It is thought, or it is known that the future of the automotive industry is the electric car. The government says it wants most cars sold by the start of the next decade to be electric vehicles (EVs).
More than a dozen major auto companies are spending more than $100 billion in total to nab industry leader Tesla. Tesla continues to grow and sold 400,000 cars last month.
But the industry just faced a new challenge.
Most Americans aren’t interested in an electric vehicle when buying a new car. That drains a lot of market demand.
As quoted by CNBC, “only 19% of respondents to the survey, conducted by the University of Chicago Energy Policy Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, said it is ‘very’ or ‘ extremely’ likely they would buy an EV as their next car.”
Most auto companies assume the figure is astronomically higher, or they wouldn’t make their current level of investment.
The main objection to buying EVs is not the cars themselves, but the number of charging stations. The concern is real.
Charging stations are in short supply, at least in comparison to gas stations. Once people leave the cities, porters are relatively rare.
And there is the question of waiting time. Charging a Tesla battery can take as little as 15 minutes and up to several hours, depending on whether people have a fully charged battery.
Filling a tank with gas takes five minutes and there are 145,000 gas stations in the United States.
And why don’t gas stations operate EV charging stations?
Many gas stations are hesitant to start installing EV chargers at their stations.
One reason is that gas station owners or operators have to pay the high electric utility fees that come with EV chargers, making it harder to turn a profit, so they avoid these changes. .
Shell has set itself the goal of operating more than 500,000 charging points by 2025, but globally, not just in the United States.
It will be years before there are tens of thousands of charging stations in the United States. However, some people will charge their cars at home.
People on trips of more than 300 miles will need to charge their cars, but if there are no charging stations?.
They often have to drive more than a short distance to find a charging station. The inconvenience and time involved are significant.
Millions of Americans will buy a new car next year. In the next two years, that number will exceed 20 million.
EV manufacturers need to recalibrate the size of the market and how much money they can make by turning the new age of motors into profit.
Tesla is the only manufacturer that is aware of the issue and has its own super chargers. The others depend on services like Electrify America or others, which are just beginning.
