It's Easy To Bash Electric Vehicles, But Dig This...

It’s not uncommon for those wishing to bash electric vehicles to point to the U.S. government’s backing of the Fisker Karma, a $100,000 behemoth that weighs 5300 pounds and gets 20 MPG after its quite limited battery-only range is expended.  But here are a few things I urge industry observers to keep in mind:

1) We shouldn’t equate the legitimacy of the Fisker Karma to the EV industry as a whole.  I do not defend the process by which American taxpayers were forced to support Fisker. In fact, if I were making a commitment to EVs on the taxpayers’ behalf, it would have come in several smaller bets on light-weight battery electrics designed for urban commuter transportation, predicting that, over time, we will want more efficient vehicles, rather than huge luxury cars that are ridiculously unaffordable to an ever-growing segment of the population.  

2) Some research companies predict almost zero penetration of EVs as long as gasoline prices remain low. Seriously? OK, suppose gas prices in the U.S. stay around $4/gallon.  Isn’t there a scenario under which we as a civilization conclude that we need to put a spear through our addiction to oil, even while its price stays (artificially) low? Isn’t it possible that we could wake up and start to care about the externalities of fossil fuels, vis-à-vis the environment, lung disease, or national security? Isn't it at least conceivable that we could start to question the validity of borrowing an incremental billion dollars a day and sending that wealth offshore to empower our enemies?

- Craig Shields is editor of 2GreenEnergy.com and author of Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies.