Inventing the €100 a month electric car

(Transport and Environment, 31 May 2023) Electric cars are the future, yet today EVs are unaffordable for many people. This doesn't have to be the case.

Electric cars are the future. They’re clean, fun to drive and cheap to own. One day all of us will drive electric. And yet, it is undeniable that today EVs are unaffordable for many people. 

This will change as EV and battery production scales up, but this simply isn’t happening fast enough. Fast forward five years and many rich people may have made the shift to solar, heat pumps and EVs. Meanwhile ‘normal people’ may still be driving vehicles that are dirty, expensive to refuel and increasingly stigmatised.  This is not acceptable, not socially, and not politically.

Populists like to portray the climate transition as a ploy by the cava sipping, Tesla driving elites. They’re wrong to oppose climate action but they are right that we need a revolution in the way we think about clean energy support. EVs are a great place to start.

The French and their social leasing plan, may well have found the solution.

The problem with EV subsidies

Many European governments think handing out purchase grants for EVs will make them more affordable. They’re wrong.

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Transport and Environment, 31 May 2023: Inventing the €100 a month electric car