José Rezende Mahar used to say that automobiles are loved because they gave people the ability to see what was beyond the hills. This metaphor of widening human perspectives that my late friend liked to repeat lacked just one thing to be perfect: that people could go beyond the mountains and get back on the same day. What made cars an incredible invention was that they could save time. Any attempt to change them will have to take this into consideration.
This does not mean only battery electric vehicles and their lengthy charging process, but all suggestions about giving up on cars or using them only when they are really necessary. For public transportation to play an active role in this, it has to save people's time. In other words, you have to spare these folks from waiting and feeling bad. After all, time is relative.
As Albert Einstein used to explain the relativity theory, "an hour sitting with a pretty girl on a park bench passes like a minute, but a minute sitting on a hot stove seems like an hour." If you apply that to transportation, "half an hour in a crowded train or a bus may look like hours, while an hour stuck in traffic with air-conditioning listening to your favorite songs may… seem more bearable." Let's face it: being stuck is unpleasant anywhere. It will still feel like an hour, but just ask where anyone on the crowded bus or train would prefer to be.
Cities like Paris are trying to make drivers' lives harder by cutting parking spots or lowering the maximum speed in some areas to ridiculously low limits. With the subway in the French capital, that idea may work out, but try to do that in São Paulo, Mexico City, or any large megalopolis without a good public transportation system, and hell will break loose – demand for remote work will spike, that's for sure. While cars are the fastest and more comfortable option, people will naturally prefer them. In some places, they are the only option.
Photo: Gina Ferazzi/TNS
You will see bicycle advocates saying these machines can ride anywhere, but they are not an option in cold or rainy weather. Theoretically, if there is no river or ocean in the way, you can also do everything on foot. The reason you don't is that you need to save time. Bicycles do not do that as cars do – even if they may keep you healthier but sweatier. They also do not help transport families or cargo and only apply to any scenario in the minds of those more interested in defending their way of life than a feasible transportation option for everyone. Politicians urging you to do so either have drivers serving them or look like demagogues riding a bike every once in a while.
The EV shift has overlooked or tried to ignore this need to save time as much as possible. BEV advocates frequently use energy efficiency as the excuse for everything, including waiting at least half an hour for a 10% to 80% charge. They have tried to convince customers that they can leave these vehicles charging at night to have them ready the following morning. The issue is that a large number of car owners can't charge at home or just do not have the time to wait for that when they are working or traveling.
Several people are now feeling surprised that BEV inventories are increasing and that heavy discounts are not moving them as they should. To avoid a financial tragedy, all automakers selling these vehicles in the US are adopting the North American Charging Standard (NACS) and making deals with Tesla to use the Supercharging network. Even if their cars can charge as quickly and seamlessly as a Tesla would, it will still be more time than people are willing to accept for the process.
Photo: Riversimple
There are several ways to prevent that right now, with the technology we already have: plug-in hybrids with a reasonable electric-only range, swappable batteries, fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), and plug-in hybrids powered by fuel cells. In the future, solid-state batteries and fast-charging cells may help cut waiting time, but concerns about battery pack durability and replacement cost will persist. In other words, we should probably focus on what is already available to address something few electric vehicles handle correctly.
Until teleportation is invented and people waste no time going anywhere, regardless of how far, the automotive industry and anyone willing to compete in this realm should remember what makes cars special. It is not the design, power, luxury, or any of those things that eventually make us choose one model over all the others. Cars help us save time. Automakers would probably save theirs if they understood this fundamental premise and developed their own solutions around it with the most promising tech available. Efficiency is nothing compared to convenience, which usually seals the deal.
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