As EV ownership rises gas stations are going to become rare enough to be a real hassle. That’s likely to push people to 95+% EV around 2040ish. At which point the remaining IC cars stop being a big deal.
We already went though something similar with catalytic converter requirements. Some people are going to drive 40+ year old cars, but they quickly become irrelevant.
EV’s could use in road charging to get effectively unlimited range on highways. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/12/worlds-f... But, I think that’s completely unnecessary. Charging at home actually saves time traveling to gas stations more than making up for spending an extra 5-10 minutes on the extremely unusual 400+ mile road trip.
Remember, we are talking about 50+% of cars being EV that means plentiful charging infrastructure.
EV’s are already shipping with 400+ mile ranges and 180 miles of charging in 15 minutes. 2 different 15 minute stops for food, bathroom breaks, and just stretching over 10 hours means your EV is doing 750~ miles per day, that’s well past what most people are willing to spend in their cars, and it can completely charge overnight.
Doesn't need to be equally fast. If you roadtrip a lot, it matters. But if you charge almost exclusively at home, then the number of times you have to recharge on a strict schedule is quite limited. The time savings from never going to the gas station is pretty significant compared with taking a half hour to recharge when you're on a long trip.
Even if you road trip significantly; Human physiology suggests eating, waste disposal, or at least moving around (to prevent blood clots) at about half the current range of Teslas (3 hrs or 180 miles). And current charging technology allows fast charging particularly well at these percentages.
Ie, charge for 30 minutes every 3 hours, 1 hour every 6 hours, and on either the 12 or 15th hour you charge for 4+ hours (and sleep)
If that’s your benchmark, EV’s can average about 5MPH slower over very long trips at highway speeds than ICE engines. It’s worse on ultra long trips or if you’re doing 100+MPH trying to break the cannonball run record etc, but that’s frankly illegal anyway.
PS: As an edge case benchmark, a 2018 model 3 has done the New York City to Los Angeles in 45 hours and 16 minutes or 61.5MPH including breaks. I only see that time dropping as EV’s improve.
Sub 26 hours in an ICE averaging over 110 MPH and a top speed of 175 mph. That’s not just lose your license but head straight to jail territory.
But sure as I said, if that’s what your going for ICE engines currently have a significant advantage using current technology and infrastructure. However, in terms of capacity to do a real world road trip the difference is already minimal.
PS: Don’t forget electric trains do 375 mph and can maintain that indefinitely. Assuming EV is always just going to be a battery technology is far from proven at this point.
Honestly not as big of a deal as many make it out to be. With EVs, the cars can be constantly charging when stopped. Even for longer trips, the newer, faster chargers can do 180 miles of charge in 15 minutes. This, combined with being able to charge virtually any time the car is stopped, can make electric cars even more convenient when it comes to filling up.
Also, having your car at 100% at the start of any day more than makes up for those rare occasions when you're going on a 500+ mile road trip.
We already went though something similar with catalytic converter requirements. Some people are going to drive 40+ year old cars, but they quickly become irrelevant.