The electric vehicle is not a recent invention: the first prototypes appeared in around 1830. Then, the electric car was progressively developed, as batteries improved with the work of Gaston Plante and Camille Faure during the second half of the 19th century. In 1881, an electric car model was presented at the electricity international exhibition in Paris. The electric vehicle became a great success in Europe and in the United States in the late 19th century, essentially for urban mobility. Charging points had been first implemented in Paris since 1898, and several experiences of electric public transports were made, as batteries’ autonomy improved.
Author Archives: theelectriccar
The marketing as the solution for a massive adoption ?
We have seen in the video showing the public opinion in Nancy that the French population is not ready to buy electric cars, because they have certain prejudices about several points such as the battery, the autonomy or the price. This lack of information exists on many levels: the local one (where are the connecting terminals to recharge my car ?) and the international one (what are the model of electric cars ? where are the batteries produced?). Many of these questions are slowing down the global adoption of electric cars. Are marketing and communication the best way to sell the new cars, hence making companies’ investments profitable?
But what are the factors that enable the companies to progress? And which way are they used for the communication plan ?
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Are electric cars more expensive than fuel vehicles?
Electric cars have lots of economic advantages in comparison to fuel vehicles. For example, electricity is 70% cheaper than fuel; 100 km with an electric car have a cost of 2€ instead of 12€ with a fuel car, which has a consumption of 8L per 100 km. Furthermore, maintenance costs are also lower with an electric car. Indeed, you don’t have to pay for the exhaust pipe, oil-change and for the transmission belt. So you pay 30% to 40% less for the maintenance than with a fuel car.
But what about the price of the vehicles?
The reality of the « zero-emission car »
«Zero emission». This is the affirmation used by the French car’s manufacturer Renault to promote its electric vehicles’ range.
The electric car is the symbol of tomorrow’s transports. Concurrently to thermic cars, electric vehicles offer the same services but also allow to avoid the use of petrol or gasoline, which is a convincing argument because today we all aspire to drive in a environmentally-friendly way. In the United Kingdom, the use of the slogan “Zero emission” is prohibited for advertising campains.
Indeed, analyzing the carbon dioxide emissions of a car does not mean taking into account the sole emissions caused by the use of this car: the fabrication and the demolition of a car, but also the fuel production do take part in the global carbon dioxide emissions. All too often, these elements are forgotten, which distorts the results of the studies.
Considering the electric car life cycle, is it possible to maintain that electric vehicles contribute to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions?
The “polluting somewhere else” syndrome
“For me, the best argument in favor of the electric car is that it is environmentally-friendly. Indeed, it is not polluting in the city centre.” This is the common answer to the question of the principle contribution of electric vehicles in our cities.
But if we look into the question, we realise that it is necessary to nuance this affirmation. If we know that the electric car is polluting but not in the city centres, where do electric vehicles reject greenhouse gas?
The oil lobby: “Who Killed the Electric Car?”
Is the spread of the electric car conceivable on a large scale in the light of the economic and political interests at stake?
The wide diffusion of the electric car is far from being only a scientific question on its ecological aspects. In the light of the numerous economic and political interests at stake, the controversy concerning the electric car also implies actors like oil and automobile industries or public authorities. These actors have multiple and sometimes contradictory interests related to the question.
The ambiguous position of car manufacturers
The position of car manufacturers in the controversy about the electric car is pretty difficult to estimate. Indeed, they finance much research and development programs about the electric vehicle, which seem to have successful results: for instance, programs like the Plug-in Hybrid and Electric Car Vehicle Research Center at the University of California, or the Global Climate Change & Energy Project of Stanford University, both leading research on electric vehicles, have partnerships with firms like Toyota, Chrysler-Fiat and Nissan. However, these numerous programs have never resulted in an industrialization and distribution of electric cars on a large scale, because of a lack of real will from the vehicle manufacturers. Moreover, automobile lobbies have even sometimes directly acted against the development of electric cars. Once again, the example of the EV1 in California during the 1990s is significant: automobile manufacturers, like oil lobbies, exerted pressures in order to foil the project.
A political fact rather than an economic fact
Electric-car programs developed by car manufacturers actually answer a strong political demand in industrialized countries. Indeed, there is an important collusion of interests between public authorities and vehicle manufacturers: these have a decisive influence on the employment market, while states are important shareholders of car companies (for instance, the French state owns 15% of Renault’s capital) and have many means to influence their sales, like taxes, subventions or “scrapping premiums”. Electric car research programs develop so often under public constraints. They were for example the condition to obtain public subventions in France in 2008.
The Electric Car 