ELECTRIC vehicles can play an indispensable role in tackling climate change. However their performance in comparison to diesel and petrol cars and lack of battery charging points is hindering them from overtaking fossil fuel vehicles.
More and more governments have set deadlines to ban fossil fuel vehicles within the next decade or so. So why haven’t the number of electric vehicles increased?
Reasons vary across countries explains World Economic Forum. A survey in UK explained that 37% found lack of fast charging ports the most common reason followed by 35% concerned about range and 33% about cost.
Pew Research surveyed that two-thirds of Americans agreed electric vehicles being environmental friendly, a same proportion thought of them as expensive, and a third had concerns regarding their reliability.
Here are four reasons behind the slow adaptation of Electric Vehicles in the world.
Too Expensive
One of the main reasons for people’s hesitancy is that electric cars are more expensive than petrol or diesel vehicles. In the long run electric cars are cheaper due to lower charging cost, maintenance, and servicing.
A cost comparison data issued by the comparethemarket.com website showed significant gap between prices of electric cars and petrol cars. In Spain, lowest electric car price of Nisan Leaf was at $28,620 in comparison to petrol car price of $17,255.
Costs could be reduced when the car’s battery is leased rather than including it in the upfront price. Experts claim that a battery costs between $69 and $138 a month under the condition of leasing the battery with the advantage that it will be replaced at the end of its life.
Industry analysts have predicted in the near future a decline in electric cars’ prices is expected due to the falling cost of lithium batteries which power them. Subsidies have helped maintain up-take of electric and hybrid cars.
Not Enough Chargers
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has reported growing installation of battery charging points globally, however, the ratio between battery charging points and electric cars on road is significantly at par.
IEA’s statistic shows that among numerous countries only France, Italy, and Netherlands so far have delivered the number of charging points required by European Union’s Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Direction. China is the fastest in installation of public charging infrastructure with 44% increase in the year 2020 to accumulated number of 310,000. According to IEA, Europe had 38,000 fast charger points and United States had 17,000 at the end of 2020.
Chip Shortage
There has been the assumption that you can buy electric cars anytime you want. However, electric cars’ deliveries have fallen short due to shortage of microchips. IHS Markit stated that production of 1.4 million cars and light vans was lost in the first quarter of 2021 alone.
Increase in production of electric cars after COVID-19 lockdowns has resulted in challenging situation for chip makers to meet the demand. The shortage will continue throughout 2021 and 2022, which will have direct impact on deliveries of all types of cars
Battery fire Risk
A survey by Deloitte found that 31% of people surveyed in China showed concerns regarding safety of battery technology. Various media outlets drew attention to battery fire in electric cars. Whereas, Ola Willstrand, project manager at RISE, the Swedish State research institute, stated that there is no such evidence to indicate higher fire risk with electric cars.
Apart from all backdrops of electric cars, the sale has risen across the globe. IEA reported that electric car sale rose by 140% in the first quarter of 2021 as compared to same period in 2020. China led the way to sale half a million electric cars and Europe in the second place with sale of 450,000 electric cars.
IEA forecasted increase in electric presence on the world’s roads from 10 million to 145 million electric cars by 2030. However, the number could increase globally with government incentives and initiatives.
The World Economic Forum took the initiative by convening the Global Battery Alliance, which brought 42 global organizations in order to increase battery production and performance. The Alliance reported that approximately 290 million charging points will be needed globally in order to complete power transition to electric vehicles by 2040, with required investment of $500 billion.
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