Researchers at MIT have just completed the most comprehensive study yet to address this hotly debated question, and have reached a clear conclusion: Yes, they can.
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But there are still some caveats to electric vehicles that are hard to ignore.
Areas with more extreme temperatures – using heating or cooling systems lowers an electric vehicle’s driving range – and where such larger vehicles as trucks and SUVs are more common will be less likely to increase their use of EVs, said Jeremy Michalek, an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon and director of the university’s vehicle electrification group.
With all the limits on electric vehicles – battery life, cost, the availability of charging stations – you might expect that at most 50% of the vehicles on USA roads could be replaced by more-sustainable cars.
Both combined represent millions of trips made by drivers.
Those who feel the potential for EVs is small cite the premium prices of those available today, such as the highly rated, but expensive, Tesla models, and the still-limited distance lower-cost EVs can drive on a single charge, the research found.
According to the study, only 0.7 percent of vehicles in the country are electric, and electric auto sales actually went down by 17 percent between 2014 and 2015. Many people, when confronted with the somewhat limited range of the current electric vehicle selection (minus the expensive Model S and Model X, as well as upcoming models) become concerned that the auto, while driving far from a charging station or friendly outlet, will run out of power, leaving the driver stranded.
That said, these guys aren’t wrong; maybe the solution is an electric auto for most of your daily commute, and something nice and bonkers with a big gas tank for those days you feel gleefully unhinged. The study concluded that now available and low-priced EVs, like the Nissan Leaf or the Ford Focus Electric, would effectively replace gas cars on 87 percent of driving days nationwide and still manage to meet consumers’ transportation needs.
They also realized that there’s not much difference between travel habits in different parts of the country. “The adoption potential of electric vehicles is remarkably similar across cities, from dense urban areas like NY, to sprawling cities like Houston”, Trancik says. Researchers at MIT, after a four-year study, have discovered that the electric cars available today could result in a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, as reported by PhysOrg.
“This goes against the view that electric vehicles – at least affordable ones, which have limited range – only really work in dense urban centres”. However, those occasions would be rare, and needs could usually be met with a short-term auto rental or ride-share.
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“Rather than say range anxiety should or should not exist… the goal is to alleviate that anxiety with accurate information that’s usable and useful to consumers, policymakers and technology developers”, she said.
