If today, it is impossible to switch the world from petrol cars to electric cars without government subsidies and political pressure, for the sake of the planet’s environment both subsidies and pressure should be maintained. Let us look at the reasons for green energy losing to the internal combustion engine at the beginning of the last century.
The other day, one of my favourite American actors, Edward Norton, took part in a photo shoot with the new BMW i4 M50 electric car. The model was presented by the German carmaker and the American fashion brand Kith. The series is a limited edition. A total of seven cars will be built. The first of these will be auctioned at Sotheby’s at the end of October. The starting price of the auction will be at least $100 thousand.
There are no complaints to the actor — respect only. Edward is known to have been a UN ambassador for biodiversity for over a decade. The movie star also collaborates with various organizations that advocate for forest conservation. It is clear that he agreed to work on this project for humanitarian reasons.
“I had a great time working on this green campaign to support the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust in their cause of protecting biodiversity and forests. Kith will also make a generous contribution to the Trust from their share of the auction,” Norton wrote on Twitter.
What really confuses me is the current prices of electric cars in the world. We are not talking about the BMW i4 M50 EV. It is okay as this is a limited edition of luxury mobile vehicles that actually handmade. A piece of art. Fun for collectors. However, the situation on the mass market for electric cars is no better. Today, an electric car is on average twice as expensive as a conventional car! Andif this trend continues, a complete transition to green energy on the roads is out of the question for the foreseeable future.
This has already happened before. Not many people know, but Henry Ford’s wife Clara preferred to drive a 1922 Detroit Electric coupe 90. For some reason she did not get into her husband’s Ford Model T saloon. It was this very car that made Henry extremely rich. The model was the world’s first car produced in a million series. It was Ford who “put America on wheels,” making the car affordable for the middle-class American.
I must say that this Detroit Electric coupe ’90 was more of a luxury item than a means of transportation. The interior had plush carpets, vases for flowers and other trappings of an English living room from King Edward’s time. The electric car was custom made for Clara Ford and cost almost $4,000, which is $6,500 in today’s money. Compare that to the $825 minimum price for a Ford Model T at the time and appreciate this appalling difference.
Meanwhile, back at the beginning of the 20th century, the garage of just one New York cab company had 17,000 electric cars. In the United States alone, there were a couple of dozen companies that produced 1.2 thousand electric cars a year. By 1912, there were about 39,000 electric cars on American roads. In general, petrol cars crossed the top speed of 100 km/h as much as 7 years later than their electric counterparts did.
Electric cars were better and easier to use back then. Even though petrol and diesel fuel cost practically nothing in those days. Both were byproducts of production of fuel oil, kerosene, and jet fuel. But petrol-powered cars were difficult, inconvenient and even dangerous to start. Besides, at that time they were started exclusively by hand. Do you remember the ‘crooked starter’ from black and white silent movies?
In the end, electric car manufacturers believed in their own exclusivity, detached from reality, and finally went too far with their prices. Although the electric cars of that time also had significant drawbacks, both in terms of battery life and car mileage.
On the other hand, cheap Texas oil and invention of the electric starter for the internal combustion engine in 1912 resulted in the fact that Henry Ford began mass production of the Ford Model T on the first modern assembly line as early as 1913. As a result, electric cars received a severe blow, from which they cannot recover until now.
Actually, 6.5 million electric cars were sold last year, 109% more than in 2020. Especially when you compare that figure to the current ratio of petrol-powered cars and green cars. For example, only 4% of new cars sold in the US in 2021 were electric cars. In China and Europe, the situation is slightly better — 15% and 19% respectively. We can say that demand was negatively affected by COVID restrictions. Or a shortage of chips. Or something else that looks like objective reasons. Yet, I think that globally it is about something else.
It is said that most people will never swap their cars for electric ones because of financial reasons. Well, then it is up to environmental activists to increase the pressure on state leaders. Governments should help manufacturers reduce the price of electric cars. Someone has to take responsibility for the safe future of the planet.
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