If an EV can really save you money from high gas prices, why aren't more people using EVs?

Yes, EV’s can go ridiculously fast. They currently have 2 main drawbacks: range and recharge time. With our current battery technology EV’s are only good for short distance travel and require a long time to recharge. People also need a place to plug them in at night (something many city dwellers lack). This is changing very rapidly, but the technology is very expensive. I myself you love to have a Lightning that can recharge in 15 minutes, but cant afford the estimated 150k euro price tag.

My guess is that people can’t afford it because the gas prices are so high…

Wouldnt we just have to pay higher electric bills anyway?

you can convert a used car from regular gas engine to all electric for under $20 grant. The range between charges is still pretty low I agree, but a lot of people commute short distances though. The electric bill will still be much much lower than current gas prices.

Maybe the oil companys are charging more for gas because they don’t want people to be able to afford swithing to electric…...I don’t have the extra $20,000 to be able to convert mine, and I can’t get the $ if I dont spend the $ on gas to get to work…...so either way I’m screwed ☯

and they are really really expensive and they most use lithium ion batteries (like in laptops) that with age cannot hold a charge as long. So you would have to buy a new $10,000 battery about every 5 to 10 years. Also its not really going to help stop pollution, atleast on the east coast. I know that atleast in NJ we get our electricity from burning coal. Maybe down south where they have those huge fans it might help…

Well wait a minute here.

It’s unfortunate that we still rely so heavily on coal plants, but I’d much rather have all the pollution coming from a single source instead of thousands of cars. It’s much more controllable that way. If the technology controlling the pollution from the plant would improve, changes would be much more immediate than the alternative – waiting for all the car owners to wear out their old vehicles and buy the better version.

And as far as the $10,000 battery thing is concerned, I highly doubt that the battery would still cost $10,000 ten years from now. The price of technology drops exponentially (think cell phones and computers). Chances are, if EV take off, the price of the battery would drop very, very quickly – I’d assume to about $1,000 by the time you need a new one. That’s still a hefty price tag, but keep in mind $1,000 only 250 gallons of gas now. Which purchase would you prefer?

there are clean coal power plants in Europe, the US has the technology for a clean coal power plant but politics got on the way.

I know batteries take a long time to charge and can be quite expensive. Well we have the technology borrowed from the Power Distribution Industry to get away from gas and batteries altogether, look at this motorcycle works on this principle. This synchronous motor permanent static magnet just needs a starter, once it gets going it will produce the current to keep magnetizing the core, plus keeps rotating so the car can get around. Just add a current/voltage controller and you are in business. For more information on synchronous motors you can look at this. All this guy has done is change the application of this motor.