I’m an economics professor – EVs will never be popular in Britain until three bugbears are sorted out
AN economics professor has claimed that EVs won't become popular in the UK until three major issues have been sorted out.
David Rapson said that potential buyers may be put off by some of the drawbacks of current electric car infrastructure.
David, who is the Chancellor's Chancellor’s Leadership Professor of Economics in the College of Letters and Science at the University of California Davis, outlined the pros and cons of EVs in an interview with .
During the show, he said: "EVs are going to be an essential part of a successful energy transition.
"However, the optimal pace of adoption may be slower than many governments are currently pursuing, and the ultimate market share of EVs may be constrained by costs and obstacles that appear to be underappreciated."
David cited a trio of issues as the key factors holding people back from adopting EVs.
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First of all, he noted that uncertainty over how far you can get in an electric car was contributing to range anxiety among drivers.
This consistently polls as one of the chief downsides to EV ownership and sees cars fall well short of their stated ranges per charge often due to factors like the weather.
Indeed, one YouTuber who took an electric Audi on a 600-mile road trip slammed it as zapping the fun out of driving for precisely this reason.
Likewise, charging infrastructure is so poor in the UK that service station bosses are having to hire marshals to prevent bust-ups between drivers suffering from "charge rage".
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David suggested that poor infrastructure makes owning an EV impractical and has to be resolved before it can be fully embraced.
He said that significant investment in better charging services is required to make EVs more attractive to the average customer.
Similarly, he took issue with excessive charging times making journeys longer and less convenient.
For example, one EV newbie's work road trip turned into a 13-hour nightmare when public chargers failed him.
Overall, David found that this trio of setbacks meant that it was a lot harder to convince motorists that EVs are the way forward.
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