My bet for the EV revolution
Hi,
when we say electric vehicle, everyone is thinking about Tesla. I've got some news for you, there are a lot of options on the market that beat the Tesla in different aspects. Tesla does marketing and hype their products very well and also they managed to make the middle console working. Coming from the automotive industry I think it is still overpriced and the valuation is way off. It is now more worth than the other automotive companies, which is way off, as Toyota for example has a lot more employees, generating a lot more sales and profit and bringing a lot more patents to life than Tesla, but this is our new attention economy where social media matters more than the results.
Now coming back to the topic, I'm a fan of low budget cars. Low budget does not to be cheap as it can be good cars, with a good equipment on them, with a somehow actual design that does not need to cost a fortune. Brands like Skoda, Kia, Hyunday, Seat or Dacia, where Dacia is my favorite on the price to value ratio.
For the actual models you can get so much value for the money. Let's put it this way, the diesel motor block from Dacia Logan is used in Mercedes A and B series, so some Mercedes out there are running with a Dacia motor. But this is not the point, Dacia is not a status symbol, it is a decent car that gets you from A to B. It is sturdy as there are a lot of them who passed the million kilometres and are still running. BTW, it is considered one of the most reliable cars in production.
Now there will be a new model launched, the Dacia Spring, which will be the first full electric car coming from Dacia. It will be in direct competition to the electric Mini, SEAT Mii Electric, WV Up E, Smart EQ, Renault Eve and Honda E. Why here? Because Dacia Spring was made for the city, it is short, 3,73 m but offers so much more than the competition. What more than a mini, well it is cheap, roughly 10k € or 13k USD. Which car offers that? Also compared to the others, it offers a lot of space as being a small SUV, 300L or 600L with the back sits clapped down. And yes, the back sits can be used for real persons not like in the smaller versions mentioned above.
10k € for an electric car that runs for roughly 200 km and comes with a fast charger that charges up to 80% in under an hour. Try to do this with a Nissan Leaf, that costs much more.
Why I go with a Dacia Spring and not with a Tesla? Well, because we need small, affordable cars for the cities. Tesla is far from affordable for the most people. And to be honest, if I have the money for a Tesla, I would probably go for a Porsche Taycann which is a Tesla killer.
By the way,even if I'm not a big fan of sharerides, the first Dacia Springs will be available only for ride sharing services in Q1 of 2021. Only in September they will be available for purchase. We need more companies like Dacia that bring a lot of value compared to the price. Dacia Spring wants to be the cheapest car running in Europe over life time costs. That means it aims maintenance, fuel, acquisition, insurance and service to be one of the lowest on price. I think this is the revolution we need in the automotive industry, we need to bring affordable some way more cleaner rides to the masses, not only the elites who can afford a Porsche or a Tesla.
Imagine tokenizing the ride share industry...but this for another story...
For 10k that E-Dacia will sure be a success, concidered that you can get a few thousand Euro subsidy from the government for buying a new electric car.
But there remains a major obstacle for electric cars: the charging. And that in two aspects, the charging points and the charging of vehicles as such.
The public charging points are rediculously few. If people really start to use electric cars - like in Norway, where its reaching the 50% - it will be a huge task to provide enough of such charging points. But even at home its not a simple matter, as charging from the standard house mains takes much too long.
Well, such problems could be overcome by investing money. Much more difficult is the other problem: where should the electricity come from, if people really replace the fuel cars with electric cars? Because that would be really a lot of additional electricity needed. And the production of electricity should be CO² neutral, right? And without nuclear power, too. Well, thats not gonna be easy.
Yes, there are challenges on the way for this! Electricity can be solar (Sahara has some good sun exposure or it can be made from the sea movement. There are solutions but the major as I see it is the charging station. With a fast charger for 80% under an hour it shall be fine. There are also some other struggles like fire hazard as this things shall not be allowed in underground parking as they burn for days.
Of course there are renewable energie sources, but they would need to be expanded to a epic scale. The amount of energy that is used by vehicles today (and ships and planes ect) is gigantic. It would probably require a totally new power grid to deliver that everywhere.
As you say, fast charging stations are needed for a prctical use of electric cars. And they can't be powered with the usual 240V power outlets that are normally installed in houses. From a normal wall socket you can only draw 3500 Watt/h - and even that is already on the limit of safe use. But if the car has a battery with 60,000 or 80,000 Watt/h or even more, you can easily calculate how long it takes to charge that. Basically, every 1 hour of driving time needs 10 hours of charging. Thats just not realistic.
So the whole electric car thing will be a huge challenge - if its taken seriously. Building the actual cars is the easy part, really.