Africa-Press – Eswatini. I hope the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) officers will read this article because it can save lives in the future.
Where in particular? At pedestrian (zebra) crossings. Would it shock you if I said I am considering no longer stopping at those crossings? That must sound crazy. It is, but I am not the crazy one. In a series of recent incidents down Gwamile Street, Mbabane, I stopped to allow people – sometimes pupils – to cross the road via the zebra crossing; then cars would simply cut through in the outer lane with absolutely no regard for the pedestrians already crossing. On one occasion, a person on his way across, was nearly flattened in such an incident. Too many motorists are getting increasingly selfish or distracted with cellphones on the ear. The pedestrian who nearly lost his life that day was saved only by the sound of the internal combustion engine (ICE) of the rogue motorist’s vehicle. What on earth will happen when the streets are similarly dominated, but in silence, by electrically-operated vehicles (EVs)? Well, earth will be safer, but perhaps not the people walking on it.
Response
Hoping to see an active response by the REPS to the above request, but let us move to a lighter note. Elon Musk, well-known globally for his technologically inventive spirit and a few US Dollars in the bank, claims to have paid some guy US$75 000 for the name Tesla, used by what became Musk’s own company and making EVs. The previous owner of the name was a guy in Sacramento called Slate who may, when registering his company in his own name, have misspelt it (lol). Musk is the wealthiest person in the world, though, apparently from some of his messages, not the happiest. He is nevertheless a dynamic investor with his company, Tesla, the leading EV sales company in the world. But if, perhaps he wants to be the biggest or best in everything, he should avoid attempting the world press-ups record: 2 392 in one hour. No, there’s no typo in those figures. What then is happening in the EV industry? Is it making inroads into the global motor vehicle market, as predicted back in 2021 when its flag was waving strongly? The answer is that the EV will steadily take over from petrol and diesel, but not at the fast pace predicted at the time.
Market
The European market is quite strong, with EVs now claiming 21 per cent of the total vehicle sales and having overtaken diesel vehicle sales for the first time. But United States is by far the largest EV market with the necessary statistics for the argument. In bald terms, its EV expansion is highly impressive. The sales there grew from 65 000 in 2017 to more than 800 000 in 2022. But growth in the first six months of 2023 was only 51 per cent compared with 71 per cent in the same period in 2022. Tesla’s earnings are down and so is the value of its stock. Big companies like General Motors and Ford are slowing down the production of ICE motors and delaying EV investment respectively. It isn’t a case of motorists not being behind the progress of EVs. No one disputes the ecological benefits. The issue is affordability, and measured over recent years, despite adjusting for inflation, the price of an EV has actually increased. The price of a typical EV is what the average American earns in a year. They just aren’t prepared to shell out roughly double what they would for an ICE. It is not that Americans don’t want to buy EVs, but at the present time it is for the high-income earners only.
Charging
The other impediment is the charging. Not the kind of charging problem facing us ordinary non-EV mortals – namely the prices down the shops (lol). This is in the opposite direction – from humans to machines. In a petrol or diesel-driven motor car preparing for a long journey, filling the tank may take you six minutes. Doing a full charge for the EV and you’re talking about six hours. Charging the car battery overnight while the vehicle is in the drive is not an option for most USA inhabitants because they live in apartments. And a recent survey in San Francisco found that one in four public battery chargers do not work.
A factor that disturbed the validity of the initial growth figures for EVs was that most of the consumers who purchased EVs were not replacing petrol-powered vehicles. Instead of fully transitioning to electric power, wealthy consumers simply supplemented their personal fleets. Part of the issue is that buyers looking for a replacement may not find an EV that fits the bill. Americans are pretty crazy about SUVs and an EV version was only released last month. So, three out of four new vehicle shoppers will soon have a viable substitute to an internal combustion engine. There is also a push to make sure that EV drivers also have access to a reliable network of public charging stations. But even as car manufacturers may have overestimated the speed with which Americans would adopt electric vehicles, there is still widespread faith among both manufacturers and workers that EVs are the future of the auto industry.
Source: times
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