fossil fuel energy production to feed the power to charge the batteries.
down the road, lithium battery production, requiring a heavy, complicated but above all ultra-dirty mining operation is wreaking incredible environmental damage not just in creating the batteries but in the long-term damage to the land and above all the public water supply all around the mining area and beyond.
this is far worse than the damage caused from fossil fuel production.
the burden of driving – and living with an electric car
one of the greatest challenges for manufacturers was to produce a vehicle that was both attractive to consumers and represented low running costs. the opportunity to design a “package” that met the needs of moving people around could have seen a truly innovative, ground-breaking visual experience. but what we have are vehicles that in the most part are visually underwhelming and well, dull. even removing the car’s most visual design cue – the radiator grill, a staple of vehicle branding, has been fluffed. design leader BMW, a company not afraid of radical visuals has resorted to cheap plastic pretend ICE grills which look terrible. electric cars are simply boring to look at.
fixing an electric problem
the infrastructure to maintain, repair and replace electric vehicles has largely been ignored. traditional service centres and garages which have had over a hundred years to deliver repairs to most conventional vehicles for their customers, but are totally unable to offer a comparable service to electric cars. the expertise isn’t there, the facilities haven’t been provided and the costs to meet demand are simply not viable for small businesses, forcing customers to use main dealers at very high cost.
Repair difficulty results in vehicle write-offs for the most trivial of reasons. any technical battery issue will be prohibitively expensive. damage to vehicle undersides even remotely near the battery bay risks vehicle explosions and a self-sustaining fire risk that the fire service struggle to respond to and deal with. a simple speed bump or pothole could damage the batteries and write off a car that has only just left the showroom.
a simple speed bump or pothole could damage electric car batteries and write off a car that has only just left the showroom
delicate – and dangerous – batteries
the insurance shock
such repair costs are reflected and magnified by the insurance premiums for electric vehicles. many companies are doubling, tripling and in many cases even refusing to quote for electric vehicle insurance.
damage to roads, car parks and your driveway?
electric cars are very heavy. this means that driving along a road can create damage to the road surface and the stress of hitting a pothole can destroy wheels, tyres – and above all impact the battery trays resulting in vehicle write-offs. the structural load of a car park full of electric vehicles in conventional multi-storey parking facilities will see higher building costs and maintenance which may force companies to raise parking charges for electric vehicles. and what about your driveway at home?
the killer blow
customers may accept a car that costs a little more but offers a good ownership proposition. but when you total up the downsides – very high purchase cost, problematic maintenance, fragility, fire risk, through-the-roof insurance premiums and excess along with a not-so-green footprint, electric cars seem more a stop-gap or flash in the pan rather than a long term green solution.