Blind Spot: Electric Cars And "The Freedom Thing"

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

Editor’s note: While our erstwhile Editor-in-Chief, Edward Niedermeyer, is on sabbatical, he will continue to weigh in on automotive issues in a (hopefully) weekly column entitled Blind Spot. This is the first installment.

Back in 2008, as the worlds of automobiles and politics headed towards a dramatic collision, the founder of this site and I had a series of conversations about political perspectives on automobiles. Though these conversations were wide-ranging, I kept coming back to the same conclusion: for all of the talk about guns as “tools of freedom,” it seemed to me that cars were even more worthy of the title. After all, most people use an automobile in the pursuit of freedom and mobility every day, whereas guns are (relatively) rarely used to secure individual rights.

But embracing the car’s role as a tool of freedom raises a number of troubling questions, most of them inherent to the very cause of liberty. Though cars make us more free as individuals, we must recognize that it comes at the cost of (among other things) dependence on gasoline, an “addiction” that many now seek freedom from. As new energy sources and mobility concepts become available, citizens will have to navigate a complex thicket of issues as they seek to maximize the freedom that personal mobility offers.

That private transportation fundamentally increases personal liberty is difficult to argue against. On the theoretical level, it’s not difficult to understand how private mobility frees individuals to choose where they live and work, empowering individual choice over collective planning. And for those who see humans as essentially freedom-seeking creatures, the headlong rush towards private car ownership in developing countries could be a sign of the car’s inherently liberating power.

But as is so often the case with expanding liberty, the democratization of the automobile has a flip side. Indeed, the very expansion of the global auto market puts pressure on our energy sources, creating something of a zero-sum global market for private transportation.

Even more troubling for proponents of the car as a tool of freedom, the expansion of the global car market in developing countries is being accompanied by a transition away from automobiles in developed countries. Beyond even the impact of rising gasoline prices, social, cultural and technological conditions are making automobiles less of a liberating force in developed nations. Particularly among young people, automobile ownership is increasingly seen as a burden rather than a freedom.

For some, the answer to this automotive apathy lies in new technology, most notably in electric cars (EVs, or electric vehicles). New technology, cleaner energy sources and a more high-tech image will, argue EV boosters, make cars more relevant and sustainable to new generations of developed world consumers. But can electric cars really serve as tools of personal freedom?

On the most superficial level, EVs offer considerably less immediate freedom than gas-powered cars. Once its battery is used, an EV must sit immobile for 6-12 hours before it can drive again, limiting (if nothing else) the perception that ones car could cross a major land mass efficiently should one need it to. This gut-level reaction is, among admitted fans of freedom, a major stumbling block to the acceptance of EVs.

Add to the EV’s fundamental limitations the fact that the market for them is being stimulated by government tax dollars, and i shouldn’t be surprising that EVs have become something of a punchline on the right. After all, a gut-level appreciation for continent-crossing levels of freedom and an appreciation for the free market tend to go hand-in-hand, and the EV fails on both counts.

But by making EVs out to be nothing more than a patronage plot based on Global Warming hysteria, the political right does a disservice to both the EV and itself (however true individual accusations may be). For a significant number of Americans, the EV holds the long-term promise of an almost unheard-of level of freedom from external energy sources: what could be more enticing to the lover of freedom than the idea of local private transportation powered by solar panels on your roof? And on a national level, the hidden costs to taxpayers of gasoline dependence aren’t often brought up by the deficit hawks (or hawks of any kind, for that matter), but they are very real.

In the real world, though, microgeneration and EVs themselves are too expensive to be available to all but the most wealthy freedom freaks. And frustratingly, the most convincing solution to the EV’s problems with range and cost, namely battery lease/swap infrastructure like Better Place’s, are hardly a libertarian dream come true. Only by centralizing grid management and paying for a battery swap infrastructure, a task necessitating government involvement, do EVs make sense on a large scale.

This leaves the EV in a frustrating impasse with the value of personal liberty. Though holding profound promise for self-sustainable private transport, the range-limited, heavily-subsidized reality is as bad for many lovers of liberty as its obvious cure, the “natural monopoly” of a centralized swap/lease entity.

And yet, if we look to the markets, we see it moving toward electrification. The number and variety of hybrids available today would astound American observers of the introduction of the Prius just over ten years ago. Those who believe in the market’s wisdom can not deny the steadily increasing electrification of the car market, nor ignore its implications. And as is ever the case when technology and markets shift, those seeking to maximize their personal freedoms will have to choose carefully from a new set of imperfect choices.


Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

More by Edward Niedermeyer

Comments
Join the conversation
3 of 146 comments
  • HeftyJo HeftyJo on Mar 01, 2012

    Until there is a massive improvement in battery technology EV automobiles are a none starter. Lithium Ion batteries just aren't robust and reliable enough to make for a dependable car that will last you any appreciable amount of time. In general my faith in Li Ion batteries isn't too strong because I'm a computer technician and I see Li Ion batteries in laptops and cell phones turning into bricks all the time. In fact I scrapped a large box full laptop batteries a while back and not a single one was more than 10 years old. Not to mention that latest news that the battery in the Tesla roadster turns into a brick if you let it sit unplugged for more than a few weeks is pretty disappointing. Which brings me to the second point that the electrical grid just isn't efficient enough to make it worthwhile to switch to EV cars; particularly if saving energy and reducing pollution is your primary concern. In the U.S. our power plants are pretty efficient and clean running but that comes at an enormous cost. When everyone comes home from a busy day and plugs in their cars to charge over night we would need a lot more power generation to handle that additional load. So, that means having to build a bunch more expensive and heavily regulated power plants everywhere. Something tells me the Nimby crowd wouldn't be too happy about that. Then, our power grid is nearly single fault tolerant in some areas of the nation because it is already being pushed to its limits. We would need massive upgrades to the power grid to not only handle the load but to also reduce the power inefficiencies of sending that much juice over the power lines. Third, we would just be shifting over from the consumption of fuel to the consumption of Lithium and rare earth metals to build all these battery packs and electric motors. In other words instead of sending piles of money to the Middle East we will instead be sending all our money to Bolivia and China. Not to mention it actually takes a great deal of energy to ship all these materials around from the sources of where they are mined, to areas where they can get refined, and back to areas where they can get assembled. This all just makes the idea that we could just build battery packs that could be swapped out at a battery station all the more silly. We would need an incredible number of battery packs sitting on hand in order to keep everyone's car moving. And then what happens when this mountain of battery packs goes bad and needs to be disposed of? Well there goes more toxic materials back into the environment. The whole thing is just to give everyone warm tingles that they are saving the planet but upon closer examination is just doesn't make any sense.

    • Joeaverage Joeaverage on Mar 15, 2012

      So what's the difference - a BUNCH of tankers comes from Saudi Arabia or some bulk haulers come from China or Bolivia with materials for a battery that lasts X number of years. The oil is here and gone, send more soon. Oil gets burned. If battery and motor raw materials are expensive enough to generate a profit do it somebody will start recycling them. I think the difference between the laptop battery and Leaf battery (for example) is that a laptop battery gets run to a very low charge state to get max user time out of a battery capacity (weight) before it conks out. The batteries in an EV get run to maybe 50% of charge and the car tells you the battery is empty. It makes the battery last longer. Yes Tesla has some kinks to work out but I am confident they will get it right. Personally if I could afford a Tesla I'd be adding solar to my garage rooftop to keep the batteries charged. I expect Tesla will fix the car's parasitic drains rather than risk their reputation or add some protection so that the battery can't be allowed to brick itself.

  • Mark@pluginrecharge Mark@pluginrecharge on Mar 01, 2012

    I own a Nissan Leaf and absolutely love the thing. I drive around Orlando about 1100 miles a month and spend about $28 in electricity. I had range anxiety for the first 3 weeks I had the car when I was figuring it out, but now it's no big deal. Everyone I've taken for a ride is impressed with the performance and silence of the car...try it, you'll probably like it. The Leaf is a "100 mile" EV and not for everyone...but by the time "regular folk" will ever get brave enough to buy them in a couple of years, they will be 250 mile EVs and cheaper. Then they'll be a good fit for most city drivers. My Leaf displaced a 21mpg gas car, taking the need for 620 gallons/15 barrels of gasoline a year out of the market. Most cars don't get 21mpg and some get better mileage, but if 66 million 21mpg cars switched to EV, this would drop gasoline usage by 33% or 1 billion barrels...that's a big reduction in oil imports and would buy us freedom, healthier air...and maybe...just maybe, less wars and messes to clean up. If you're an EV skeptic that thinks EVs are stupid, that's fine with me - someone has to buy the Saudi Prince a new Ferrari Berlinetta made of Platinum...and it might as well be you!

  • FreedMike Meanwhile...Tesla's market share and YTD sales continue to decline, in an EV market that just set yet another quarterly sales record. Earth to Musk: stop with the political blather, stop with the pie-in-the-sky product promises, and start figuring out how to do a better job growing your business with good solid product that people want. Instead of a $30,000 self driving taxi that depends on all kinds of tech that isn't anywhere near ready for prime time, how about a $30,000 basic EV that depends on tech you already perfected? That will build your business; showing up at Trump rallies won't.
  • 28-Cars-Later "Here in Washington state they want to pass a law dictating what tires you can buy or not." Uh, waht?
  • Tassos NEVER. All season tires are perfectly adequate here in the Snowbelt MI. EVEN if none of my cars have FWD or AWD or 4WD but the most challenging of all, RWD, as all REAL cars should.
  • Gray Here in Washington state they want to pass a law dictating what tires you can buy or not. They want to push economy tires in a northern state full of rain and snow. Everything in my driveway wears all terrains. I'm not giving that up for an up to 3 percent difference.
  • 1995 SC I remember when Elon could do no wrong. Then we learned his politics and he can now do no right. And we is SpaceX always left out of his list of companies?
Next