Earth Equity News

Electric Vehicles are Not the Solution - Yet. Commentary by John Heywood and Valerie J. Karplus, BGlobe, August 22, 2009. "Consider the benefits of electric vehicles. Electricity is cheap compared to gasoline, and it is little impacted by oil price swings. The United States has enough electricity supply capacity to handle battery recharging even if some two-thirds of the light-duty vehicle fleet were to become electric -- assuming people recharged their vehicles at night... However, switching to an electric vehicle world will not be quick or easy. The vehicles will be expensive for companies, consumers, and governments because they currently cost significantly more to produce than today's gasoline vehicles. Battery replacement, if needed, could cost up to half of the price of a new vehicle. Consumers have shown a reluctance to making such large expenditures in the face of economic uncertainty. Electric vehicles also have limited range, which means that, without a more flexible recharging solution, they may not meet the driving-distance requirements of a large swath of the population. Battery-swap stations are being explored, but their ultimate feasibility is unproven... [And] electric vehicles would have limited climate benefits in the near term. The US electric grid is heavily reliant on fossil fuels, so vehicles powered by today's grid would offer minor, if any, reductions in greenhouse gases... The United States needs policies that will incentivize the lowest cost solutions for reducing vehicles' greenhouse gas emissions and petroleum consumption, instead of targeting the adoption of specific technologies." John Heywood is a professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Sloan Automotive Laboratory at MIT. Valerie J. Karplus is a doctoral candidate in the engineering systems division at MIT.