Are Electric Cars Catching On?

It seems that a "double paradigm shift" may be taking place here in the west. Several types of solar (or other renewable) battery chargers are popping up. The most practical ones involve charging a replacable battery -not sitting and waiting for your car to charge (although that is possible too).

I feel bad for the people that will be stuck with a gas driven machine. The value will plunge so quickly!

I believe the electric vehicles are starting to catch on, but I wouldn't kiss their gas powered brethren goodbye so fast. Long hauls, cold climate, an electric infrastructure not capable of supplying all of the electric car needs and batteries that are expensive to buy and short in life span are all obstacles that still need to be overcome.

A solar powered long lasting daily commuter is ways off yet, but we are moving closer.

It can be shown that electric plug-in cars can add to pollution, via a coal burning power station.

Here in Australia the number of electric cars sold is way below predictions. As more people discover that the "climate change" scare is a scam and that the only thing returning carbon dioxide to the air (where it came from) does is to increase plant growth rate, so is interest in so-called green things declining.

As somebody who is in the electric car business, I think the answer is "not really".

People are curious about electric cars, due to environmental and gasoline price concerns, but they are not seeking these cars out. Today electric cars fall into three groups: expensive (Tesla), low performance (conversions), and vaporware (Leaf, Volt). You cannot easily find, test drive and buy an electric car. None of them are proven to be reliable or economical in the long term, and none of them are really practical for day-to-day use. That will change, but until it does electric cars will only catch on with the diehard first technology adopters and the tree huggers.

Wish I could be more optimistic, but we still have a lot of work to do first -- both on better designs / performance and in public awareness.