Electric cars will not save us

Will electric cars make our lives better and save the environment? The electric car has become the new silver bullet in America that will solve our transportation and energy issues. We are still missing the big picture. Wasted infrastructure that currently is in place and the new infrastructure that needs to be put in place for electric cars to be a viable option.

Cars are Cars and a battery pack is not going to change the design and unhealthy environments are auto dependency has created. We need to move towards a real multi-modal lifestyle, where the electric car is only option of many that a individual could use.

From the NY Times:

Dan Sperling, the director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis, estimated that a typical electric car battery would cost the automaker $12,000, and a 240-volt charging unit would cost a household at least $1,500.

Without huge subsidies, “the reality is, these electric vehicles are not going to sweep the industry and become a major share of the market for a very long time,” Mr. Sperling said.

Do we need to continue to subsidize cars even if they are running on electricity instead of gas? I say we pass.