Strategies to Conquer the Main Barrier to Electric Vehicles
The challenges of packing more ions into smaller batteries, expanding the network of charging stations, and reducing the cost of electric cars and trucks are complex and thrilling. These are issues that engineers, regulators, and others are likely to resolve. However, the more difficult problem, which could define the limit of the American electric vehicle market, is polarization. This is the factor that propels an EV but also plagues America’s politics, culture, and marketplace.
A study on the adoption of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles from 2012 to 2022 revealed that half of them were purchased by Americans residing in the top 10% of counties with the highest proportion of Democratic voters. A third of the vehicles were bought in the top 5% of such areas. This trend persisted even when income and population density were taken into account.
Lucas Davis, a professor at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and co-author of the study, was surprised that the correlation with ideology did not diminish over the decade-long period, despite the diversification of the electric vehicle market with numerous models. He stated, “The market has matured in many ways, and I expected to see more widespread adoption of EVs across the political spectrum. I think the results suggest that it may be more challenging than previously believed to achieve widespread EV adoption.”
2024-02-01 09:28:43
Original from www.economist.com