Here’s the latest reader question, along with my reply!
Zane asks: First of all, happy new year Eric, as I probably won’t get a chance to say it directly anytime soon. I posted this on Reddit, but the mods used a generic claim to not post, citing “Karma” and crap. Here’s what I asked; feel free to fix it as you please: If the media, “Car Mags”, and the government’s didn’t shove EV’s down our throats, didn’t offer tax incentives and stuff and left them to live and die solely based on the free market, would they still be around?
My reply: I think they’d be very different.
EVs as they exist are like Frankenstein’s monster. They are unnatural things that don’t fit in. And they are everything an EV was not supposed to be. Their design emphasis on high-performance and luxury is meant to hide their impracticality and make their high cost more palatable.
But they are-high cost precisely because they emphasize high-performance and their high-performance makes them impractical. 
An EV that didn’t try to be as quick as a Corvette (or even a Camry) designed primarily for short-distance, relatively low-speed commuting could be a low-cost and practical alternative to a traditional car – in the manner of a scooter or moped, only better because it would offer protection against the weather as well as the ability to carry passengers and cargo. It would be quick enough to keep up with city traffic – like a scooter or moped – and have enough range to travel say 100 miles in between charges.
Such an EV could probably be built and sold without subsidies for around $12k, making it a financially sound proposition vs. an IC economy car.
Instead we have this Electrified Freak Show… $40k-plus cars that are preposterous on economic grounds, impractical period – and obnoxious in the extreme, given that they are axiomatically affluent people’s cars, paid for by the taxes of people who aren’t affluent.
. . .
Got a question about cars, Libertarian politics – or anything else? Click on the “ask Eric” link and send ’em in!
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