When’s the last time you visited a gas station that sold nothing but gas? If the answer is "never,” you’ve hit on one of the key problems for the rollout of battery vehicles.
There’s been a run of bad news for a promised rapid transition to electric cars in rich democracies. Volvo Car AB had proposed one of the most aggressive shifts to a full-battery fleet by 2030. Recently it said it would instead reduce conventional vehicles to less than 10% of the mix and would include in the remaining 90% plug-in hybrid cars, or PHEVs, which have both batteries and gasoline-burning engines. Just hours later, ChargePoint Holdings, operator of the largest U.S. charging network, said it would cut jobs by 15%, its third such reduction in the past year.
Many of these issues can be traced back to charging. It’s no coincidence that China, with 70% of the world’s public car plugs, is where 60% of the world’s electric vehicles were sold last year. The success of PHEVs relative to other EVs is an indicator of a burgeoning market of consumers keen for electrified transport but not yet convinced they can survive without a gasoline backup. To solve that problem, we need to fix the broken business model of public charging.
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