Electric cars are the future, starting now
Much misinformation continues to be written about electric cars (EVs).
Replacing batteries can be expensive, but so is replacing a gas engine with a new one. The warranty on batteries in California is 10 years or 250,000 km (by law) and in the rest of U.S. and Canada is eight years or 160,000 km (a water cooled battery is better than air cooled). Don’t you wish your gas (ICE) car had that type of warranty?
The highest mileage Chevy Volt is a 2011 one in Ohio where it merrily went for 750,000 Km before running over a tire carcass puncturing the battery coolant. It is still being used (not racking up the miles as he transferred closer to home) but is running on its gas engine producing electric power to the electric motors (still) at over 778,000 km. How many kilometres does your car have?
Further proof that electricity’s time has come is Finland having converted two of its ferries from diesel to electric and is in the process of converting two more. Our own Harbour Air is converting two of its aircraft to electric with plans to convert the rest of its 40 plane inventory over to electric.
While China leads the way in EV manufacturing and sales (over one million last year) countries like Finland (the land of ice and snow) are at over 45 per cent of new car sales are EVs as they are set to eliminate sales of gas/diesel vehicles by 2025.
As for operating cost, I got an email from BC Hydro last year saying I used 4 kw less (with my EV) compared to same time the previous year (when I didn’t). Temperature difference from one year to the next makes more of a difference (with electric heat). Despite the fact there is a charger in every home, we need more free L2 chargers here in Duncan (they are often filled) and more CCS (high speed) chargers for long range travel, especially on the major highways. Porsche is installing 350 kw chargers at its dealers (that’s up to 350 miles in 15 minutes) and Tesla is upgrading its Superchargers to 250 kw to give you a sense of where the technology is at now.
Higher rebates on new EVs means lower prices on used ones so everyone can afford, if not a new one, then a used one, just like any other car. Costs will contine to decline on EVs (battery costs have gone down to 1/10th over the last 10 years) and capacity and durability will go up with the advent of solid state Li batteries (a paradigm shift) but in the meantime I’m driving in quiet (except for low volume music in back ground), vibration free motoring and trying to remember to activate the “noise maker” when approaching pedestrians from behind to let them know I’m there.
Mervin Steg
Duncan