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Et Tu, Electric Car?
Electric cars may not be the clean-energy panacea for which we all hoped.
“Volvo, An Early Electric Car Adopter, Cuts Off Funding For Its EV Affiliate,” reported Dominic Channing for the Wall Street Journal on February 1, 2024. “Move follows other retrenchments by big automakers as sentiment turns against EVs.”
It was terrible news for the electric car industry. It was even worse news for environmentally conscious car buyers hoping to lower their carbon footprints by trading gas-guzzlers in for an electric, and presumably cleaner, counterpart.
While many media outlets, including the WSJ, have couched the recent problem as an expedient if questionable decision by big automakers pandering to even more questionable consumers, the reality is far different — and more complicated than the narrative “Americans should drive electric cars, but they won’t for no good reason.”
When temperatures dropped this winter, the media landscape and social media feeds were suddenly littered with EV horror stories. Many EV owners had terrible trouble charging in the cold weather.
“Cold weather can cut electric vehicle range and make charging tough,” admitted Tom Krisher for the Associated Press in January. “Here’s what you need to know.”