Electric equal ecological? In part yes, if we do not consider the costs of disposing of batteries (and social ones for the extraction of minerals to put inside them). Electricity equal savings? Data in hand no: electricity costs, and not a little. Electricity equal glamor? No doubt yes, as Tesla’s lesson teaches. Whose concept of glamor goes hand in hand with that of a “swollen bank account”.
On balance, the phenomenon of the electric car (what a phenomenon it is not) is concentrated in the largest and wealthiest cities. And it’s still a niche for an audience that has a high spending power. Without considering the problem of range anxiety. Okay, you say, but today electric cars have a really considerable range, not like those of the past after 150 km they leave you on foot. This is also true. Provided they are guided in a certain way.
I’ll explain: if you drive an electric car by dosing the gas as you do on your traditional car, the real autonomy of the batteries is much, much, much lower than what is declared by the manufacturers. In short, the right foot must necessarily be light. But I got intrigued by reading a press release by Hyundai: the electric Kona sets a new range record. The Korean car in fact, on the Lausitzring circuit, covered 1000 kilometers before running dry.
Maybe it is the right time that the electric becomes competitive with gasoline and the various thermal engines? Maybe not. Even because the Kona record was achieved at the astonishing speed of 30 km per hour. Basically, a pedal assisted bike. But beyond the questionable choice to communicate such a record, this news is the litmus test of the electricity market today, and how companies are striving to communicate it to the general public, with the clear mission of spreading it among the masses. Well, it’s not like you can do it by betting on 30 per hour. In the end one thinks that, to get the electric car off the ground, the only way to go is that of the public regulator. Which, through a well-studied plan of driving bans and banning the various Euro approvals for access to the city, will be able to definitively guide the tastes of consumers. In short, the electric car will have to be imposed by law, otherwise it will remain a beautiful niche phenomenon.
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