Prof. Aseem Prakash and colleague Prof. Nives Dolšak on why conversion to electric vehicles may be slower than we hope.
"Transportation contributes to about 28% of US carbon emissions. To decarbonize transportation, electric vehicles (EVs) must replace internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. What impedes people to make the switch? The high EV sticker price is an important factor. But another crucial issue is the difficulty in charging EVs quickly and conveniently. For ICEs, when the fuel is low, the driver pulls into a gas station and refuels in around 3-5 minutes, depending on tank capacity. Since gas stations are everywhere, ICE drivers don’t have range anxiety. But EV owners have range anxiety because there aren’t enough charging stations and it takes a long time to charge EVs."