Electric cars are expected to rule the roost within the next few years. While China is determined to impose a ban on gasoline-powered cars, California also plans to embrace this mode of propulsion. General Motors and Ford Motor are the largest Automakers in the United States, and they want to toss aside fossil fuels.
General Motors announced plans to have 20 new all-electric models by 2023 and two of these could enter the market within the next 18 months. Ford Motor envisages putting up 13 models within the next few years.
Fossil fuel cars must go
New York Times reports that the concept of electric cars is yet to capture the imagination of buyers. This is evident from the sale of battery-powered electric vehicles in the first eight months of 2017. According to Hybridcars.com, the sale of such cars adds up to a minuscule one percent of the market in spite of federal tax incentives. Obviously, it does not project a very bright future, and automakers in California must evolve suitable strategies to attract the buyer.
The push to switch over to electric cars is a result of global pressure to curb global warming, and countries must abide by emission standards. They must also adhere to deadlines for eliminating gasoline-powered cars within a generation.
Therefore, German automakers Volkswagen and Daimler want to flood the market with hundreds of thousands of these vehicles in the coming years. Volvo, the Chinese-owned Swedish luxury brand, plans to convert its entire facilities to manufacture either electric cars or hybrid vehicles powered by both batteries and gas.
Future of electric cars
China could dictate the future market of electric cars because it already has sales of electric vehicles in large numbers which could exceed 400,000 by 2019. That would translate into nearly two-fifths of the world market and is the prediction of LMC Automotive which is a global consulting company.
Britain and France have announced plans to ban the sale of conventional automobiles powered by gasoline and diesel, and have indicated a tentative timeframe of 2040.
However, China has not set any date. In this connection, California Gov. Jerry Brown feels his state should follow suit, and he asked his chief auto-emissions regulator to examine the subject.
In the opinion of Mark Reuss, President of G.M., this is a transition period, and his company has not formulated any timetable for total removal of gasoline. By 2023 its new electric models will appear but, G.M. will continue to build cars, trucks and sport-utility vehicles that operate with internal combustion engines.
Ford Motors is another automaker which expects to produce an electric car that can go 300 miles without a recharge. This could become a reality by 2020 and would be a big leap because the normal range of present models is around 100 miles. This is not an attractive proposition for a section of consumers.
