Consider this leader as a follow on from John Denslinger’s article on EV charging infrastructure on page 18 of this issue of Electronics Sourcing North America.
Normally, societies and economies evolve steadily over time. Trends organically emerge, sometimes accelerated by new technologies. Each generation accepts change, adopts the elements they like and life rolls on. However, from time-to-time, governments decide to short circuit this process, turning evolution into revolution.
The transition from ICE powered vehicles to EVs is just such a shift. The reason
it has to happen this way is that we have a classic chicken and egg situation regarding the vehicles themselves and the infrastructure needed to support them.
My gut feel is that the early adoption of EVs is now complete, often characterized by owners that have the financial resources to buy one, the space required tohome charge and access to a second vehicle for longer, more complex journeys.
Now it’s the turn of people like me. I live in a city so my car sits idle for most of its life. I have a limited budget, I live in an apartment complex with allocated parking spaces with no option for charging. Most of my journeys are long and take place in a single day (typically home to customers and exhibition venues hundreds of miles away).
The solution is simple, a used vehicle and an unbeatable charging infrastructure. The former is doable. The latter is such a mammoth nationwide task only Government can underwrite it.
The next five years are key. Sadly, I won’t be holding my breath. I hope I’m wrong.