Years of low gas price indulgence have turned the U.S. into big, heavy car savvy producers, but ultimately, at what cost. Europe’s expensive gas has always pushed the old continent to produce smaller and more fuel efficient cars. How is the electric vehicle, EV faring on both continents?
The gist, the adoption of EVs is all too evident as the uncertainties of gasoline prices settle into the psyche of people around the world. The U.S. finds itself with decades of manufacturing heavy SUVs and pickup trucks, while Europe finds itself with smaller cars. Which ones are better adapted to electricity, surely points to the smaller European counterparts.
The Path Of Least Resistance. When you are given lemons, your basic choice is to make lemonade. Converting heavy vehicles to 100% electricity is both unrealistic and too expensive. Given the overhead price for lithium batteries, would add an extra $25,000 upwards to close to 50,000 premium. This is not something cash conscious buyers will look favorably upon. So the best path in the U.S. is to hybridize its heavy fleet until electricity storage becomes better and cheaper to carry these vehicles longer. Hopefully, in the meantime, smaller and lighter cars will be manufactured from the ground up as electric cars. Europe’s smaller cars lends themselves better to an electricity switch. Being smaller and lighter, the performance difference between their gasoline and electricity versions would be closer.
The vehicle battery maker Valence Technology is currently in talks with a French electric-bus and truck maker called PVI that will test Valence’s lithium phosphate batteries for fleet vehicles in a deal worth $3 million, according to CNET. Bob Kanode, Valence’s CEO says that Europe’s determination is is there with their high energy costs. Europe is more focused on lowering their foreign oil reliance on, plus it is already committed to improving its carbon footprint, both the public and the governments.
With talks of different battery makers in the U.S. gathering should be good news to this evolving industry and could play catch up to the Asian industry and reap a healthy part of the future European market share.