Electric Cars: The Logical Choice For Homes With Two or More Cars
One of the biggest gripes I hear in the US about fully electric cars is that they aren’t practical because they don’t have enough range. But, what’s strange about this is, according to the 2001 US Department of Transportation National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), the average person drives their personal vehicle less than 23 miles a day—a number that is more than sufficiently covered by the 100-mile range of most upcoming mass-market electric cars.
So, if the average person drives a quarter of the distance an electric car is capable of going in a given day, why do people still say that they aren’t practical? It certainly isn’t a feeling based in how people actually use their cars. No, it’s more of a feeling based on our obsession with risk aversion—trying to avoid potential problems even if those problems don’t crop up during 95% of the rest of our lives.
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The gut feeling that electric cars are impractical is based on the “what if?” fear of needing to drive hundreds of miles on short notice. On the surface I can fully understand that fear, but it’s a fear that is only truly justified if your household has one car. If you’ve got two or more cars, I can’t think of any reason why an electric car wouldn’t be the perfect substitution for one of your gas cars. The electric car would be your short trip or commuter car, and your gas car would be your long trip vacation car.
In fact, I think it’s crazy that the auto manufacturers who are planning on blitzing the US market with fully electric mass-market cars starting next year—including Nissan, Mitsubishi and Ford—haven’t made this their rallying cry. I’m imagining a slogan like “If you’ve got two cars, make one of them electric” or a “Make One Electric” advertising campaign.
For a two car family—in lieu of robust and reliable public transit—having one electric car seems like the most practical transportation solution possible. It’s a veritable goldmine. From reduced energy costs to saved trips to the shop for regular maintenance to the environment, it’s a slew of benefits that I can’t imagine passing up.
And there are lots of two-car households out there. According to the 2001 NHTS, 92% of all US households have vehicles. Of those households, the majority have more than one vehicle. In fact, for the first time ever, the 2001 NHTS found that US households had more vehicles than drivers. If your home has more vehicles than drivers and you’re not considering buying an electric car to replace one of them, I implore you to think again.
I only have one car.
Its true I only drive less tan 23 miles a day 95% of the time. The other 5% I go to dark skys for astronomy and do genealogy research out in the field which takes me way out of a electric cars range. Another consideration on the 100 mile range. What about evacs. Especially for people on the coast, with only one car. What, I only have this 100 mile range car so I’m going to have to wait for the government to move me, because I don’t need the capacity of a gas tank 95% of the time? Sorry, I’ll stick with a gas engine, and a hybrid in the future when I can afford one I can fit in. Buying a second car is not economically fisable for me either. Especially with insurance to take on top of that.
Mamoru,
You apparently missed my point. I’m not saying you should buy two cars even if you only need one. That would be silly.
If you only have one car, then an electric car may not be for you. If you already have two cars (like most of the US) then replacing one of them with an electric makes sense.
I agree range should not be a problem for most people on a regular day. Even if it was I’m sure solutions could be found like loading extra batteries and such.
Most households with two cars barely use the second one. I know I don’t. It sits in the driveway 75 percent of the week.
Great article! I enjoyed the read and am spreading the link amongst friends. My family is scared of electric cars.
Some day in the near future when I complete my MD and residency, my first major purchase will be an electric car.
Often the second car in a household may be an older car that people wouldn’t feel secure driving for long distances.
I have nothing against electric cars, but just like to see both sides of an issue.
Plugin hybrids like the Chevy Volt will eliminate the need for the second car, while behaving like a full electric car for 95% of the time.
Tim,
I agree that Plug-in Hybrids (or EREVs or whatever you want to call them) like the Volt can be the all-purpose Swiss Army Knife that gets around the risk aversion part of our personalities. Indeed, in that way they are more practical than EVs.
But from an engineering and cost perspective they are far too complex and impractical. With EREVs you are essentially stuffing two cars into one. For this reason the Volt will likely cost $40,000 when it goes on sale. Do you think the Volt will be considered practical with a price tag like that? Meanwhile, the Nissan LEAF EV will have likely have a price tag between $16,000 and $25,000 depending on if you buy the battery with the car or lease the battery from Nissan. Compare that to a Prius or Fusion Hybrid and you start to see that pure EVs are very cost competitive with the competition, and make financial sense.
