The environmentalist in me wants to go for an electric vehicle (EV), but I’m not prepared to pay a whacking great premium for technology that could soon be superseded. My EV aspirations can wait for the next car but one when the technology is more mature – and economies of scale kick in on EV vehicle pricing. With diesel ruled out for obvious reasons, it looks like I’ll be sticking with petrol for the time being: good news for the oil majors, if not for the planet.
There are signs, however, that interest in EV is ticking up, if not among understandably apprehensive car buyers like myself then among those in industry, looking to ensure their business models are fit for the future. National Grid is taking the future impact of EVs very seriously, undertaking studies to assess the impact on the UK’s power generating capacity and announcing plans to build superfast charging points on Britain’s motorways. And as Mark Robinson wrote in a recent Taking Stock (6 July 2018), oil majors BP and Shell are starting to invest in expansion of their charging infrastructure.