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Here is where I am at after much study and direct participation in testing.

The “average” EV user is generally using his/her vehicle as a daily commuter to and from work with the odd errand or two here or there. Average trips for most of them are 30 minutes or less.

The performance of EV’s is quite impressive - they are fun to drive.

However, this obsession with “range” is causing an enormous amount of problems because we are pushing the limits of the technology to squeeze every kWh out of the batteries and this leads to high heat, internal damage that can cause thermal runaway, stresses other components such as the high voltage wiring, and it has a much higher failure rate than a larger but less energy dense battery that might provide half the range.

My daily commute is 30 minutes to office and 30 minutes home so I don’t need a 300-400 mile range or anything even remotely close. If I were in the market for an EV I would prefer the safer battery tech with less range that I could trickle charge overnight without a more expensive charging system required. This would meet 90% plus of the use of EV’s by their owners.

The fire problem is very concerning and its growing despite what people say in large part because we are making bigger batteries and pushing the envelope of electric density. IF I make a bus that has the equivalent of 7 100kWh batteries (a Tesla Y for example) it is logical that I increase the chance of a battery failure many times over.

The batteries are highly vulnerable to abuse such as potholes, running over debris, or otherwise doing mechanical damage to the battery cells or the wiring connected to the cells. They are vulnerable to moisture intrusion and manufacturing defects and when you have 8000 18650 cells in a single battery pack it only takes 1/8000 to start thermal runaway.

The insurance rates are going to go up because even minor damage in a minor wreck might cause internal damage and insurance does not want to assume the risk of a fire days, weeks, or months later. They are expensive to work on and there are not a lot of places that do the work. The environmental clean-up costs and chances of impact upon neighboring vehicles or structures is off the charts - trust me, if there is a catastrophic incident it is a mega-hazmat scene. The toxicity of these things is shocking as is the environmental poisoning they can create (especially aquatic).

The tech is still in its infancy in many ways and the number of recalls for fires as well as bankruptcies among manufacturers continues unabated. The larger EV’s such as buses or semi-trucks are having problems. The bigger the BESS or energy storage systems become the more they are having problems.

We are pushing the tech beyond its realistic capacity in my opinion to SAFELY do what we are asking of it but the beat goes on because people who don’t understand the technology are pushing it for a political goal.

EV acceptance in its current forms has just about hit its peak in my opinion and politicians are killing the future of the current generation of EV’s by mandates. Wait until an electric school bus explodes..... and it will. There are problems with charging stations and realistically if 4 out of 5 homes on a cul-de-sac were to get full sized EV’s the electric company would have to redesign and beef up the electrical service and transmission.

It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming years but for the moment I don’t see anything changing and public opinion is probably not going to improve for electric transportation any time soon.