The rate at which new technologies get accepted into the mainstream never fails to confuse people. For the longest time, cell phones appeared to be the exclusive domain of yuppies, bankers and drug dealers. And then, suddenly, my mum had one. (No, she doesn't sell drugs.)
Could we see a similar rapid adoption for electric vehicles?
The LA Times reports that Q1 electric car (EV) sales are up 91% in California. Sales of Plug-In Hybrids (PHEV) are up 54% too. This is, of course, only one quarter, from one state, so let's not get too excited. And the actual number of units sold—13,804 EVs and 10,466 PHEVs—is still tiny compared to the 506,745 cars and light trucks sold in the state during the same period. But anyone who knows anything about math can tell you that it doesn't take long for a 91% growth rate to start making serious inroads into a particular market. (Electric car sales in Norway have already reached as high as 37% of new passenger vehicles.)
It's possible the muscle memory developed for cellphones could help with EV adoption, too: plug in the phone at night, plug in the car at night.
(Score: 3, Informative) by TheRaven on Friday May 26 2017, @10:28AM
Note: In the UK overall, around 60% of people commute by car, but in London that's closer to 30%. The majority use some combination of train and tube (RAC survey, 2013 - I suspect car usage has gone down since then, as the congestion charge has gone up).
In 2014 the average commute was around 15km (11-17km for average commutes in different parts of the UK). Sorry for the Torygraph link, but they have some reasonable graphics of the OSN survey. That's not too far off the US averages, but it's easy for a car with a 100 mile range to manage a round trip and a few side trips. [telegraph.co.uk]
sudo mod me up