Column: “Electric cars are not a solution”
It will take a while, but if you keep reporting on all the news about electric cars and how they are gradually becoming more accessible, you might almost think that everyone will soon be going fully electric.
When there are very hopeful reports that battery technology is making great progress and charging will soon only take 10 minutes, it seems crystal clear that the future will be 100% electric.
“Affordable” electric cars
And yet these bits and pieces of reporting are too simple. I’ve written it before: The electric transition is not an easy matter, but an enormous challenge. Despite the fact that we are increasingly welcoming more or less affordable, normal electric cars.
I mean, for example, the Fiat 600e, but to call it a people’s car, like in the days of the original Fiat 600 from the fifties and sixties, is going too far for me. Although the 600e is quite competitive in its class with a starting price of just under 36 grand, it is above all a real lifestyle car and not a cheap people’s car.
Whether the car phenomenon Volkswagen, as we became familiar with it in the post-war years because everyone had a bike, still has the same chance today is a recurring question. Even if the electric car is really affordable, not everyone will want one.
“Even if the electric car is really affordable, not everyone will want one”
Experts have been saying that car ownership will decline for many years. And yet last year we reported that, contrary to all those predictions, car ownership was increasing again.
The car is more necessary than ever to stay mobile
Because the car is more necessary than ever to stay mobile, especially in rural areas where public transport is deteriorating instead of improving. Although public transport should be an alternative to cars, it has been a problem for decades.
Unfortunately, what rarely makes headlines and talk shows is that public transport is not sexy, but rather a multi-headed monster that no one in politics sees a chance of scoring points. People prefer to sell the bite-sized message that the electric car will save the planet. Even if the car is not always the smartest transport solution; I’ll just mention the old-fashioned long traffic jams again. As a car enthusiast you would rather not have that, but unfortunately there is usually no alternative.
Yes, in some cases maybe the electric bike. Car or scooter sharing can also be a solution in the city. But that doesn’t work in many parts of the country. As long as there is no real alternative, the car will continue to rule there.