Why Don't People Switch To Electric Cars? || Green World Blog

Hi Everyone!

The previous post in this series really blew up, so thank you so much for your support on that one. In this article, I wanted to discuss why people are not switching to electric cars, and why the transport industry still has a way to go in terms of reaching net zero.

If you missed the first part of this post, then click here to read it!!

I talked in the post linked above, about why people should switch to electric cars, while also taking into account the potential issues with them, and coming to a conclusion about should everyone switch to electric cars. In this post, I wanted to delve further into the topic of why people don't switch to electric cars.

The cost is one of the main issues at the moment. To own an electric car, you need a reliable electricity supply, which is not readily available for everyone in the developing world, let alone the cost of buying the vehicle in the first place. The cost of the vehicle could eventually be lowered, and many countries have put schemes in place to make buying an electric or hybrid vehicle appealing, but this is definitely not enough. The cost of an electric car is simply too much for many families.

I think most people understand the value of electric vehicles with regards to the climate crisis, and certainly in the developed world, most of us travel reasonable distances on a daily basis. The sheer amount of transport used daily all around the world is a real issue. In fact, total transport activity is expected to more than double by 2050, compared to 2015. This huge increase in transport will counter-balance any work done to make it more sustainable, due to the volume of energy required. Even if you made half of the cars in the world electric, this massive increase in transport, would mean that the emissions in the transport sector would still rise.

As of 2015, 95% of transport was still dependent on oil, which is really the statistic that needs to change. This is where renewables and electric cars can work hand in hand, to make this statistic much, much lower. As I covered in my previous article, if you are charging your car with renewables, you really are drastically lowering your emissions. However, if you charge your electric car using fossil fuels, you may be reducing your emissions, but are really just releasing them in a different stage of the process.

In my opinion, another reason why people don't want to switch to electric cars is that electric cars are not quite as advanced as they need to be for everyone to be convinced. The inconvenience would be too much for some people, as mostly they will only travel 250-300 miles on a single charge. However, with a little planning, it is definitely possible to make this work for any journey. If you are travelling long distances, you are going to stop for at least half an hour, if not longer for lunch, and this time can easily be used to charge up. A bigger battery would mean a bigger environmental impact due to the materials needed to make them, so a smaller battery is in many ways no bad thing.

There is also this remaining prejudice that electric cars are still developing, which is true, but there are many electric cars now that will travel reasonably long distances, and I think many people just need to open their minds a little more.

The main problem arises when people do not have driveways on which to park their cars, as they may not have a charger nearby, or which may be very expensive, so charging the car becomes a real challenge. This is something that needs to be addressed on a bigger level, with initiatives and schemes put in place to support people in these situations, with options to invest in low-cost community charging points.

In conclusion, there are many reasons why people don't switch to electric cars, ranging from the cost to inconvenience, prejudice and accessibility of charging points. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post, and we will be back very soon.

Your Green World Blog Team💚

Sources:

I have used many articles in the process of creating this article, but here are some of the most important ones, including The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg.

https://www.veganfoodandliving.com/features/pros-and-cons-of-electric-cars
https://www.thegreenage.co.uk/tech/environmental-footprint-electric-cars
https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/why-electric-vehicles-arent-the-simple-solution-to-the-climate-crisis-3502343

The Climate Book - Created by Greta Thunberg (The Climate Bible!!) - our thoughts here

Images: All the images in this post are owned by a blog editor.

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