Electric Cars are NOT the future

To say electric cars are the future is like saying the internet is the future. Electric cars are as futuristic as refined cane sugar. It is true that ever so often a new form of tech related to e-mobility comes about, but so did with internal combustion engines (ICE). At the risk of sounding anti-EV it needs to be emphasized that internal combustion engines had a long life and there’s still life left in the technology if image conscious policy makers didn’t make its development unfeasible today. But here’s the punchline, Electric cars didn’t kill ICE cars. ICE cars were a stop gap. And electric cars are not the future, they were always the norm.

Ever since motorized transportation was invented electric motion has been making its appearance as a safe, viable and practical method of propulsion. Electric motors have fewer moving parts which reduces complexity in building, operating, and servicing. They offer instantaneous torque at any point in the rev range and are 2-3 times more efficient than ICE.

At the turn of the 20th century if you were in the market for a new car, you’d be spoilt for choice by modes of propulsion. There was petrol, steam, and electric. Petrol, ironically, was the poor cousin of the three, as steam had a proven track record from the industrial revolution and, electric was the most convenient in terms of operation; once it’s charged all it required was the push of a button to start it.

Operating a car at that time was a butch or a meticulous affair depending on whether you owned a petrol or steam engine. Steam cars required somewhat time-consuming startup procedures while petrol engines required brawn to turn the crank the engine by hand. Electric cars suffered from none of this except for the high purchase price and lengthy charging times. As petrol stations became more widespread ICE cars became serious mile munchers and, with the fitment of starter motors to production cars in 1912, ICE cars were as easy to operate as electric cars with none of the range anxiety.

And so disappeared the electric cars from the personal car scene. They were still used for specialized applications, such as milk floats, that could afford the downtime necessary to charge. But the superior characteristics of electric motion were never forgotten. Scientists behind the scenes were hard at work developing a type of battery that had the capacity to deliver ICE levels of range, while being able to charge quickly without losing capacitance over time and, most importantly, being inexpensive enough to compete with ICE cars. Finally, almost 100 years later, their efforts paid off with a slew of cars arriving in the market with lithium-ion batteries.

Battery technology still has a long way to go. Charging still takes longer than brimming a tank with petroleum-based fuels, EV Batteries themselves are heavy making the cars less nimble, charging station in some countries and places are either nonexistent or too far apart, and while there’s no concrete proof that more EV’s spontaneously combust than ICE cars, it is a lot harder to put them out once they do. But the pace is picking up for EV development, with ICE development being halted and their respective R&D departments and budgets being utilized for the former.

It took almost a century for the motoring world to develop the right type of battery for EV’s to catch up to ICE cars. But now that they have more and more manufacturers are jumping into to the bandwagon and as a result Electric cars will develop at light speed making up for most of its shortcomings. ICE cars will always remain in our hearts for the sound and visceral experience they offered. If development were to continue, we could have seen them get much better, or possibly morph into its EV counterpart and become a Frankenstein creation with none of the fun bits associated. So, perhaps it is better for ICE to quit while it’s at the top without facing such an undesirable fate. But the fact remains ICE cars were nothing more than an organic stop gap until technology was perfected to make electric cars more affordable, practical, and safer.

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