The electric vehicle market has been on the move lately and shows no signs of slowing down. We have stunning cars and robust electric trucks. And while most electric vehicles are modern, fast, powerful and offer the latest luxury features, not all is good news.
We were promised zero emissions and green rechargeable vehicles that can drive for days on end, but we haven’t arrived yet. There are still some drawbacks when it comes to EV. So while the future of electric cars is just around the corner, how fast the bigger question is.
Availability of electric vehicles
While electric vehicles are exciting and new, buying and delivering one is perhaps the biggest problem right now. After the government ordered an increase in the number of electric cars, we saw that every major player in the automotive space was making moves, but not fast enough.
Manufacturers including Ford, KIA, Subaru, Toyota, GM, Jeep, Chevrolet and others have announced upcoming electric cars or plan to offer EVs soon. One fascinating but also problematic area is electric trucks. We’ve seen newcomers like Rivian releasing R1T, but supply constraints and creating a new car brand from scratch have proven challenging.
Even an established brand like Ford is struggling. Ford expects to produce and sell approximately 40,000 units of its recently released F-150 Lightning EV this year. By comparison, Ford sold over 700,000 F-150s on gas in 2021, a significant difference. The company cannot produce enough F-150 Lightning trucks to keep up with demand.
Another great example is Tesla. At the beginning of 2022, Tesla broke all its delivery records despite problems in the supply chain, but that is still not enough. If you order any Tesla model today, it will not be delivered to your door for several months, if not longer. In fact, many models are completely sold out by the middle of 2023.
While every significant player in the automotive sector works on fully electric cars and trucks, the problem is finding one in stock. Then, when you do, some dealers add insane margins, more than doubling the price.
Demand is huge, but supply is small. And don’t start with some prices lately.
Driving Range
We recently saw a story that causes fear on social networks, which claims that electric cars are more likely to die and get stuck during traffic jams. Suggesting that they are dangerous, do not come with heaters, AC is not efficient, and electric vehicles will run out of batteries in about three hours during traffic jams.
That is completely incorrect, but it is not difficult to understand why some people are reluctant to get an EV. Anxiety anxiety is real, but it’s not hard to avoid if you plan accordingly. However, you can’t just go to a nearby gas station and instead have to look for and find a gas station. Then, when you do that, it takes a little longer to fill than to fill the tank with gas.
For example, the base Hyundai IONIQ 5 SE with all-wheel drive gets only about 256 miles of range with a single charge, but upgraded models push it closer to 300 miles per charge. Tesla’s most affordable Model 3 in the standard range option (which is no longer available) went only about 220 miles per charge. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s certainly not a good thing either.
By comparison, the 2021 Hyundai Elantra gas-powered vehicle can travel about 462 city miles and about 602 miles of highway with a full gas tank.
Electric vehicles come with more efficient motors, bigger batteries and higher charging speeds day by day. But for now, anxiety ranges will continue to be a thing for many. The future looks bright, but it’s not entirely here yet.
Charging time and speeds
Another aspect of electric vehicles that fans of old gas vehicles are quick to point out is charging times and speeds — and they’re not wrong. It certainly takes longer to fill the EV than to put gasoline in my truck.
EVs should be lightweight, require less maintenance and make driving fun again. But when you start worrying about where to charge the car, how long it will take and whether you will be able to find a fast charging station or not, part of that fun quickly disappears.
2021 Business Insider reported that owners of 1-in-5 EVs in California have returned to gas cars due to problems or problems with charging. Keep in mind that new charging stations are appearing day by day, but you will still have to take this into account when deciding to buy. More importantly, you will also want to consider charging time, speed and cost in your travel plans. Plus, for short day trips to work, you’ll be fine and you can easily recharge at home.
We didn’t want to immerse ourselves too much in the cost of charging EVs here, as this is constantly changing depending on location, time of day and more, but that’s another concern. Although it is undoubtedly cheaper to charge EV these days than to buy gas, electricity prices are rising.
Electrical Grid
Speaking of electricity, what about the electricity grid? This is another common argument on social media, but honestly, the issue is still for debate. I have read countless articles that suggest that the network can withstand the increase in the number of electric vehicles, as long as it is properly managed. You’ll also find reports from The Washington Post and others suggesting the network is nowhere near ready.
I’m not so sure. We’ve seen power grid problems in California and Texas. In addition, here in Las Vegas, there were moments last summer when the energy company asked everyone to use fewer air conditioners at peak times. Imagine those same fights, but with millions of EVs who also need juice.
Considering that the battery inside the F-150 Lightning EV can power the home for 3 to 10 days, depending on usage, it shows how much energy electric cars really need. In 2020, approximately 276 million cars were registered in the United States. Yes, many of them are not everyday drivers, but what happens when 20 million EVs need to be recharged, or 50 million?
How will the electrical network cope with the electric vehicles of almost all large manufacturers that need juice to keep the battery full and ready for everyday commuting or travel? Now, I’m not saying that the power grid can’t handle it or that it won’t be able to scale with the growth of electric vehicles, but remains concerned.
This is a potential problem that will need to be addressed, just as battery capacity, range and other issues need to be improved. Otherwise, owners of electric vehicles may end up charging their vehicles outside of business hours to try to save a dollar.
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Americans love trucks. The Ford F-150 is the best-selling truck in America for 45 years in a row. This is because it is the perfect blend of usefulness, travel to work, work and freedom. You can go to work, take your family to dinner, then fill it up and go camping for the weekend.
However, over the last few months, we have learned that, although electric trucks are insanely exciting and promise a lot on and off the road, traction will remain a sore spot for the foreseeable future. Several tests recently have shown that electric trucks lose about 50%, if not more, of their range while towing a trailer or boat.
So if you have a fancy new F-150 Lightning EV that should go over 300 miles on a charge, but is loaded with the whole family, equipment and trailer, you’ll need a charging station for 150 miles or less just to be sure. Then you have to stand for 20-30 minutes to recharge. Again, this is not the worst thing in the world, and buyers of electric vehicles are aware of these challenges, but it is still a problem that we hope future vehicles will be able to solve.
Electric trucks are still new and exciting, and (at the time of writing) only two are available in the state — the Ford F-150 Lightning and the Rivian R1T. Finally we will see the new Chevy Silverado EV, RAM 1500 EV 2024 and several others. Maybe by then we will have better technology to take our electric vehicles and trucks further than ever before.
I’m not here to tell you that you shouldn’t buy an electric vehicle. There are many great reasons to buy. This is just a reminder that technology is new and evolving, and the future of fully electric vehicles that I want is not yet there.