A lone electric car charging beside several empty charging stations. Photo: Bruce Forsyth. 
A row of empty charging stations. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
February 2016
Re: ” Ontario upping incentive to drive electric vehicle,” Antonella Artuso (Toronto Sun, Feb 10, 2016):
I personally don’t care what kind of incentives there are to buy an electric car, whether it be from the government or the company itself. Until car manufacturers develop an electric car that has BOTH the driving range of a gas-powered car and the speed of “refueling” as a gas-powered car, I will not be buying one. I frequently drive long distances as a part of my life, so even if someone gave me one for free, I would still need to have a gas-powered “back-up” car for those reasons.
Yes I do realize there is a bit of give and take with the development of better electric cars. As with the development on any new technologies, the more that are sold, the more money and willingness there is for manufactures to develop better a better product. We all remember how expensive things like VCRs and big-screen TVs were when they first came out. Apparently car manufacturers aren’t completely sold on electric cars either, otherwise they would be investing the capital, regardless of the current demand (in other words, take a leap of faith that they could create a demand).
Environmentalist shouldn’t be too discouraged though. The threat of alternative-fuel cars have led to better gas mileage and emission standards for gas-powered cars.