I’m not saying that cars like the Volt won’t have their day. Certainly EREVs will eventually satisfy the niche they were designed for. But to get battery prices down, test technology, and extend range, pure EVs are the way to start. I think GM has made a strategic error by first focusing on EREVs instead of EVs.
Nick, I think you are dead-on here. This has been the focus of many articles I have written on the subject. The problem is that new car companies don’t want to go there. Why? It means changing the way people think and act toward transportation. They would rather focus on giving the consumer what they want and leave the preaching to people like you and me and Plug-in America. Mamoru’s comment above just goes to show that people don’t get it. But really, I would rather see people convert that old car that sits in their driveway for a fraction of what a new EV or PHEV would cost, effectively supplanting an inefficient vehicle and placing an efficient one in it’s place. That’s the only way we’re going to effectively cut our oil dependence. But at the rate we’re going, it will take decades. I suppose that’s the way Big Oil and the Big Three want it, though.
There is one fallacy missing in this “average usage is only 23 miles per day” story. if you meet the average, but only drive 2 days a week then you drive over 80 miles each time that you do use your car.
Until thenwe need hybrids or range extenders. A diesel electric could be a great way to solve this problem. If this can be effectively scaled down from trains it would provide great capability in range and towing capacity.
Range isn’t the problem … cost and reliability are the problem. Fully electric vehicles have not yet demonstrated comparable reliability to a conventional vehicle across the full range of environmental operating conditions. There have been several reports recently of electric vehicles not living up to their advertised range. I believe there were a few universities in Michigan that just returned their electric utility trucks because of poor performance. While this is certainly not true of all electric vehicles, it is a valid concern for potential buyers.
I don’t believe you can make a blanket statement that electric vehicles will always provide greater reliability and lower maintenance costs than conventional vehicles … there simply aren’t enough of them in the field to support that claim. Here in the wilds of Minnesota, for example, what’s going to happen to my 100-mile range when the car has to sit outside in the parking lot all day long at 30-below? That’s a bad time to find out that your batteries don’t handle the cold very well. Early adopters of any emerging technology must be prepared to accept the risks. However, since I don’t burn $20’s and $50’s in my fireplace to keep warm, that seems like an awful lot of money to risk on an unproven vehicle.
Which, of course, brings me to the second problem … cost. I don’t think anyone would dispute the fact that the upcoming mass-market EV’s are going to come with a substantial price premium over conventional vehicles in the same class. When you crunch the numbers, it can take a long time to make up that difference on fuel savings alone. In some cases, fuel savings may only be enough for the owner to break even. There are lots of variables … cost of fuel, cost of electricity, maintenance, battery life, etc.
Cars, in general, are a major expense. It makes perfect sense to me that people would be apprehensive about taking that sort of financial risk when they just might end up with an electric lemon. Rather than your ‘Make One Electric’ idea, I think the automakers should recognize the risk aversion in their customer set and offer, instead, a way to mitigate that risk. I see consumers being much more willing to participate in an electric vehicle lease program than to make an outright purchase. On a two or three year lease, you can essentially get your feet wet in the world of EV’s without any long-term risks. A customer who has had a positive experience with a leased EV would then be much more likely to purchase a next-gen EV a few years down the road.
It’s articles like this why I check gas2 daily. This is exactly what I am waiting to do. Normally my wife and I drive less than 4 miles round trip to work each day. However we have 3 kids, a chocolate lab, and soon a mother-in-law visiting from Europe for the next several months. So comfortable seating capcity does matter to me. Most electrics are too small. In about 5 years that will change and the smaller car will be fine. I have been watching the Volt with interest. I also liked when GM was looking at voltec for a Saturn SUV with a 10 mile range(that would cover 90% of my driving habits). However they killed that. A pure EV would be fine if it could meet my requirements.